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.

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

Me if I'm having a friggin menopausal moment and haven't had a coffee yet

I would either have a staff meeting or send a memo stating that you are relaxed as a boss, you appreciate the extra mile that people go, you have a great team blah blah blah. But have noticed that some people use work time to do stuff like eat breakfast, call home, book hair appointments, blah blah blah. Whilst you are happy with this as long as shit gets done, you are just reminding everyone that it's work time, and work takes priority. So if you are on hold for 20 minutes rining the insurance company and someone has a question, you need to end or your call or multitask and this applies to unofficial breaks as well..

Also people should not be mithering with anything non essential when they can see a colleague is doing something else, evenif that thing isn't strictly work related because we are all adults and the only person who needs to manage someone else's behaviour is the actual manager.

Frouby if the issue is one person, talk to them, none of the general memo/email to all.

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

Exactly. The woman is absolutely taking the piss because she believes she is the best worker there. Her manager seems to think the sun shines out of her backside.
If you aren't going to deal with the issue then the others in the office should organize a couple of days where they come in and piss about making breakfast and eating it very slowly and then start their work at 9.30.
I've never worked anywhere where anyone would get away with this level of cheeky fuckery. Yes, eat at your desk while working. Yes grab a quick cup of coffee etc... but an extra half an hour breakfast break. What the fuck?

My "work" doesn't reach completion. So I don't recognise the phrase "as long as she does all her work" etc.

She is working for half an hour less than the others, so you are getting less output.

You need to sort this, OP.

She is taking the piss. I have a colleague who does similar she arrives at 8.50. She comes in switches on the machine makes breakfast at her desk, berries, yogurt granola/muesli all in seperate boxes and mixes these together. She chats and checks her phone but doesn’t do any real work. This maybe takes her up until 9:20 so she’s gained 20 minutes. She makes a coffee at 10.30 and has long chats and makes a meal of it. Yet the same colleague will also eat her sandwiches/salad and fruit at her desk around lunch time and day she has worked through her lunch so is finishing early.

I would suggest OP spends a day monitoring her staff. It’s very possible that after breakfast this admin stays at her desk and works really hard, while others who seem to not waste time or work ‘overtime’ are actually not at their desk or in meetings for hours. I used to work with a manager who used to go on 4-5 ten minute cigarette breaks, plus lunch, then pretend to work overtime until after everyone else left (but he actually went to the gym). He was only rumbled after a year when an IT audit revealed how little time he was at his desk

She is working for half an hour less than the others, so you are getting less output

What if she’s four times as efficient? Then the OP isn’t getting less output, she’s getting more.

She helps other people finish their work. Her ability is clearly ahead of the others.

OP said Brekky Brenda won’t interact with colleagues on work issues and glares down anyone who looks like they might need to communicate with her between 9-9:30
It’s totally different to a valued employee who might turn up a few mins late now and then but goes the extra mile.
It’s a fucking joke to think you can just ignore colleagues.
She sounds completely set in her ways, the sort of twat you get in some workplaces who have a routine set in stone and woe betide anyone who dares challenge it

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).

Doing those things doesn't make you any better than any other member of staff, though. Plenty of people can't work over their contracted hours for a whole load of reasons - transport, childcare, dogs to get home to - whatever it is.

She is working for half an hour less than the others, so you are getting less output.

That's not how it works, though, is it?

Lots of people have this idea of presenteeism being the be all and end all of work - it's not the case. Being at work for 10 hours a day doesn't make you a better member of staff than someone who works 7 hours a day.

Doing those things doesn't make you any better than any other member of staff, though

When deadlines need to be met, these things matter to businesses.

It isn’t a presentee issue though. It’s a rude woman who is so set in her routine that she makes other employees feel they can’t approach her during that half hour. Total joke

It really depends on the industry you work in. For example in my industry people work quite flexy hours it's more about output than length of time at work. The problem is that it's been picked up by colleagues as poor behaviour. So I'd say she needs to get in at 8.30 and eat for half an hour till 9.

Surely she won't quit over this... if she enjoys her job it shouldn't be an issue.

As an aside I do find it really annoying when people are at their desk but have this how dare you speak to me attitude. IMO if you want some peace and quiet you need to go for a walk or eat elsewhere.

There are two kinds of managers where I work:

(1) those who believe their team is here to do a particular job, trusts them to get on with it, doesn't micro-manager, treats them as adults which includes not policing start/finish times, smoke breaks etc.

(2) those who believe in presenteeism, "bums on seats"

Manager (1) gets a lot of respect, Manager (2) gets no respect. Unfortunately the current senior leadership team is slowly replacing Manager (1) who get promoted out of the centre, with Manager (2) recruited externally. I guess that means our SLT prefer the second style. Sod the work, sod the valuable experience, what matters more is having twerps on seats.

But she is clearly not working to her full ability, as she’s sitting skiving for 30 minutes.

Most people don't work solidly for their full shifts every single day, though. I know I certainly don't. Yes, some days are non-stop and I start early and finish late and get interrupted on my breaks, but others I certainly have time to have a cup of coffee and a chat.

This lady may be sitting eating her cereal, but how many others are doing different non-work related things instead?

@ForalltheSaints and @FrancisCrawford the OP said that other staff do personal things during work time too, and she allows that as long as work is done.

If the breakfasting staff member is doing her work AND helping others out then why is her eating her breakfast at her desk any different?

Is it professional? No.

Is it necessary? No

Should she answer other staff? Yes

But I suspect she perhaps isn't popular because she Gets Shit Done and can do her job, plus other peoples jobs in her hours and eat at her desk each morning.

She is there to complete work. She does complete the work, is highly efficient but a little eccentric. I would much rather have a staff member like that, than bow to the rest of the team and have 20 people at their desks, looking like they are working but actually completing less work.

A memo or meeting remind everyone that they are there to get work done.

Personally, if I were the OP, the next time someone complained about this would say 'she completes x,y,z. She helps you and others complete their x,y,z. I don't care if she has a 3 course meal and a nan nap at 2pm. You can eat your breakfast at your desk as long as you can do the same. And if you don't like it, look for work elsewhere'.

Managing is about ensuring that the business needs are met. They are been. If some precious snowflakes are offended by not being able to have some (probably non urgent) question answered before 9.30am then they probably don't have enough to do.

From someone currently in a team of 7 where 1 person pisstakes on a daily basis to the point we are actually angry at the end of the day id say step in and do something. This twat swans around making 10 cups of tea a day, chats to anyone to avoid doing work, many complaints to managers but nothing done about it. Makes working environment tense

I love all the posts about how you should let people be flexible, make phone calls, come in late, do their internet shopping, eat their breakfast at their desk in worktime etc etc.

I wonder if these are the same people who think teachers are lazy/teaching isn't stressful etc. Because as an ex-teacher, once my working day started I had no phone access, no way could I come in late/leave early/internet shop.. and as for eating breakfast while standing in front of a class full of children and telling them not to disturb me...

Because as an ex-teacher, once my working day started I had no phone access, no way could I come in late/leave early/internet shop.. and as for eating breakfast while standing in front of a class full of children and telling them not to disturb me...

And? They're totally different working environments so you can't compare them.

I also have no phone access when I'm on the shop floor, nor could I sit and eat a bacon sandwich while serving a customer, but I appreciate that some jobs do allow that kind of thing.

But, when I'm in the office all day, I have the freedom to listen to music, arrange vet appointments and maybe eat a sandwich or some biscuits. Different environments, different rules.

It's not hard to understand, surely?

tbh, as annoying colleague habits go, if Breakfaster is great to work with otherwise, then not bothering her until 9:30am is pretty trivial thing to tolerate.

Funny how the people who think Breakfast Brenda is fully justified in her obnoxious behaviour have leapt to the assumption that the rest of the team must be shit, their complaints are completely vexatious and anyone who wants to speak to B.B. before 9.30am is either doing so to make a point or is equally shit at identifying urgent from non-urgent queries. Rather than assume that the office is staffed by mostly efficient people who are essentially competent at their jobs but are frustrated by some pretty unprofessional behaviour.

Sounds like we have a few other Breakfast Brendas on this thread!