About breakfast at work

[WishingILivedOnAnIsland]

Every day without fail one of our senior administrators comes in on time, gets herself settled, then spends 10 minutes in the kitchen constructing a complicated bowlful of breakfast. She takes the bowl to her desk and slowly eats in the open plan office until around 9:30am. She then signals the start of her work day by returning her bowl to the kitchen. Anyone who approaches her regarding work prior to The Bowl’s Return is met with a withering look and an ‘excuse me I am eating my breakfast’ as though they’ve walked into her own kitchen out of hours and demanded a favour.

I’m her manager and I’m starting to get complaints. Both about her commandeering an additional 30 odd minutes break, and also about the tart rebuke she gives anyone who dares interrupt her morning ritual.

Here’s the thing- I don’t really care that she does this as in every other way she is a sensational employee. She is a proud set-in-her-ways kind of person and wont respond well to negative feedback. It would be a disaster if she quit and we had to replace her with a mediocre employee whose only advantage is that they eat their breakfast at home.

So AIBU to let this breakfast nonsense play on? My colleagues seem to think so and are salty with me for my inaction thus far.

But the issue isn’t about ‘clocking up the hours’ it’s about a colleague being in work and refusing to interact with other colleagues over work issues while she’s having her self designated 30 minute breakfast time!

If the office is operating on a more flexible, ‘as long as you get the work done then fine’ basis then there’s no problem. Absolutely nothing wrong with that (provided it’s offered to everyone)
The real issue here is the refusal to engage with colleagues. It would be far better off if this woman was told to come in half an hour later (if it’s imperative she needs that half hour to eat her breakfast ) and to offer the same flexi to everyone - later start, earlier finish, whatever. What isn’t ok in any sane universe is to have an employee so fixed in their fucking ridiculous routine that they won’t respond to their colleagues

If they are held up with their work, that is one thing and should be tackled.

If not, then how much efficient, high quality work are they putting in a day and how does that compare with cereal muncher? That’s the question.

Being an outstanding employee isn't just about doing your job - I think there's more do it than that.

I agree adaline. Where I work we are appraised on our professional behaviours as much as we are our outputs. That's why I've been so insistent in my posts that this woman is not an excellent employee, because she is demonstrating rude and obstructive behaviours and making her line manager feel as though she can never raise any negative/constructive/developmental aspects with her.

I agree with everyone else. It’s unfair on the other staff.

If your company is happy with staff eating at desks then you need to have a word with her to say that regardless of whether or not she is eating her breakfast, she needs to be working- responding to emails, answering her phone and responding to face to face queries with her colleagues

For everyone saying it's all about quality and not timekeeping: presumably there is a valid business reason why the OP and her team have a fixed 9.00am start time, otherwise I'd expect there would already be some form of flexitime in place. Clients / stakeholders / external contacts etc starting from 9.00am also and the team needing to be available to them, or similar...so why is it okay for this woman to decide unilaterally that that only need apply to everyone else and not her? Why the assumption that this is the only person in the entire place working so well that the rules have to be bent for her in order for her to keep doing so and that everyone else must be lazy / gossipy / inefficient / worth sacrificing to keep Ms Breakfast sweet? (And what does that say for the OP's recruitment and performance management skills if they are??)

IME most members of a team are good, committed workers who step up and do extra when needed - and again IME they're even more likely to be so when they have confidence that their manager applies policies fairly and that everyone's contribution is valued. The shirkers, the chancers, the by-the-clock-and-not-a-minute-more-ers tend to be the exceptions not the rule...and can and should be managed by a competent manager if they're not up to snuff.

Don’t send a general email - it’s lazy, bad management, will piss off all those who start work at 9 and will send a very clear message you are afraid to tackle the one person who doesn’t.
It’s an easy way to make things a whole lot worse and stoke up resentment.

100% agree with this.

Completely agree with the last few posts. Funny how some people seem to think that every workplace which has some fixed core hours and which can’t totally flex to the whims of every employee must be stuck in the dark ages.

Clearly from the OP, there are communications going on, queries, decisions to be made during this 9-30 period. Breakfast woman cannot simply block interaction with colleagues out of some weird set in her ways notion that this is ‘her’ time.

Is this a Council workplace? Sounds like where I used to work. My first impressions were of employees arriving into work in the morning, heading to the kitchen, toast, porridge, teacakes made, smoke alarms going off as Jean had stuffed an oversized muffin in the toaster, chatting in the kitchen over a coffee, hair being straightened maybe (in the office). I'd never experienced anything like it. Of course something has to be done and your credibility is at stake as a Manager.

I’d stop her from doing it. Why should she when everyone else gets on with their work. She’s taking the piss. No one is so good that they can’t be replaced. As for being rude to others who dare interrupt her paid extra break I’d be having a word with her. You’re the manager - you take the cash you take the snash!

Is now the time to say I've watched rugby this morning and am about to go out and meet my daughter and have afternoon tea grin

Now you're seriously taking the piss Mind drifts enviously to sporting events and jam and cream scones

Presumably if the employees work standards slipped it would be a different story.

The employee's standard (breakfast Ethel) has slipped. Her job from 9am includes administration which, presumably, includes answering questions or giving information.

She's decided she must, for some reason known only to herself, have her breakfast (in the office) without being disturbed. From 9am - 9.30am ish. That's her work time. Therefore she is not able to do her job well or to any standard during that 30 minute period...every single working day....

If her work were mediocre she'd be on a warning by now. The fact that apparently there are no other people in the area possibly able to do an admin job to the same level surprises me. It ain't brain surgery - I've worked with many fantastic admin staff. I was one myself - hence me becoming a training officer then working my way to training manager. They're not ten a penny but they're certainly not rare!

My question is when you are actually going to either change the office to flexi-time so she can work her core hours and be available to others in her team and other departments (her job basically) or tell her to eat and work like every other mortal on this planet. Or start interviewing for another admin person. Because when she pushes too far (feet up still at 10am?) you will need to tackle it, then she'll walk.

Face to face communication is always superior to email.

Yes, but if it's not something that needs to be done now, then I'm not going to interrupt someone who's concentrating.

There is less chance of misunderstanding, plus it allows you to develop a constructive working relationship with your colleagues by treating them as individuals, rather than resources

Yes, and I do this - when it's appropriate. But if I'm asking if they can think about items for the agenda for the next architects meeting, then it's not urgent, they can think about it, and email me back, or have a chat when we next talk to each other for some other reason.

’d be concerned about a member of staff who did this.

I'd be concerned about a member of staff who can't pick an appropriate form of communication for the question, or who thinks their questions are so important that they should be answered right now. Especially since I work with people spread over 4 countries and timezones, so whilst I know these people, and regularly we're chatting on Skype etc. I'm not always in the same location and email is often appropriate for the communications we need to do.

I think we're probably both thinking of different situations and requirements (ha! textual communication mis-understandings). I'm certainly not suggesting email for everything, any more than you're suggesting face to face for everything.

Why should colleagues, who this employee’s job is to support, put off asking for assistance until she’s finished her breakfast?

"Because I’ve been on the receiving end of people asking queries when I was unavailable because they thought they had a point to make. It’s utterly puerile.

By all means if it’s an urgent query, knock yourself out but mundane stuff that can be dealt with at anytime would suggest some element of game playing."

Well, if non-urgent queries can wait until her breakfast ritual has been completed, the whole office can dick around for 30 minutes, too.

I used to work with a colleague who would chomp her way slowly and loudly through an 8 pack of granny smith apples, all day every day. I feel your pain

She already does her job to a very high standard and then helps others out with their unfinished work.

She refuses to deal with anyone before 9:30, though.

You are valuing her more than your entire workforce.

Just send an email around the entire office about "working" hours. Make it standard for everyone.

If she doesn't stop you will have to take her aside and say you can eat breakfast at your desk but you have to work at same time

Could I ask a favour? I have no problem with you eating breakfast when you arrive. We are adults. Eat when you like. However as the work day does start at 9 I could do with you being on hand to answer any queries from colleagues during that time.

Why the fuck is it a favour for an employee to do their job?

I'm a smoker. I never faffed around with food but would take four 5 min ciggy breaks per day. About a minute and a half to get up and down in the lift and 2 minutes pulling the heart out of a cigarette!
I got my work done, usually within one hour of the 8 hours I was at my desk, was probably a 'sensational' employee and if someone had pulled me up on it I'd have mentioned Karen spending 20 mins eating her brekkie at the start of the day.
There's give and take.

I guarantee the begrudgers are in on time, leave on the dot and do fuck all in between. I can't be arsed with that set-up. As my boss said to me, you spend as long smoking as most people spend having a shite.

I realise struggle to believe that someone who behaves like this would actually be really good elsewhere in their work.

Who is grumpy to colleagues at the reasonable time of 9-9.30 knowing that that work day has started

If she gets her work done, nothing wrong with it! good, experienced administrators are gold dust and usually have some extra freedom (one of ours disappears for a walk every day between 11 and 12). People who overperform get extra benefits. sometimes money, sometimes breakfast at their desk etc

For all the strict timekeepers on the thread, OP said in her second post of the thread:
"If she was just late every day I doubt anyone would have noticed." So in other words, it is not the 30 minutes spent between 9.00 and 9.30 which are vital to the work of the whole team, and nor are they delayed in their own work as a result of the employee having breakfast at that time, it is the fact that this woman is visibly sitting there having breakfast and being rude and unresponsive to her colleagues. If she chose to go and have her breakfast in a cafe round the corner and rolled in to start work immediately after that, the colleagues wouldn't notice and their own work wouldn't be affected.

You are probably causing mayhem by your failure to ensure everyone is treated the same.

You shouldn't treat everyone the same; you should treat everyone equally. There's a difference ....

I'm late for work (technically) quite often: five or ten minutes tops. I'm meant to start at 9am.

The day my manager chooses to mention it, I'll ensure I'm in at 9am on the dot. And I'll be leaving at 5am on the dot. There will be no more late evenings (I'm still here) and no more weekends (which I do without recompense because I'm a senior member of staff).

I guess that makes her a shit manager in some people's eyes. Well, she's not; trust me. I adopt a similar approach with my team. I'm a good manager. I run a high performing, happy team.

There's a shit load of things I'm crap at. But managing by team is not one of them!