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.

It's funny but I've had just this conversation with my Dad a few days ago. He was middle management all his life. He recalls one outstanding employee who was always 5 minutes late for work. Senior management wanted to discipline him. My father said that even though he's 5 minutes late, he gets more done in a day than the rest of them get done in a week. Senior manager argued that if he's let away with it, they all will be. Better off with a fella who's here all day every day and does fuck all. In the heel of the hunt senior management won and they lost this spectacular employee. My father who was adored by all his employees. He couldn't see the sense in it as if you employed 10 dossers who came on time and left on time or 5 unreliable but brilliant workers it would work out cheaper to be employing the latter five.
But that's the way big companies go...

And my Dad worked in a factory, where output could very easily be measured.

Alsohuman so you wouldn't address Breakfast Brenda's poor conduct with her at all? Her rudeness and regular - daily! - lack of approachability which is having an impact on other colleagues' ability (including potentially/presumably outside the OP's team) to get on with certain of their tasks because they can't get the answers they need from BB when they need them?

Thump the issue here though is not the 30 minutes, it's the rudeness, the being so set in her ways she can't take on constructive feedback, the impact her making herself arbitrarily unavailable is having on people who need her, her inability to eat and work - including answering queries - at the same time. I bet if BB was scoffing her cereal with a smile on her face and a willingness to put her spoon down for 2 minutes at 9.10am to give Betty from Accounts those client details that Betty's boss has just asked her to get, no one else in the team would give a crap about her eating her breakfast for the first half hour of the day.

OP says it doesn’t bother her so presumably it’s not affecting team performance. I’m not going to be interrogated on this any more. You know what I think. I’ve spelt it out very clearly. Let’s just agree to differ, shall we?

Do you clock in and out? If not, how does anyone know which exact hours you do? Even with clocking in, how does anyone know if you're actually working or just moving your mouse every now and then.

No we don't, but the management notice our timekeeping, and our floor is full of directors.
Our computer screens are set so it's obvious if someone is on the internet, and we're professional enough to be working, not skiving. Everything is set around working your hours rather than getting the work done because our business is year round, our work is never "done" as there's always the next task.
This is finance. If you don't work in this field you won't understand how the culture is.
We're understaffed as the workload has increased hugely but they won't up the staff, and we're also down a member of staff which is being recruited for.
We are allowed to have brief chats to each other and briefly look at our phones, but not excessively.
We only have one smoker and she comes in before her start time to allow for breaks.
I am replying on my lunch break

I wouldn't tolerate the rudeness. A lot of people eat at their desks but are always available to talk or answer queries unless on lunch break and even still will answer. I find a lot of PAs a bit unapproachable. I think the position goes to their heads.

For full disclosure, I'm a PA.

If I was an employer, I wouldn't tolerate rude or unapproachable employees. Fag breaks? Fine. Brekkie at your desk? Fine
Rude? GTF.

Just absolutely wrong for people to be eating breakfast in an office,plus that attitude that goes with it ... People would have been severely dealt with in my office days if anyone ate a kind of meal in office hours

Oh fgs. Times change. Office cultures are different.

In my first job (global headquarters of multinational) 80% of ppl ate breakfast in work. I won’t tell you how regularly people ate all 3 meals there.

They worked their arses off.

Absolutely ridiculous. If I'm eating breakfast at work because I got up late I'll eat a cereal bar while I'm working hoping nobody can see me and it would be in a drawer if anyone came to ask me a question.

I'm not sure where people got the idea that she is stopping others from working. In the unlikely event they needed information only she had to progress a task, I'd expect them to get on with another task in the meantime. Same as if she was on the phone or in a meeting or downstairs smoking etc.

I'm not running an ER. Nothing should be that urgent if you plan your time well.

But I agree, as I said below, no need to be rude about it.

@WishingILivedOnAnIsland I am confused as to why you posted, as you seem to have made the decision that the colleagues behaviour is fine. But you yourself said that she tells people to leave her alone while eating breakfast, but then say the other people should be able to manage their workloads and not bother her during this time! Do you therefore want to deal with her other team members and tell them to leave her alone? And how are you going to tackle the issue that she cannot take negative feedback or correction?

I think refusing to help colleagues because you're eating breakfast is not the same as being unavailable because you are on the phone, in a meeting, having an agreed break. It's purposely being obstructive for the first half hour of every single day.

It's obstructive enough that her colleagues felt it needed raised with her manager, yet its those colleagues that need to just get on with their other work and come back to whatever it was they needed later? God forbid anyone interrupts the almighty sensational irreplaceable employee I like a flexible workplace but that really takes the piss and honestly I would think that any manager not wanting to deal with that behaviour is just being weak and passive.

In the unlikely event they needed information only she had to progress a task, I'd expect them to get on with another task in the meantime.

What? So she can spend 30 minutes eating her breakfast in peace during work time?

This is ludicrous and you’re heading for a fairness at work complaint. She is taking the piss, and her attitude says she has you where she wants you. It’s pretty bad if you as her manager actually worry that she’ll quit if you actually manage her. She committing presenteeism - gets in on time but doesn’t start work until later.

You need to deal sooner rather than later because this is 100% wrong and unfair to colleagues, and she clearly doesn’t think you’re effective as a manager, to have behaved this way for so long.

Is this serious? If she is paid from 9 am she should be working from 9 am, even i she is eating breakfast. Other colleagues should not be getting on with other stuff so she can be paid to eat in peace. And if the rest of them are mediocre surely part of your job as a manager is to take action to improve their work. Allowing this situation to continue is bad management.

In the unlikely event they needed information only she had to progress a task, I'd expect them to get on with another task in the meantime.

So Breakfast Brenda gets to not only manage how and when she does her own work, but she gets to dictate how others have to manage theirs around her too? All because you're too scared to have an adult-to-adult conversation asking her to work while she eats in case she throws her toys out of the pram?

I say again, an employee who is rude, unapproachable, rigid and who won't accept constructive feedback is NOT an outstanding employee.

I honestly think that this manager is scared of Breakfast Brenda & is allowing her to rule the roost. Breakfast Brenda is making herself indispensable so she can do exactly what she wants. If this was a marriage & one partner was carrying on like this mumsnetters would be shouting LTB.

Thing is effectively you're saying that as Brenda appears to be good at her job, the pay off is 30 mins of additional time off each day. It's not a great message to send out.

I think you’re underestimating the effect this is having on other members of staff.

You seem like a nice manager and I imagine your team know how you operate and your ethos. For them to bring this to you to tackle surely means it is an issue whether you want it to be or not and there’s an expectation that you will have their back and deal with it effectively.

I hope you haven’t said to their faces that anyone should be managing their workloads so that they aren’t affected by her self imposed restrictions.

People would have been severely dealt with in my office days if anyone ate a kind of meal in office hours.

What, even lunch @1forAll74 ?!

So if several employees came to Alsohuman with a complaint about the same person, instead of thinking "Hmm, perhaps Brenda has been rather rude, I'd better talk to her", she would drag the complainers into a meeting and essentially bollock them for ruining her illusion that she is fostering a happy, laid back team atmosphere. Thus making it crystal clear exactly who is a valued employee and who isn't.

People have different ways of working. I have a pretty relaxed office myself and there is no problem with eating at the desk and having flexible start and finish times. But it is not acceptable to be snippy with your colleagues in response to a reasonable request. If you're at your desk you are, in my view, fair game to be given tasks to do. If you're on a break and not to be disturbed, you need to go and eat elsewhere.

@CheckingOuttheQuantocks, DFOD. And read what I actually said.

I’m not sure why you started this thread OP. You admitted that this woman is rude, obstructive, won’t accept any negative feedback and gives people dirty looks if they dare approach her during her half hour breakfast. Yet you seem completely unwilling to address the issue. Why bother asking people’s thoughts.
Face it, you’re a weak manager and scared of addressing her rudeness to colleagues - which is the main issue here, not her overall productivity. This is 2019, it’s not acceptable for stuck in their ways employees to adopt ridiculous routines and insist everyone dances to their tune just because they’ve worked somewhere for Christ knows how long. You’re living in the dark ages