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.

You can't leave the room if that's where you're working!

I'm glad people in my office were more considerate because someone bought a bloody microwave and put it on top of the fridge right by my desk!

I once did that with gilthead. It was the last day the fish was still going to be edible and I didn’t want to throw it away.

Buuut I never did that again. I felt too bad for my coworkers and our clients 🙈😳 and I am honestly glad my coworkers gently informed me that it was a biiit much.

edit: but egg shouldn’t smell that horrible, should it? Many people - me included - have salads with egg on top for lunch. It has never bothered me… I do think that there needs to be some tolerance from everyone involved. Maybe she has some dietary restrictions which make eggs a good choice…

(and this is also one reason why offices need break rooms or designated lunch areas!)

Yes but there will inevitably be some olfactory sensitive soul who cannot tolerate fabric softener and won’t tolerate a sandwich. Everyone can’t tippy toe around colleague who is faint at egg mayo

I’ve shared a communal lunch room with someone who did just that! Another colleague and I used to go out when she brought fishy leftovers to microwave. The stench was awful, and lingering.

Egg mayo and fish are particularly strong smelling and it's inconsiderate to subject people to the smell for hours after you've eaten it!

I like the pret smoked salmon and egg breakfast baguette as a treat now and again and my colleague moans about the smell. So I moan at the smell of her manky banana skin sitting around on the desk! But we are only kidding really…

Are you all 5? What are we allowed to eat then FFS?! What's on the list of acceptable sandwich fillings? Are we basically talking cheese or ham?

Just tell her you hate the smell. She might not even know. Then if she doesn't change, feel free to open the window or spray air freshener around. If she objects to that, she'll know what to do about it.

Does she eat them in a canteen area or at her desk. Is there someone she can eat them away from you?

Boo hoo
it’s unrealistic to expect colleagues to limit lunch choice to not offend you

Both those things reek. You can have bread.

Mmmm
Bread? Just bread or with a slather of garlic butter,

I always have cheese and onion crisps with my beer in the pub - which is a 'shared space'. Would you not allow that either?

Really? Egg mayo?

it’s not like she’s eating Limburger or Schabziger….

This!

Can we have Marmite? Or just lettuce?

Mind you I remember having a walnut whip in the office one day many years ago and a colleague complained I was making her feel sick.

I have to say I do remember being so poor as a teenager at work that I took bread and butter and pretended it was a sandwich of "something". I bet someone would be offended.

Make a pomander and conspicuously carry it, let your colleagues know about your olfactory sensitivity
And calm the fuck down about what people eat. Honestly

Nailed it on the first page.

Just one of those minor discomforts of being around other people. You probably do something that bothers her.

God our office often stinks of someones food choices, but that's just a hazard of a shared workspace. Better than BO, I've worked with smelly people before (and had to tell them), and that is a justified moan. Food, god get over it.

LOL. I was just wondering the same thing! My list of sandwich fillings so far....

jam
cheddar cheese (mild)
cucumber / leafy salad
butter
ready salted crisps (might be too noisy)

Feebreze is so much worse than an egg sandwich imo.

I’m really glad I have my own office, tbh 😅

You can put as much garlic butter on it as you like, then pop it in the oven but you'll need to go to the park to eat it. I'll be following to share though.

I think it would be OK to say that YOU have a strong taste/smell aversion to egg mayo, and ask if as a favour to you she could bring something else, But don't criticise her for her own tastes in food. After all, most of us don't (I think) consider egg mayo sandwiches as 'smelly food'.

I would take a tuna butty, and tuna smells too. I have definitely taken goats cheese and olive sandwiches as well, I think.

You're right about the garlic, though - given the quantity of garlic I cook with most days, egg mayo would be the least of it. My FIL said our DS was the only baby he'd ever met with garlic breath. (DS liked garlic bread as soon as he was on solids)

I used to have to move away from a girl at school who always had salami sandwiches in her lunchbox. Never told her but we didn't fall out! 😀