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.

The time keeping email is your best way forward....
Time keeping .
Can we please not use phones during working hours. Emergency calls only please be as quick as possible.
Working hours are X till X.
Please be at your desk working at this time, not doing any personal items...
Breaks for coffee and smoking are X as per company handbook...
The management..

Get HR to help.

Oh god I hate wishy-washy managers who email the whole team with a generic reminder about everything, because they don't have the backbone to pull one member of staff aside.

Everyone else knows who the email is aimed at and it generally whooshes over the head of that person anyway.

It doesn’t matter that she gets all her work done, she’s preventing others from doing theirs by being unavailable during work hours. Fine, if she’s under pressure due to a deadline or to streamline enquires. Not fine because she wants to eat in peace during work hours.

Does she do overtime?

I wouldn't give her any options regarding a later start time. It'll cause an absolute ball ache for you - 'can I start later/ earlier because Joan does'. If you don't have that kind of flexible working in place already don't offer it to this woman, it'll breed more resentment.

Also if colleagues need to talk to her at 9:15 then she needs to be there, up and running, rather than waiting for her to get her arse in the office for 9:30....when she'll still piddle about going to loo, making a cup of tea.

But before tackling her I'd check the level of piss taking from the rest of the team. There will be a mentality of 'well, she does it so I going to take an extra 10 minutes at lunch'.

Thing is, every place I have worked, there has been a cheeky fucker like this, who does what they want, who the manager is scared of, and who has often been there since God was a boy, so everyone is scared to call them out.

They never want to go higher than a low to medium admin position, as they don't want any responsibilities, but they DO want things THEIR way, and God forbid ANYONE challenges them.

They are often buddies with people very high up in the company (as they have been there since the dawn of time,) they often look busy whilst actually doing nothing, and some of them have a lot of time off, and they ALWAYS have an ailment. A new one every month. And when they run out, they go back to the first one they had, X amount of months back.

As a few posters have said, you should allow all the other staff to rock up at half nine, seeing as how SHE is not lifting a finger til then.

I have encountered many an employee like this in my 30 years of work life, and they are piss-takes, and cheeky fuckers, and they ALL need calling out on it, yet many 'Managers' are too chicken shit scared to do it. And I am sorry to say this, but it's often because Managers are quite young.

I have experienced many a Manager who is under 30, who is scared stiff of staff members who are older than them, and have been there many years before them, even when that person is below them in rank. Some people should not be managers, and the OP sounds like one of them.

I can't believe some people are trying to make out this CF woman's behaviour is acceptable. I can only surmise that you are all the same as her.

@WishingILivedOnAnIsland

And as 'shatners-wig' and several others have said, you ARE a poor manager if you are allowing this to happen.

@Orangeballon

You need to be more assertive op, this employee has taken over your role as manager and does not recognise your senior position. She sees herself as top dog.

This ^ in spades.

She responds 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.

And have none of her colleagues picked her up on this attitude? If she'd answered me like that it would not have gone down well. At all.

We're not in work to make best friends, but we should be civil to each other. I wouldn't be pussyfooting around her. No wonder the others are annoyed and resentful.

Does she take a lunch break aswell? Does she have more break time than everyone else? If she doesn't take more break time then it works out equal, however if she ends up with more than everyone else then of course it's not fair.

Sounds like the other staff are jealous of their colleague who's showing them up by her better work, not her breakfast.

Whining about someone else's fag breaks and toast doesn't make anyone good at their own job. But the whingers have got a point.

Tackle both problems - put some sort of 'system' in place, and start with a morale-boosting talk aimed at pulling everyone's socks up.

Explain to super-worker the breakfasts have to stop as part of this, and to everyone else that support for colleagues, not bitchery, is the only acceptable behaviour. You don't need to be that nice to anyone in this situation, by the way.

Your job is to keep the better worker, as you know. Give everyone more work to shut them up a bit.

Also, thinking about it, when she's eating at her desk is she working at the same time, checking emails, proofing reports etc. Because if not, that's doubly taking the piss.

If she can complete all her work in the reduced working day then it should be considered if she needs a reduced contract.

I think what counts is that she's a good employee and gets the work done. Nothing worse than penny-pinching clock watchers. So what if she eats her breakfast? I think so long as it's not impacting her work then crack on.

You say “in every other way she is a sensational employee.” But then that “She is a proud set-in-her-ways kind of person” and that she “wont respond well to negative feedback”. Those behaviours don’t sound like a “sensational” employee.

“It would be a disaster if she quit”. That’s just catasrophising.

If eating at desks is allowed then the issues are the 10 min prep (unless others take similar length breaks at other times, eg for smoking or vaping) and her refusal to work while eating and rudeness to colleagues.

You should speak to her to make clear your expectation that she will be available for work, including talking to internal colleagues about work matters, from her start time.

If I was in early (I used to be a training officer so would get in early to set up rooms etc), I would grab a pastry and a coffee and eat it at work.

However, I ate it before my official start time, often whilst I double checked presentations or printed out signing in sheets.

If you're due to start work at 9am, you are ready to start work at 9am. You don't come in at 9am, do your breakfast, titivate your make up, have a natter to your mate on the next floor. You're paid for the 8 hours or whatever. So maybe she'll be happy to take a half hour pay cut? No, well then she gets in at 8.30am, eats her breakfast then gets the bowl into the kitchen at 9am ready for work.

And if there are other 'she does this and he does that' arguments from her you say what my manager said to someone she had to pull up over something similar 'that's between me and him/her. We're talking about you and I need you in on time'

You're paid to be a manager and she's undermining you. You need to deal with it.

The extra work is no good though if they cant do it due to staff being unavailable

Cigarette breaks soon add up. I once timed a member if staff who between popping out and going for a cigarette was out and not working for 2 and a half hours out of the 3 hours I'd been there at that point.

Throw in an hours lunch break which always over ran and thats three hours of the day they arent working . Leaving other staff members on their own. Fair enough for lunch as that's unpaid but the other 2.5 hours? Did I get extra doing 2 peoples work? Did I fuck..

When I worked in a design office, I always ate my breakfast at my desk, because I couldn't stomach it any earlier. But...I never set aside my work to eat. I ate WHILST working. I answered my phone, I continued to use my PC, I responded to emails and I spoke to colleagues who approached me. Yes, my breakfast sometimes took 30 - 40 mins to eat, but that's because it was sat there whilst I worked, and I took a bite when I could. If she's eating something that cannot be set aside like that (mine was a sandwich, so it was easy) then she needs to change her breakfast to one that CAN be set aside and not spoil. She's at work. She is available to colleagues, managers and clients. End of story. She's not in a private dining area on a Lear jet.....

My view for the whole team is that as long as people do their jobs, I don't dictate how or when they should do it.

Why are you a manager then? Are you actually a manager? Is this seriously not a reverse, @WishingILivedOnAnIsland? I’d go over your head if you were actually showing this level of indifference to your staffs’ attitude problems. You sound rather incompetent.

The reason for the email reminder was then any piss takers will think your speaking to them.
You leave it a week after the email, then tell her that, your sorry but working practices are being tightened up from on high, and she needs to come in 30 mins earlier to eat breakfast on her own not company time.

I'm not sure it's jealousy.

I'd be fucking angry if someone prevented me from doing my job, after I'd turned up and started on time, just because they want to munch down on a bowl of Shreddies.

In fact, if she tried giving me a withering look and an ‘excuse me I am eating my breakfast’, she'd discover in no uncertain terms that I couldn't give a shit.

And if my manager started wringing her hands about it and did sod all, I'd take it much further.

You are a weak manager, Wishing, your staff are complaining to you and you are playing favourites. Resentment amongst them will build and when they copy the behaviour of your little pet you won't have a leg to stand on as you have set a precedent. Neither will the other staff feel inclined to do anything over and above for you so I hope your favourite will pick up the slack in these instances.

You are not only sanctioning her extra 30 minutes of paid break time you are allowing her to be rude to and dismissive of her colleagues who are actually working and require her input. Both of these issues need to be addressed, why should your other employees have to put up with her arrogance, withering looks and tart put downs?

If you cannot have a diplomatic conversation with this employee and address the issues then you shouldn't be managing anyone.

If you let herhave her breakfast regime you need to tell her she needs to accommodate people asking her work related stuff without being a twat.

This. It's not about the eating itself - if she's not prepared to engage with colleagues while doing so then it counts as break time.

I once timed a smoking colleage over a week. She worked one entire day less than me, by taking regular smoke breaks. I'm sure some of the time she didn't intend to - she ended up involved in chats with colleagues in different departments, but ultimately it ended up with her being paid the same as me but for a four day week, not five. I did make a suggestion that non-smokers get an extra week paid holiday each year, and that was shot down as "unfair". Hmmmmm.

Sorry OP, but this is poor management.

If you have a culture of eating at desks, that's fine, but she can't choose to eat her breakfast and simultaneously refuse to do any work. She doesn't get a paid breakfast break

I've had team members take the piss with regards to breaks and they just get pulled aside and spoken to. She's an adult and she gets the same breaks as everyone else, surely? What makes her so special that she gets an extra 30 minutes paid break?

Has she logged on while eating at her desk and is she reading emails etc?

Is she considering the 30mins breakfast as part of her hour lunch break?

What a storm in a tea cup. If she’s getting the work done, they I see no issue. But then I’m far more of a fan of a flexible working environment than rigidity.

By all means I would discuss her attitude regarding staff members approaching her, but the rest is a non-entity.

The reason for the email reminder was then any piss takers will think your speaking to them.

But that's my whole point.

Where I work, the piss takers never think it's about them because they're too arrogant. The conscientious workers instead worry that it's about them, because they care enough to think they might not be working as well as they should.

Cue the rest of the staff calming them down and saying "It wasn't aimed at you".

Much easier to just pull the piss-taker aside and get them told.