Cakes and Treats at Work

[WhatTheFlipToDo]

I have worked at my current work place for about a year. I have been consistently a size 12 in clothes for two decades yet I have put on over a stone in that time and size 14 clothes are getting tight. The only variable between this job and my last one is a permanently well stocked table of ‘treats’. So, biscuits, those little M&S tubs of cake bites, donuts, Rocky bars. You name it.

It is a job where you end up incredibly tired sometimes and I have little will power around chocolate at the best of times but when I'm tired it’s a million times worse. Essentially, I eat far more sweet things now due to this bloody table of junk food. Obviously, as I eat things I replace them but then I just eat them again. I don’t know what to do. I’d like to ask the team to save treats for an actual occasional treat but, simultaneously, if I’m the only one who has no will power, is it fair to request they adapt their behaviour for me?

I feel the views in this article sum up my own well. https://amp.theguardian.com/society/2023/jan/17/people-should-not-take-cakes-in-to-the-office-suggests-food-watchdog-chief

Am I being unreasonable to want the team to cut back on the treats so I don’t get even fatter or is this my problem to manage? Genuinely contemplating leaving as I just will not be able to manage my weight without a change in workplace culture.

I agree it’s tempting and hard to say no, but you need to find your own willpower to stop snacking on them. Tell yourself only one treat per day/ or just one on a Friday or something.
you can’t expect everyone else to change got your lack of willpower.

CornishGem1975

(Oh fgs - I'm getting annoyed now! The level of reading comprehension on this thread....)

For your info, I don't indulge in workplace treats. I have no problem in resisting them.

What I'm banging on about is the CULTURE of workplace 'treats' (horrible euphemistic Americanism, to help people justify over-indulgence).

Just as smoking has been all-but-banned, and drinking too, why do we still countenance this ridiculous, unhealthy and sometimes almost bullying consequences of this practice? It needs to be a management issue.

I don't understand what you mean - of course it's within someone's control to regulate the bringing in of communal snacks to offices/workplaces? The management could make some rules (as I've said before) to either limit the days on which this is allowed, or have the unhealthy stuff in a specific place - a cupboard, say - out of everyone else's face.

Then I'll explain what I mean...

No-one needs to go running to management, asking them to ban something that for many, is a pleasurable thing.

What they need to do is take control of themselves and not others.

'Bullying' 😂😂

Honestly, the tripe people will come out with rather than accept that we're all responsible for our own bodies and what we choose to put in them.

You can train a dog to have a treat balanced on its nose without eating it.

We just have to remember we have control.

I don’t think you’re being unreasonable at all. You could do everyone a lot of good. Ask them to relocate it away from you or replace it with a table of veg, high protein foods and wholegrains!

Because, @CoffeeCantata a treat isn't unhealthy. Thinking of these types of food as bad is unhealthy. People enjoying these "treats" at work might have incredibly "healthy" diets and lifestyles outside of the office. Just because others don't, that's not their issue.

Moderation people! We don't need to ban any foods - just be mindful of what you're putting into your body. If you have a treat one day; maybe don't have one the next.

I agree OP, it's bizarre that some adults think it's normal to work with a table of sugary junk normally reserved for a kids party at arm's reach at all times.

I've been there. Will power is limited, you can't just magic up extra. Esp when you're tired and/or bored, stuck sitting at a desk all day, and everyone around you is eating that crap as their arses get fatter while likely demanding daily excuses from you about why you're saying no.

Then there's the rigmarole of them accusing you of being on a diet/"trying to be healthy" for not eating what they're eating, while waiting for the day you have a bite of something sweet so they can announce loudly "I thought you were on a health kick??!" 😆

Dentists are also dismayed at this office culture of snacking on sweet food all day.

It's never nice or homemade stuff either, just crap supermarket cupcakes smothered in pink margarine icing filled with a ton of preservatives.

Office work is really bad for your health overall, glad I'm out of it now.

Thing is, other people have changed. This is a relatively new phenomenon, just over the last few decades. Humans have not evolved having access to sugar and fat at all times during waking hours.

These office workers have got addicted to sugar and eating all day, and doctors and dentists are reporting the negative consequences they're seeing.

Those people addicted to snacking on sugar should learn to control their habits at work and eat at regular meal times instead.

People bring cakes and biscuits into my work regularly (celebrating birthdays etc) and they are often there on the table when I go to make a cup of tea. At the moment I am trying to lose weight so I don't eat them. It's as simple as that. I snack on fruit instead if I need a bit of energy though the day. It's up to you to control what you eat not your colleagues. Same goes in my house, I buy biscuits and goodies for the kids but I try not to eat them. It's not fair for them to miss out just because I'm trying to lose weight.

Because, @CoffeeCantataa treat isn't unhealthy. Thinking of these types of food as bad is unhealthy. People enjoying these "treats" at work might have incredibly "healthy" diets and lifestyles outside of the office. Just because others don't, that's not their issue.

Moderation people! We don't need to ban any foods - just be mindful of what you're putting into your body. If you have a treat one day; maybe don't have one the next
That's how I feel about it.

If I want a square of brownie someone's brought in, I'll have one and it will even out over the day/week. My overall diet is healthy and I regularly exercise. I trust my colleagues as adults to also take responsibility for their own choices. I'd hate to tell them that they can only bring cake in on Friday because I've not got the self-control to look at food without scoffing it. If they want to have brownies or cake on Tuesday they can. I don't have to eat it just because it's there.

There's an interesting thread at the moment about cutting out or reducing sugar, and it's interesting that there's a lot of us saying that we don't actually want to consume ultra-processed or highly sugary foods on a daily basis.

What a miserable existence to feel the need to control what food a coworker has access to or shares in the office.
Bad enough your husband’s and children are probably banned from having chocolate sitting in the cupboard or you’ll eat it but dictating that some random from your office can’t share a pack of brownies because you can’t control your weight is next level pathetic.

@Begsthequestion - there’s nothing in the OPs posts that suggests her colleagues are addicted to sugar and are eating all day - she is hitting the communal treat /sweet things table regularly enough to go up a dress size, but doesn’t say her colleagues are as well.

There’s a biscuit barrel next to the coffee machine in our work kitchen and then often there will be cake or other dessert type things brought in, I rarely have anything, but it’s always available. The only time there’s any “social pressure” is if it’s someone’s birthday and they are offering cake - but it’s a team of 10, and not everyone’s birthday lands on one of my work days, so maybe 8 slices of cake over a year? That’s not going to be a dramatic difference to my health.

This is no different to saying people can't drive expensive cars to work or go on expensive holidays because is makes people jealous

I just don't like when these treat foods are provided by management to boast morale rather than address workplace issues.

"We've had such a tough 3 months where an understaffed team have worked through endless issues with team infighting, unpaid overtime, and people crying in the toilets through stress. Let's pretend it never happened, fail to improve work conditions, and have a pizza lunch. Oh and Sandra from accounts has brought in doughnuts again because that is her love language."

Absolutely this! Seems a bizarre thought process.

I don’t know what the answer is OP, because I also found it very difficult when I worked nights when there was chocolate and cake around. I bet there are others in your workplace who are also struggling. There was some experiment done a couple of years ago that suggested that “will power” was actually “used up” by an encounter, so the first time you see food it’s easier to resist, by the thirtieth time you walk past that chocolate box, it’s much less so.

And of course it would be healthier not to have that kind of food on show and available all the time. Those who can eat chocolate in moderation without any problems could still do so.

Putting weight on is always seen as a moral failing but I literally have no idea how I would go about “working on myself”. That sounds like a command “just be better” without any indication of how that would be achieved, probably in most cases given by someone for whom it’s not a problem and probably never has been. I employed a therapist to try to help me, but she seems to think that it’s, at least in part situational, and that if I can get myself into a better situation with more time and less stress it would help, but that’s a huge project and in the meantime, the nuts on the table at work are still getting consumed when I’m tired or bored, even when I take high protein food to work. It was much easier when they weren’t there as I can’t get out easily to buy stuff and just limit what I take in, which is what works for me.

Alcoholics and addicts are advised not to put themselves into situations that might make them more likely to lapse and it’s not really any different so if you need to move to another job, or find one that leaves you less likely to get so tired that you’re tempted, then do what you need to do. There’s more than one way to skin a cat, as they say.

I don't think it's bizarre. We enjoy a job if we fit in with it's culture.

I would be uncomfortable with this unhealthy eating culture and would feel a misfit.

Since being diagnosed with T2 diabetes I have implemented a firm NO to myself with anything like this. It's weirdly easier to do than 'oh I'll just have one'..all the 'ones' do add up. The hard part is starting it but I promise once you do it will be fine. Good luck x

You may not like it but some of us do.

I love it when we get a company pizza lunch, I'll drag my sorry ass into the office for it.

Let the people who want to eat it, eat it. If you don't then that's fine.

Thing is, other people havechanged. This is a relatively new phenomenon, just over the last few decades. Humans have not evolved having access to sugar and fat at all times during waking hours.

These office workers have got addicted to sugar and eating all day, and doctors and dentists are reporting the negative consequences they're seeing.

Those people addicted to snacking on sugar should learn to control their habits at work and eat at regular meal times instead.

@Begsthequestion I'm an office worker and I don't sit and eat all day. If someone brings cake in, I'll have a piece, probably won't have my lunch instead.

"Those people addicted to snacking on sugar should learn to control their habits at work and eat at regular meal times instead." This is an incredibly preachy statement.

I'll eat when I bloody well choose thank you - but I wouldn't stop you from controlling your habits and eating at regular meal times.

Oh the performative willpower on this thread. Are you not bored of it yet?

Oh the performative willpower on this thread. Are you not bored of it yet?
I'm not sure it's performative for people to say they will eat something sweet/treat-like in moderation, not eat anything they don't want to, and that their colleagues should be free to make their own choices.

I find it by far more concerning that some people think it's entirely normal to be so incapable of taking responsibility for their own behaviour that they place the responsibility on other people to avoid them encountering snack/treat food.

And just like that… an example appeared. 💫

And just like that… an example appeared. 💫
What's performative though?

If people saying they can make their choices (whatever those choices will be) and their colleagues can make their own choices, what's performative?

It seems anything that isn't "yes, go report to your managers and have the treats limited in the workplace so everyone else has to fall in line with your preferences" is considered to be performative.