Office Eating!!

[shhhFFS]

Ok I know there are lots of posts about this but I need to vent and make sure I'm not being unreasonable to be revolted.

New colleague, eats his lunch at desk. Fine, so do I. He does eat loudly, it does annoy me, I don't like loud eating, but not to the extent of a phobia or anything, but I also accept there's not a lot to be done about this and that for all I know I could also be a loud eater.

We only have our screens between us, small desk so it is close. We also work in an office which is open plan and if clients are due in they will walk past our desk. If my boss is meeting with a client they can see us and our desks. So if meetings are in I will either eat my lunch around this so I'm not eating when clients are here or go out for lunch. I've never been asked to do this but seems professional to me to not be munching in view of clients.

Anywho, here are my problems:

1. He brings in a salad, bag of crisps and 2 pieces of fruit everyday. The salad he brings everything whole. Whole chicken breast, whole tomatoes, even whole cucumber. Goes and gets knife and fork from kitchen and proceeds to noisily saw through everything as he munches. Shaking our shared desk as he does. Am I the only one who if you are going to go to the effort of bringing a prepared salad to work, that I cut the bloody stuff up first??

1. He takes no notice of whether clients are in or not so goes about his cutting and sawing regardless of a client being in a meeting feet away.

1. He looks at football pages or plays candy crush on his phone. Fine, his time, but again does this regardless of being in view of clients. Which I don't think looks great.

1. Crisps. And this is the killer. He eats crisps loudly, rustling around, again in view of clients too. Then when he's finished, he loudly, almost comically, licks each of his fingers (in a sort lip smacking fashion), and then no hand washing, wipes, tissue, NOTHING and goes about his day. This makes me want to vomit honestly.

He is not an office junior or anything like that, he is someone who has worked in this line of work, offices, clients etc for decades.

There has been months of this now and I try and avoid being around during his break as much as possible because the whole scenario is like fingers down a chalkboard to me.

Am I being an unreasonable nutter? Or is he a gross inconsiderate human being?

Unless there is a designated staff room/ eating area I don’t think he’s doing anything wrong in eating his lunch in front of clients. Yes, it’s not the best image to portray, but that’s up to management to notice and do something about.
The rest of his annoying habits; I could forgive the sawing/ cutting/ preparing. I assume there’s nowhere for him to prepare his lunch, like a kitchen? Do you think he’s trying to make a point?

I haven’t voted, because I’m a bit on the fence lol.

I think we must share an office as I sit opposite someone who does the same. He also eats with his mouth open very noisily and makes nomnomnom noises as he's doing so. It drives me insane.

There is a small kitchen area but I don’t why if you go the effort of packing it at home which he does then it’s not much effort to cut it up at home.

To be fair it’s the crisps and licking fingers that really gets me. It’s just gross

He should cut that up at home at least.

if the office doesn't provide an eating area - none of mine have - he's quite stuck. But I always eat quiet food! I would never eat crisps or lick my fingers, eww.

Hmm. I’m with you on the loud eating and not washing hands after licking fingers; but the cutting up food at his desk is fine. How much noise do you think cutting a tomato makes? So overall you sound a bit ott.

I absolutely cannot stand the sounds of cutlery and crockery in an office. I hate feeling like I’m working in a cafe. I work from home full-time so there’s no one to bother me but when I worked in an office it would drive me insane when people ate cereal or plates of food at their desk and you could hear cutlery clanging, scraping, etc.

I’m with you. Gross.

I would have gone mad by now! No need! At least bring it in prepared

Most of this is a problem for management really (the client stuff). If it bothers you (and it’d drive me spare, frankly), could you eat in the kitchen/have a sandwich and a walk or lunch out as the weather improves?

I once did a six-month secondment with a nasal Kiwi who used to slurp-aaah her way through a dozen cups of tea a day. Genuinely it contributed to my setting up as a freelancer.

It sounds as though your employer doesn't provide appropriate facilities, so people have to eat at their desks. If they then bring clients into the office, that is the employer's choice and shouldn't inconvenience staff. The cutting up of salad complaints sound very petty, YABU.

How much noise do you think cutting a tomato makes?
The OP says what annoys her about the cutting up is that it shakes their desk.
I agree with you OP it looks slobbish in front of clients; but that is up to management to decide if they're OK with it.

The not washing his hands is making me feel sick just thinking about it though. If you have HR and they're even slightly approachable/human, it might be worth having a word about that.

If this was daily, Monday to Friday, it’d drive me bonkers tbh...

OP did you ever watch Whitechapel?

one of the murderers couldn't stand the noise of people eating - or noise generally - and killed his family while they ate Sunday lunch.

then when he'd done it, he sat down and ate his in peace.

As I watched, I thought, this IS going to happen in an office one day.

It sounds as though your employer doesn't provide appropriate facilities, so people have to eat at their desks. If they then bring clients into the office, that is the employer's choice and shouldn't inconvenience staff. The cutting up of salad complaints sound very petty, YABU.

I agree with this. Complaints on here about stuff like tomato cutting sound very petty to me.

Put a bottle of gel hand wash on his desk. Boots sell mini bottles. At least that will solve the grossest part of it.

It's at times like this that I'm so glad I work from home.

The OP says what annoys her about the cutting up is that it shakes their desk.

Yes actually OP that's where you lost me. Shaking a desk cutting up a tomato and a cucumber, really? They're some of the softest foods around. What kind of desks do you have?

It doesn't sound like the company you work for is particularly great at providing a separate space for people to eat, so the poor guy has no choice but to do it at his desk. The fact you choose to take yourself out for lunch when clients are in isn't something you were ever asked to do by management I presume, so the only alternative is that they are fully expecting people to be eating at their desks when clients are brought in around lunchtime. Likewise, if he wants to be on his phone playing games on his lunch BREAK that's upto him.

Really Gross🙈. Speak to senior management as this is very unprofessional. Suggest they provide/make an area for staff to have their breaks. This is a no-brainer!

What’s unprofessional about eating at your desk?

I used to work with someone who did the crisp thing. Genuinely made my skin crawl to the extent that I would put headphones in when I saw him get them out.

Not worth getting worked up over, though can understand why it might be slightly annoying. Need to let it go.

If management have no policy on eating at the desk then I don't think you can say anything. Your view is it's unprofessional, however if management think otherwise then your colleague is perfectly in his right to eat / browse social media and play games when on his break. It would probably be obvious to clients he was on a break anyway.

The desk shaking it unfortunate but I think this is getting to you more than it may anyone else as you don't like him. Have you tried saying "Oi Dave, you're shaking the utter shit out of the desk, can you cut that up in the kitchen?"

Eating the crisps and touching everything is a bit nasty to some people I suppose, but not something I would broach management with personally. I suppose you could ask to set up anti-bac stations / give him gel but if he's not washing hands now, I can't see him using anything just because it's there.

You're not being unreasonable to feel the way you do, but I think YABU to expect him to adhere to your expectations. I'm sure you do things that are annoying too, it's just something you have to deal with in offices.

This sort of thing tends to bring out the latent murderer in me. Just now the colleague who sits behind me has been digging out the last few precious atoms of her sodding yoghurt pot, scraping and scraping with her spoon, round and round and round. Honestly the scraping of the last few morsels takes longer than eating the pot.

AutumnRose1, that's so funny

Your office sounds gross but it’s your manager’s job to enforce policies or implement a professional atmosphere which may mean a canteen etc.