Colleagues horrendous attention seeking baking

[WittysMrs]

Last year a colleague decided to try her hand at baking during lockdown. It went terribly wrong and she posted the results on social media. It was funny at the time and the post was shared and went pretty viral. When she came back into work everyone kept going on about the muffins she’d made (Peppa Pig that ended up looking like Mr Blobby) and laughing about it telling her to make some more.
The weekend after she made something else and posted it on social media. These ones looked like turds. Everyone laughed.

Since then she’s been doing it every few weeks and it’s got really tiresome. It’s not just Facebook, it’s the constant talk about it at work. It’s got boring. She’s been baking now for over a year and is still making the same mistakes that ruins whatever it is she’s trying to make. I suggested yesterday that she’s ruining stuff on purpose now for the laughs and likes. She got quite defensive over it and said I could always unfollow her on Facebook. I said that would be an option if it wasn’t for the constant talk about it at work!! The latest one is some elf muffins she’s made that look like piles of snot on a muffin. She’s “promised” everyone that she’ll bring them in to work today. I’m so tired of it now. I have to work closely with her all day so when everyone is coming over to talk “baking fails” i have to sit and listen to it too.
Enough now ffs. It’s wasting food for a start and it’s ridiculous attention seeking. It’s been over a year, she should know how to avoid creating messes by now.

@MollysDolly

Irritating woman is irritating. Irritating woman is deliberately ruining her cooking to try and gain likes on social media. Irritating woman steers all conversation at work to her, her deliberate mess of cooking, and her social media. Irritating woman is doing this orchestrated performance, daily, for over a year.

"OP, are you jealous?"

Yeah, that's it. OP is jealous

Real diminishing returns... Twice its amusing... Then utterly bowel tighteningly tedious...

It's not just the 'oh look at me what am I like' ... When it's the focus of EVERY interaction you have with them...

I seriously lost my interest where 4 out of the 5 women I worked closely with were getting married.... Oh my... Every single effing conversation... About bridesmaids /favours /bridesmaids weight, bridesmaids who may be pregnant and what to do about it... Flowers and theur colour, irritating best men and what they may say in their speech, dress fittings... Guest lists /table seating plans.....which distant members of theur family had fallen out with which other family members. ..

Every sodding SINGLE utterance. .. Drove me scatty... ALL they were interested in...

I left as I could no longer stand working with these deeply, irritating. tiresome people.

Fifteen years later, one was shagging the best man one year in, one dumped bloke and went off travelling and the other left husband for a woman.

Im nice irl really

Sounds like a bit if fun to me. Im normally quite good at baking but i had to post my gingerbread house fail on facebook. Didn't get many likes though!

If she and "everyone" like talking about it, then you're the odd one out.

Ask her to make you a cake shaped like some sour grapes or a cat's bum. It would be lovely to have this aspect of your personality made in cake form.

It's a formula that's kept the producers of Nailed It going for six seasons, so many people evidently do find it amusing, just not your idea of fun.

It sounds like other people are enjoying the joke also so It doesn't appear to be a problem for others. So unfollow on FB and stick headphones in if you can. I think you are BU to address this with her. She's not forcing people to come to speak to her or read her posts.

Of course she was defensive, you attacked her office personality. Did you expect her to say "You caught me, I do it all for attention"?

Hopefully others in the office heard you saying it to her and will feel more comfortable ignoring her baking fails from now on. Sometimes everyone is just waiting for someone else to say what needs to be said.

@IamtheDevilsAvocado

I totally get how dull it is when a friendship is centred on a single, recurring topic (and I share your hatred of talking about weddings).

But this isn't the same situation. The woman is not a close friend of the OPs, she's a colleague and there is no expectation that they are supposed to have a mutually life-enhancing and supportive friendship. The OP has chosen to let herself be quite irrationally upset by something that she is not really required to engage with. She can walk away, mute it etc, instead of which she has chosen this goad this woman about something which is obviously important to her.

So I'm probably that person you find irritating (not literally I bake one or twice a year at best)
That said when I do bake I always post them at my friendship groups request because they are awful... edible but look awful. My #nailedit moments often bring a little laugh be it baking, or in fact anything homemade.
My friends have made a Facebook photo album and a real life album they add to periodically and often send me pics of these beautiful creations off Pinterest they want me to attempt (none of which I've had time to do yet !)

I guess what I'm saying is this type of humour might not be for you and perhaps the regularity might be a factor BUT it clearly brings some people joy.... and yeah I do enjoy making my friends laugh. I shall continue to do so :)

Who cares if she is wasting food? It’s her food to waste.

@colourfulpuddles

Who cares if she is wasting food? It’s her food to waste.

And she's not even wasting it! The OP said she brings in the cakes for people. It sounds like the funny bit is supposed to be the decoration but they're clearly edible and are given out at work/home, not thrown away after.

You can't dictate what she and others chat about in the office and you can unfollow her on Facebook.

@GatoradeMeBitch

Of course she was defensive, you attacked her office personality. Did you expect her to say "You caught me, I do it all for attention"?

Excellent point. Lots of people curate a version of themselves in different spaces, like at work, and she was probably embarrassed and defensive you pointed out that she's made "shit cake woman" her thing at work and is deliberately nurturing the image.

Don't get me wrong I'd find it incredibly irritating and would probably have to go and scream into the coat cupboard for a few minutes when it started because I have low tolerance for attention seeking...

...but equally, if someone said - hey, scarpa, it's really obvious you lean into your work persona of being with it with the young staff at the office and honestly it's embarrassing - I'd be mortified. Because I do do that - because I manage a lot of 21 year olds! And they appreciate that when we do 1:1s we talk casually and I engage with them on a personal level and lean into the 'I'm old please explain what drip is' type conversations and they now come to me with stuff that's affecting them because they don't feel patronised by me. I absolutely deliberately curate that angle because it makes my relationship with them better (and I'm secretly a fan of tiktok). Is it it being partly deliberate therefore, in a way, a bit disingenuous? Yeah. But I'd still be wounded if someone said that to me cos people like to be seen as good and nice and not called out for their little fictions or pretences and it embarrasses us

Sounds very boring to me.unfortunately some people are very easy amused.after a couple of "funny" bakes,any reasonably intelligent person would think thats enough.

I'd be bored shitless and irritated by it too OP. It's the awful 'lowest common denominator' part of it. Can't bear mock stupid, far too much of the real thing in the world already. Used to hate World Book day, Red Nose Day - all that performative shit too. Ultimately dealt with it by detaching from people a bit and more recently, deciding to work for myself.
But then I'm a miserable cunt.

@Bubblty

Get her a cook book for Christmas?

My Kitchen Table: 100 Cakes and Bakes (My Kitchen, 10) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/184990149X/ref=cmswwrcppapiglttfabc7QEWKZ5Z43NYNV9D8JKR

Meanie

I get that it’s got boring, and she probably does enjoy the attention of it (like those posters who say ‘I bet I’m going to get slated now’ at the end of a supposedly controversial post). But be honest - weren’t you being something of an attention-seeker by making a point of this in the middle of the office? Didn’t you enjoy a bit of a scene about it? Perhaps you were hoping for a few pats on the back and ‘I’m glad someone finally said something!’ comments later?

Maybe do as she suggests and unfollow her; then whenever she brings in the next cake that’s supposed to be the Taj Mahal but actually looks like a lump of shit, busy yourself with something else. She can seek attention, but you don’t have to give it.