To have eaten an unauthorised chip?

[discusstin]

I was at a lunch with external visitors and senior staff in the corporate hospitality suite at work. We were given fish and chips and as we were served a colleague leapt up out of her chair and dashed off, saying she would be 'only a moment.' The colleague has form for disappearing for large periods of time as she is extremely busy.

So, we all sat there looking at the food and waiting for her to come back. Time dragged on the and food got colder and colder. I got hungrier and hungrier. And then....

I surreptitiously took a (cold, manky) chip and ate it. Everyone looked at me. The visitors stared hopefully at the most senior member of staff who said "Let's not wait for X to get back, let's continue."

Everyone started to eat and then the most senior person said:

"The problem with social mobility is that you find people in professional positions who just are not aware of correct social conventions due to their upbringing," as she stared pointedly at me.

AIBU to think that my appallingly working class eating of an unauthorised chip is not as rude as her appalling lack of manners in bringing it to everyone's attention in that way?

PutDownThatLaptop, maybe you should have put a chip on both of her shoulders, then she'd finally be level headed.

So glad I work from home punches chips into face in low class manner

I am also from working class background and didn't realise until I made friends at Uni that waiting for everyone to get their meals was a 'thing'! At home it was always a free for all, including not politely asking people to hand dishes down the table, instead you would reach over and grab it
You did well holding out as long as you did. I would have been sneaking chips for sure!

I'll go along with the whole "let's all watch our rissotto coagulate" approach in general, but waiting for everyone to be served is infuriating. You're never quite sure if you're all on the same page with the waiting and there's sometimes someone who's not aware of this or oblivious/doesn't caree and who starts, leaving others to gauge if the convention has been jettisoned for everyone or if everyone else is now weirdly watching their friend happily trough whilst they remain still as statues. Argh!

Yes it's intended to be polite and considerate but to my mind it's more polite and less awkward for the person buggering off or still waiting to say "don't let it go cold, please tuck in."

Eating a meal isn't synchronised swimming! It's not like those who finish first are going to leave the moment they dab the last crumb from their mouths.

YANBU OP - it would have been really bloody rude to make a comment like that. Even if you think it, why the hell would you say it?

I would say the social convention there would’ve been for the person who left the table to say ‘go ahead, don’t wait for me’. Utterly ridiculous for people to wait so long their food goes cold.

Don't some people make a mountain out of a molehill?! Not you OP,your colleagues,I mean.

YANBU

Nothing stands between me and a plate of fish and chips Feel rather sorry for the guests who were sitting there gazing at the repast and unable to make the first move.

Etiquette-wise, both the colleague who left was in the wrong (they should have been the one to say don't wait) and also the big boss host, who should have stepped in and suggested that everyone start (knowing as they did that colleague might be absent for some time).

The only way you'd be unreasonable is if you took the chip from someone else's plate or threw the plate in anger.

As it stands, you didn't and were not unreasonable.

Anyone who brings class or manners into it and would prefer to wait and eat cold shitty chips is a twat.

Well then, apart from the odd one or two the general consensus is that IANBU. It's not as if I was sitting there munching with my mouth open, elbows on the table, which might have set off all the alarm bells in the building. It's one of those things where if I could have my time again I am sure I could come back with a good response. At least I've had a great laugh at some of the replies.