To snack during zoom meetings?

[Fiep]

Every day I have to log onto a meeting which is largely not applicable to me. We have a camera on, microphone off culture which I am fine with. However this interminable meeting coincides with my snack time so I’m often having my mid morning snack while listening / multitasking.

DD gets me up at 5:30am so I definitely need morning snacks to make it to lunch. Nobody else ever eats in meetings though so I just wondered whether I’m breaking the etiquette.

AIBU to snack?

YABU: control yourself, woman, and stop eating ion screen, nobody wants to see this

YANBU: nobody cares what you’re doing if you’re just a lurker, munch away.

Haha, I'm loving some of these replies, people do get very animated about the thought of someone snacking on zoom. It wouldn't bother me personally, would probably make me want to grab something too. However, my sister constantly eats when she's on the phone to me, always crunchy stuff as well, and I do find that quite annoying as all I can hear is crunching and rustling.

wish me too. Have never ever eaten ‘a snack’ and never will. If I want to eat something I just do.

I wouldn’t snack randomly in a meeting, I’d just snack before or after it.
Sometimes I have meetings set right across lunch and I’ll eat lunch during a meeting, prefacing it with ‘I haven’t had time for lunch today so I’m going to turn my camera off an eat, thanks’ which is also a passive aggressive way of telling people not to put meetings across lunch. Fuckers.

I would if it's a long meeting, but turn the camera off momentarily. I also have to turn the camera off while I go to the toilet.

You can always say you were having connection problems and turned the camera off to see if it would help, if anyone questions it.

Well, I can't stand meetings for the sake of meeting and hours wasted on crap.

If people start using meetings as their "snack time", we'll never see the end of them. So no, just no.

I happily eat in actual meetings assuming everyone is- lots of my internal meetings are over a lunch hour and involve sandwiches. Eating on a zoom, however, is a bit gross. I even find it a bit odd to see people drink on zoom (although of course that's normal)- somehow the fact it's on screen makes it more in your face rather than less.

@Abouttimemum

I wouldn’t snack randomly in a meeting, I’d just snack before or after it. Sometimes I have meetings set right across lunch and I’ll eat lunch during a meeting, prefacing it with ‘I haven’t had time for lunch today so I’m going to turn my camera off an eat, thanks’ which is also a passive aggressive way of telling people not to put meetings across lunch. Fuckers.

How is that helping? If you don't want meetings during YOUR lunch, tell them.

Especially with flexible working, more and more people prefer working at midday and take a break or finish early for school pick up, or for doing their own things.

The days of lunch between 1pm and 2pm are long gone. (which is good, because there's always one whiny voice popping up moaning they want lunch at 11:30 )

I've been cuddling the rabbit during meetings on teams. She helps me get through what I find very difficult (listening to adults who dont know when to shut up and keep chipping in).

Would you snack in meetings if they were at work?

I occasionally eat in zoom meetings - but as PP said, it's because on those days I am online in meetings all day, with barely a 5 minute gap between them. On equivalent days in the office, I would apologise but have to eat my sandwich during an in-person meeting; now I apologise but have to eat during the zoom version.

I have to say I’m surprised at the amount of people who don’t snack? I thought it’s considered healthy? Do people not get hungry? Or hangry?

No, I eat breakfast, which keeps me going until lunchtime. I don't get hungry between meals because I eat enough to keep me going until the next meal.

I have never been overweight in my life - I am 62.

I get snacky. But I'd never do it in a meeting.

I cant abide folks sitting munching in a meeting unless it is a lunch or breakfast meeting. So I would say YABU..

I hate people eating on the zoom! I’ve no desire to look at someone miming ‘sorry’ as they’re necking a whole digestive or whatever. It’s just not a pleasant sight

LOL at 'snack time'.

Do you work in a nursery school OP? If not, just eat three meals a day like everyone else.

OP this is MN, where perfectly normal things that happen in the real world are never even uttered. Of course snacking is normal, loads of people do, even those who aren't (shock!) disgusting overweight pigs. Honestly get a grip everyone.

In answer to your question- so long as the mic is off I wouldn't have a problem with this. Wouldn't do it in an external meeting probably, but internally fine, however I work in quite a casual culture office.

I think it’s only okay if it’s a ‘bring your own lunch’ type meeting. I would try not too but I wouldn’t really complain if someone else was.

That said, I got caught short in an ad hoc meeting yesterday where I had a mouthful of melon when I got called in.

I cant see the issue. Pre-covid we used to have meetings with food provided. People ate it during the meeting. I don’t see any difference from that.

Just don’t talk with your mouth full.

Hehe @valnevavaxx thanks for normalising the consumption of food beyond three meals. I almost feel like I’m letting people down by the fact that I am actually a fairly athletic figure... and I’m not sure why weight even became an issue? (@RampantIvy?)

@Wishimaywishimight genuinely curious- what would you call food eaten between meals?

Generally, I’m quite entertained that this turned into a value judgement of whether or not it is morally abject to feel hungry between meals, as opposed to remaining a fairly simple etiquette query.

But that’s MN for you, and I’m glad to have discovered how deep people’s feelings run, so I can turn of my camera in future as an act of respect.

Just have a larger breakfast, no need to have a snack break. Are you eating jam tarts or chocolate eclairs and the like.!

God, the hysteria

Eat your snack, OP. It's fine. I've never been a "three meal a day" person either - I love my snack breaks!

and I’m not sure why weight even became an issue? (@RampantIvy?)

Maybe not in this case, but one of the pieces of advice given to people who want to lose weight is to stop snacking. DD snacks because she is a bottomless pit of hunger, but I just don't feel the need to snack. It isn't a moral judgement - I just don't get hungry between meals. Do you have breakfast?

In answer to your question, I feel it is rude to eat during zoom meetings if no-one else is eating. I also think it is rude to vape/smoke during a meeting.

It's a meeting you don't actively participate in for the most part. There are twenty of you, and the view of your mouth would be tiny on a view of the full meeting (if indeed anyone was looking at anyone except the speaker - which they presumably have the option to select).Your microphone is off. If you don't eat then, you'll need to eat at a time where you're customer-facing. You and anyone else would eat in these meetings without hesitation if they weren't online. Crack on and eat. If anyone complains, say all of the above.

I wouldn't do it, but I really wouldn't mind if someone was doing it with their microphone off (though I draw the line at milky cereal etc as detailed by a PP!). Weirdly, though I hadn't come across anyone eating on a video call through this whole pandemic until the last two weeks. Twice I've taken a call, this week and last week, with a client in the Middle East, who has eaten her lunch during the meeting so kept her camera off until she'd finished - I didn't really mind but it was slightly awkward as it was just her and me in the meeting.

I'm also doing a Masters and the module I'm doing at the moment involves group work. This week and last, one of my group of four, a young man who is in his early 20s, has eaten his dinner during the discussion. First time it was a McDonalds, complete with McFlurry; second time his mum had made him a sandwich, which I suppose was quite sweet. But the call was at 6.30... I couldn't quite believe he couldn't wait till we were done.

So many people seem to be offended by the idea of snacking! If you can go from breakfast to lunch without food good for you! Did you know all human bodies aren’t the same lol. I’d love to be able to just eat 3 meals a day, I eat probably 5-6 times a day which is often inconvenient and I’m hungry between meals nomatter if I’ve had a light meal or a huge one and if I didn’t I’d be underweight. OP I’ve recently discovered you can’t have a lighthearted discussion on mumsnet it seems to always turn into a moral debate about something you didn’t even ask for opinions on - you wanted to know if it was rude to eat on zoom but instead now have everyone’s (including mine) opinion on whether it’s ok to snack between meals!