To absolutely hate buffets at work!

[mandyhassandy]

I work in a big organisation where there's a team (or sometime whole department of 50 people) buffet luncheon held for some reason or other every few weeks.. Birthdays, people leaving, retirements, wedding, engagements.. Any excuse to have one really!
The buffets involve everyone having to bring in something to contribute, I usually play it safe with cakes or biscuits but some people really go to town. Some with cook.
I really struggle with the smells of a lot of the stuff. I'm very bland in my eating, and there's a lot I can't/won't eat. So I tend to sit in the sidelines, ideally near the door or an open window just to spare myself some of the dreadful smells/sights Strong pungent smells like garlicy things make me feel ill. Any seeing people handling food without proper serving utensils and sometime grubby hands only adds to my nausea.
These buffets are always pre-arranged and staff are expected to be there. No excuses. We have to keep our diaries free to attend. I feel I can't get out of them and I struggle every time. Being in a confined space (meeting room) for an hour feeling nauseous and queezy, smelling things I wouldn't chose to smell/see is really making me dread work.
Anyone else have this at their workplaces?

Exactly!
Sex towel, penis beaker, buffet-hating germ avoiders all over this site! 🤣🍆🏆🛌🦠🦠🦠

Well I totally disagree, I love a buffet, but I can appreciate your view point. If I was your manager I'd be fine with you turning up to show your face for 5 mins then leaving. We have a lady who for religious reasons doesn't eat pork and for her that extends to not consuming anything that might've been prepared near pork where it could be contaminated. In practice that means anyone's kitchen unless they're the same religion. She comes and eats her own sarnies then leaves asap. Nobody bats an eyelid.
Could you take some crisps and plastic cup of pop then circulate a bit chatting, then slink off, if you don't want to raise it with your boss?

I'm with you OP, sounds like my idea of hell. This kind of thing is one of the many reasons I'm glad I'm not office-based. But then I can't really relate to society's obsession with food generally. I eat to live, not live to eat.

'Off'? We don't all have to follow the herd and like the same things.

Love it! The more homemade the better!

YABU although if I were you I would tell my manager I had sensory needs and would ask to be excused

@ilovesooty

Not unless she has some diagnosed condition entitling her to special adjustments. If it's a clear expectation that everyone attends I wouldn't expect her to be excused.
Surely lunchtime is your own time not time that your employer can demand for you to attend something. That's when people go to the bank, gym, walk, errands.

I would and do struggle with this, not spoken about but lots of us have very bland tastes and can’t eat some things/ doubt the hygiene. There will be others feeling the way you do. Some of the food smells I have smelt at work have been unreal. Once so lingering/ strong that management banned use of the microwave during the day and everyone had to go to the communal canteen 5 floors up to heat up their soup. If you can there will be a good cook out of the 50 people, so try and find them and just eat their food. That’s my strategy in these situations.

Great idea! 😂🙌

Any manager who refuses someone the ability to withdraw from a lunch without having to produce documentary evidence of a health problem would get the Pettiest Manager of the Year Award.

🤣

When I used to work pubs , there were often functions or parties where people would bring in buffets; at the end of the night the staff would be "allowed" to help themselves to the buffet, all the curled up sandwiches and mixed up dips with the wrong spoons in. I would volunteer to either cash up or clean the toilets rather than deal with the buffet or worse actually eat from it!!

@Derogations @Skepticgal

I agree with this so so strongly. Sharing food is and always has been key to being human. The hygiene obsession of modern society is very damaging to the human fabric, and to individuals, in my view.
Are you intentionally choosing to ignore all the comments about food allergies and intolerances as well as neurodivergent people who struggle with foods? And no, they aren't just fussy. ASD and ADHD often presents with a repulsion to foods.

When you add up all these groups it is a significant minority of people.

People with ASD and food allergies struggle getting through life. Thanks for your concern 🙄

We struggle. Hth. Some people have issues with food. I don't know why that makes you smile. It's not something we choose for shits and giggles. No one WANTS to struggle so much with it they get anxious at the very thought of eating in a room with other people. No one wants contamination ocd. No one wants fear of vomiting. No one wants allergies. No one wants all the painful thoughts of textures that cause them distress. No one wants the anorexia that cripples them in these situations.

Thing is, that food actually sounds nice. So much buffet food is boring, bland and stodgy, especially the endless pastry-based and pork-based stuff.

I think I'd feel differently about, say, some really delicious and unusual sandwiches like you might get from a caterer, or something else really well executed with great ingredients, but work buffets IME tend to be more on the ASDA Value Vol-au-Vents side of things. Either that or 'I made my legendary quiche' and it turns out to be something you could use as a doorstop.

I wonder how many of the people worried about the hygiene have actually picked up food poisoning from a works buffet?

What a totally rational and proportionate response.

I would hate to feel obliged to attend a work buffet (or any meal) every few weeks. It's the compulsory aspect that's wrong here. If people like lunch buffets, fine, but other people like the OP do not, for various reasons, and there should be no pressure to attend, or to provide food, or to give up the lunch hour. YANBU.

I have no allergies or generally any issues with food normally - however I also hate buffets.
I dislike the ones catered by professionals because other people's grubby hands have touched everything but the idea of the food being made and brought in by a bunch of different people makes me feel unwell too.

I also dislike bakeries in supermarkets where you can help yourself to unpackaged pastries and bread rolls. I once watched a small child walk along the aisle picking up doughnuts and cakes - licking them - and putting them back on the shelf.

I've seen flies on those bakery displays

Trust me to my brain it is proportionate

Yeah this…Plus I used to know someone who worked in the civil service with Dennis Nielsen the serial killler, apparently he used to take in chicken curry’s for work buffets at Christmas.

Omg I think I remember you posting this on another thread or if not there was someone else who also knew someone who worked with him!

It wasn’t me, but that’s interesting. I used to work for the civil service too in the same area of London

Ha ha!🚽