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.

Teams calls!!

@Constellationstation

I ate an apple in my daily team meeting the other day. I perhaps wouldn’t do it every single day, but I don’t think there’s a problem with it. We used to eat in our meetings IRL. People would bring cakes and biscuits etc. specifically for the meetings.

I would hate to listen to someone munching an apple near their mike

I wouldn't. It's not really necessary and I don't think I'd like it if I was speaking about an issue and someone was sitting eating. I would expect most adults to manage from breakfast until lunch without a snack if they were working.

Your colleagues are watching out for this and they have a secret sweepstake on what that day's snack is going to be.

I would hate to watch someone eating in an online meeting.

@SaltyAF 😂

Why is eating rude? It’s a normal function isn’t it?

@Ijustknowitstimetogo

Why is eating rude? It’s a normal function isn’t it?

So are weeing and pooing but I'd suggest people probably shouldn't do those on video calls either.

@Ijustknowitstimetogo

Why is eating rude? It’s a normal function isn’t it?

It isn't. Eating during professional meetings is.

@Ijustknowitstimetogo

Why is eating rude? It’s a normal function isn’t it?

Lots of normal functions are rude

I don't think eating is rude, but if the OP is the only one eating during a meeting then it does look rather inappropriate.

@FrangipaniBlue if you need to eat every two hours do you suffer from hypoglycaemia or diabetes?

People schedule me in zoom calls from 7am to 7pm back to back some days. I eat what I want when I want but not on external calls. I also pop for a wee/to grab water. Otherwise I end up desperate for a wee or with a banging headache. I think working from home and virtual meetings have made us way too available to everyone.

How long is this meeting? Could you not move “snack time” to earlier (before meeting) or later (after meeting). I think it is a bit odd to do this at every meeting and to have a snack time so fixed.

Personally, I would find doing you doing this at every single meeting a little... I don’t know if I’d say rude... perhaps making a very clear point about the fact you resent attending it/don’t really want to be there would be more accurate. How that goes down depends on your workplace culture, I guess.

As a general rule, O think that unless it would be fine to eat a meeting if you were physically present, you shouldn’t do it online. I think in the odd informal meetings this might be ok, if you had back to back meetings for instance. However, I would have thought it would be totally in acceptable for any meeting that was formal/important or with an external organisation or if client/customer facing.

But if you must do it, can you not turn your camera off for a brief time? It also depends on what you are eating- a biscuit that takes a minute to eat is different from sitting down to several slices of toast/a salad/crisps and dip/sandwich/large slice of cake etc. A biscuit can be eaten relatively quickly and unobtrusively. Food that you can’t do that with- well, no-one wants to watch you shovel food in!

You've just reminded me of one shitty rule our place tried to impose. (College lessons on teams over lockdown) We were only allowed to drink water at our desks..... I ignored that one 😳

From home I mean.

I have no problem with people eating more than three times in a day.

However, I can't imagine any situation where I would willingly sit and have no choice but to watch what would feel like a tiny, silent, mukbang video from Sally in Accounts whilst I'm desperately trying to not fall asleep, scratch my nose, roll my eyes or otherwise reveal just what a pile of utterly pointless wank I think the meetings are. Or wince at the crumbs on her chin or licking her lips/attempting to get a piece of cereal bar out of her teeth with her tongue.

Protein shakes or smoothies drunk through a straw are a far easier and less unpleasant to look at way to get a couple of hundred calories in when it's busy.

Mumsnet is so uptight 😂

Who cares, have a snack it's fine

Have a quick snack before the meeting then a mug of soup in the meeting (I don’t mean a powdered one, an actual small tin of soup heated up and in a v large mug) No one will know it’s not tea. Will keep you going much longer

A bit odd unless you are in the food catering sector and eating for work purposes. Do others eat during video conferencing and if not do they mind you eating at the meeting? Could you try to manage the timing of eating and work differently as to not coincide or distract? Do you have a balanced healthy lifestyle in terms of exercise and diet too? Good luck original poster as not criticism but constructive feedback preferably no feeding unless absolutely necessary.

So are weeing and pooing but I'd suggest people probably shouldn't do those on video calls either.

Oh you are a silly billy UserAtLarge.
Eating in front of other people is culturally normal. You don’t normally wee and poo in front of other people do you.

Do you??

@RampantIvy no, I do triathlon and train twice a day so need to refuel regularly.

@LouLou789

Have a quick snack before the meeting then a mug of soup in the meeting (I don’t mean a powdered one, an actual small tin of soup heated up and in a v large mug) No one will know it’s not tea. Will keep you going much longer

This is exactly what I do in winter! I think my colleagues think I have a coffee addiction because I always have my mug in my hand

@Ijustknowitstimetogo

So are weeing and pooing but I'd suggest people probably shouldn't do those on video calls either.

Oh you are a silly billy UserAtLarge.
Eating in front of other people is culturally normal. You don’t normally wee and poo in front of other people do you.

Agree with PP that this is more about getting out of the pointless meetings to free up snack time
I genuinely can not now eat something without wondering if this is my snack time. I have had random eats during the day my whole life but have never labelled them snack time. I feel I have missed out and am doubling my snack times to make up for it.
I will definitely not being doing pointless on line meetings that impinge on my (+double) snack times from now on.
BTW, what snacks are best for snack time?

Reading through these answers, I suppose the best response to the OP is to use the same standards as if you were in the office.
If your office has meetings where people eat and drink as standard, then maybe just carry on but briefly switching your camera off while you eat

I've never worked somewhere that eating your own food in a meeting would be acceptable so for me, it wouldn't be something I would consider doing

@RampantIvy - I too do triathlons, but it never occurred to me to have ‘snack time’ every 2 hours in meetings.