Colleague eating egg mayo sandwiches - to say something?

[DontGiveUp90]

As above really…my colleague is lovely but insists on eating the most foul smelling egg sandwiches for her lunch. It lingers all afternoon and makes me feel sick.

Would I be unreasonable to say something? We don’t have a break out area where she could eat them as only a small office.

Spraying febreeze in an enclosed office space would be far worse than the scent of food. People may have asthma or regardless its unpleasant to be breathing in.

Not all offices have windows that open - ours don’t.

I think banning food from the working space (i.e. it can only be eaten in designated spaces like a canteen area) is probably the way forward, as so many people can’t behave sensibly with this, on both sides of the argument.

Scotch eggs smell hideous to me, worse than just an egg which is bad enough because the sausage stinks as well.

I‘m just boiling an egg to add to salad for tomorrow. I can never smell it so I doubt anyone else can . I eat in a school staff room and as lunch is the same time for all, there’s all sorts being made, heated and eaten at the same time!

Definitely egg mayo butty this week

It’s definitely being dramatic @Mammyplease but I feel the same way about hard boiled eggs/egg sandwiches!

No problem with eggs generally and I’m not a fussy eater, just that the smell of the hard boiled variety makes me nauseous. I can’t help it. 🤷

and I would tell her very politely to FO.

Just open a window! I would never tell or ask someone not to eat what they wanted.

Again - not all offices have windows that open. And if someone tells you that your lunch reeks, surely the civil and community-minded (and not terminally self-absorbed) response would be “God, I hadn’t realised! I’ll save that for when I’m at home, then!”

Nope. It might be all she can afford, all she likes etc. no way would I tell anyone what they can or can’t eat!

I think in a shared office which isn’t a specific designated eating space you can. And if you can afford an egg sandwich you can afford a cheese one.

I would be mortified if my lunch stank out the office, and that’s no way I would react in such an aggressive way. Sharing spaces well requires compromise and civility, and being mindful of others.

Might not like cheese? Might be allergic to dairy?

I don't think you should say anything directly to her
However you can mention to your manager if it's really ruining
Your work environment

Then the managers may make a policy for everyone about smelly food and where and when it's eaten

Sure… 🙄

@markingbad- this used to be my favourite jacket potato topping. Lovely, cold egg mayo and hot, crispy bacon 😋 Totally forgot til you mentioned it, so thank you, will be having it for tea this week!

Except it's not, and never has been, called that...

Now see I hate, and I mean hate, jacket potatoes.....

You clearly are very sensitive to that particular smell. Other people may have different sensitivities. If we cater to everyone we’ll be stuck eating plain toast…

a regular dish / food item with egg (especially if it’s cold/unheated) shouldn’t have much of a smell, tbh. I occasionally have a salad niçoise for lunch and nobody has ever remarked on the smell….

you can ask but she may change it to Tuna & that would stink even more & you couldn't ask her to change it again.
Open the window if possible & have an air freshener in your desk & get out at lunch times.

God that's honestly awful. I would be sick. Egg sandwiches smell like farts. How anyone can put them in their mouth is beyond me, but insisting everyone else inhales it is frankly antisocial. YANBU to say something.

I'm not even remotely bothered by egg sandwiches. A colleague used to bring in homemade sardine sandwiches, now that was a smell.
If enough of you are bothered it might be worth trying to get the management to go for a ban on eating in the office, assuming that there is somewhere else to go and eat. But then people would be complaining about the smell there.

There’s no grounds to complain about the smell of food in a space put aside for eating.

In an office where people are eating where they and others are also working, there is, and everyone needs to be mindful that they aren’t drenching themselves in perfume or eating smelly food. And so far everyone I’ve asked about this would class egg mayo sandwiches as smelly.

I think the real problem is that there's no separate space for eating.
It's not particularly good for anyone's health or morale to have to eat at their desk.

Yes definitely binding. The reason why they’re added to baking mixtures - bind it all together.

I have to have an in between day between eggy meals so I don’t get constipated. Don’t get farts with them!

I thought most people thought this - an agreed social norm. But don’t like eggs or mayo and I think it’s smells like farts - because boiled eggs contain sulphur compounds