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.

I do find it weird how people are so fastidious and offended by the idea of other people eating in public. Like people getting pissed off with others eating on trains etc.

I would get it if someone was eating something really smelly in v close proximity when you can't get away.

But I fail to see what's so offensive about someone discreetly eating something in a very contained way over a video call. Half the people on the call won't even notice.

Even if they did, I just don't see why people would consider this rude or offensive.

So many people seem to be offended by the idea of snacking!

Only on MN to people take such offence to other people eating food outside of rigid mealtimes

Even if they did, I just don't see why people would consider this rude or offensive.

because it's not the time or the place.
Shorten the meeting and have your snack or your lunch, don't waste my time making the damn thing longer than it needs to be!

Even if you call me in your office and start munching on your sandwich I'd think you were really rude. Not the same to invite someone to grab a sandwich or a coffee together to discuss something out of the office.

I snack literally all day when I go to the office so I don’t have to be wearing my mask (before everyone jumps on me there is zero risk where I am, and I wear it when not at my desk)
But for calls it’s always a drink, I don’t sit there munching.

@kindaclassy unfortunately I’m not in charge of the meeting so I can’t shorten it.

@thepeopleversuswork Yeah I think that’s why I hadn’t even questioned it before. The environment is otherwise fairly informal and if someone didn’t want to see me take a bit of belvita they can just toggle the screen to the speaker. But I started this thread out of curiosity about people’s views and am happy to adapt in response. I don’t see the big deal but if it makes a difference to someone else’s day, that’s cool.

@Peaplant20 so true!

Curious to see where else this will go...

I wouldn't mind, OP. Do other people do it? Would soup in a mug get you through?

But yes you could turn off the camera if the meetings are really long.

I've been too lots of meetings in person where people eat , though they do tend to be the more informal meetings or ones that run over lunchtime. If it is ok in person, why is it a problem in virtual meetings?

I turn my camera off to eat and then put it back on again. I'm just jokey about it and say I'm eating my snack and no one wants to see that etc. They all just laugh along. No one is bothered, but I guess it does depend on the people you work with and if anyone important is at the meeting.

If it was a one off meeting and had been scheduled during your usual tea break or lunch, probably not an issue ( depending on norms with colleagues etc).

If the meeting is scheduled at the same time every day, you need to rethink your routine, as it’s obviously not ‘snack time’ within your organisation.

@Fiep I hadn't considered it really but I guess I would just refer to the actual food / drink. Currently wfh (I'm upstairs / DH downstairs) so if I'm hungry I head to the kitchen saying "I fancy a yoghurt" or "I'm just down to get a banana, bagel" or whatever I fancy. No idea why I don't like the word, I just genuinely don't like the sound of it.

On a similar note, I hate the word 'meal'! I refer to breakfast, lunch, dinner etc but the word 'meal' just grates on me.

Honestly, I'm not a cantankerous sod, there are just some words I dislike for no rational reason! It does seem that they are all food related though smile

@Wishimaywishimight fair enough, seems like you prefer precision in language which is fine!

It’s the not the concept of eating outside of the main meal times that I find odd, it’s the rigidity of the time when you would do it. So if I have a meeting from 10.30-12pm, I’d just have a snack at 10.25 instead of my natural time of 11.30. I think a lot of people on MN have weird issues with food.

I would suggest have a larger breakfast, snack before the meeting, or why not have a smoothie? You can pop that in a drink bottle and you'll never have any idea.

If you want to eat, depends who's in the meeting, and what their attitude is. Currently a good day for me is 5 hours of meetings and a standard day is 7 hours, so unless I don't have lunch I'll eat during a call.

I do pick my moment and change the time I eat - happy to eat in front of friends, a couple of us try to have a working lunch twice a week - to suit the meeting. I wouldn't eat on a call with the executive team for instance.

Worst case, have "bad wifi" and your screen "freezes", so you have to switch off video - then turn it back on after you've eaten.

Just double check your microphone is on mute before eating!

😂

If we're on back to back internal meetings and one of those fell over lunch time then I don't think it's rude people eat. However, if you've got time either side - just change your snack time!

Oh, if a meeting is called in a lunch break all restrictions are lifted!

Nobody needs to watch you eating! What time is the meeting? Move your snack time to before or after it, you aren’t 6

@YellowMonday

Just double check your microphone is on mute before eating!

Eek Yellow, that sounds like really hard work. I wouldn't have the attention span for all those meetings!

My role is a very active role on site, customer facing, so the meeting is the only time I get to sit down and eat, basically.

After this thread I'm going to find an excuse to briefly turn the camera off so I can eat something.

@wheresmymojo

It depends what it is - a biscuit with your cup of tea, fine.

A scotch egg or something would be a bit weird.

I really want a Scotch egg now.

I was in a meeting the other day (external) and we were sent into breakout rooms, where one woman was scoffing away on a bowl of cereal!

I found it really odd and quite rude. You wouldn't eat a bowl of cereal in an in-person meeting (unless you worked in an interminably trendy media or digital comms company in Shoreditch, probably).

*Interferes with my snack time” ???

You can’t be serious. Which adult (and a professional adult in a work environment) has a “snack time” ?!

Hahaha. This can’t be a serious thread.*

I'm thinking it can't be serious too 🤣

@cupsofcoffee

So many people seem to be offended by the idea of snacking!

Only on MN to people take such offence to other people eating food outside of rigid mealtimes

Well, no. As others have said, if the OP's work culture is fine with her having her snack during meetings in the office, then it's fine for her to have her snack during a Zoom. The fact she's asking suggests that when she worked in the office it wasn't, unsurprisingly, acceptable.

because it's not the time or the place.
Shorten the meeting and have your snack or your lunch, don't waste my time making the damn thing longer than it needs to be!

That just doesn't make sense:

a) People routinely have business meetings over lunch or breakfast. Why should the fact that someone is having a snack be unacceptable during a call? Particularly because they aren't even in the room with you.

b) Why should snacking make the meeting longer? The whole point is that its going on in parallel to the meeting? If anything it should shorten it.

A lot of this is just people's weird hang-ups about eating.

One of my colleagues got up and went and fetched one of those enormous veg box things during a meeting and started gorging, chomping really chompily on celery.
Fecksache, at least make an arse of yourself with something pleasant like a jar of Nutella.

General rule I follow is if I need to use cutlery to eat it then I don't during a meeting (or I leave my camera off).

But biscuits, cereal bars, chocolate, nuts and fruit are all fair game.

I generally eat something every 2 hours, the nature of my job means I usually have back to back meetings. In the office I'd eat while walking between meeting rooms, but I don't have that option at home so eating during trans calls it is!!