To ask if my joke to new work colleague would have offended you?

[Abbeymum]

We are quite a small team and had a new staff member join this week. It’s a very friendly and jokey culture so we are always light heartedly ribbing each other.

Anyway - new colleague was eating a salad with two boiled eggs. We were chatting and she says that’s a usual weekday lunch for her. I replied that I bet she has stocked up on the air freshener for when she’s home.

Blank face…sense of humour failure on her part?

Puerile ‘joke’. Be more professional at work.

There are 226 replies to this thread, and a tiny handful of posters thought you were funny @Abbeymum

I think that tells you what you need to know, even if it isn't what you want to hear.

I would hate anyone making that joke to me especially a work colleague that I'd just met. Vile and disrespectful.

Well, you slagged off her lunch and implied that it was a problem for you. She's new, feeling out of place, trying to fit in. She probably didn't know how to react, not knowing you very well.

Shit joke...a wee bit bullying as well. Not funny. Embarrassing for her.

You're a berk.

I would have given you a blank face too thinking my god, this grown woman is making fart jokes. You’ve just made yourself look a bit ridiculous.

It’s a twatty thing to say OP. And it’s not funny.
I’d look at you blankly too 🤷🏻‍♀️

Agree. These 'jokey' cultures can become excluding, if they aren't already. Sooner or later a line will be crossed into a type of discrimination which is now thankfully illegal. Sounds like your group is ripe for training.

Sounds like sense of humour fail on your part.

It isn't a good joke and it definitely isn't an invitation to join a friendly light hearted environment.

I thought it was that boiled eggs can smell farty rather than make you fart so I would be wondering why I'd near air freshener at home & thinking that if the eggs smell to you, just say so.

Yeah and this. Not only a crass comment but a confusing one as well.
Air freshener at home? What do you mean?

Do you not understand eggs?

I wouldn't have had a clue how to respond to you in her position.

I agree. And if it's her usual lunch she might feel she's been told her choice is unacceptable.

No I wouldn’t say that, especially to a new staff member. It’s basically toilet humour, you barely know her. I wouldn’t find it funny and I think I have a pretty good soh.

This is what I thought OP meant too.
I thought she was basically telling the new colleague that her lunch was smelly! Which isn’t very kind.

I’d never have guessed OP was implying her colleague would be farting later on. If beans were the food in question, yes.

Either way it wasn’t very nice OP.

Banter, otherwise known as making digs at people while you chuckle.

You need to grow up and act more professionally at work - I am cringing for you

I’ve got to be honest, it’s not that funny a line for me but each to their own. I think you need to reflect a bit here. Your new colleague didn’t laugh and of course no one is obliged to laugh at things. You comment on her sense of humour fail when you have no idea at all about who she is. You describe your work culture as one where there’s light ribbing etc- all fine if works for you but an issue should not be made about your new colleague if they are not into that. Maybe she just didn’t find you funny. Maybe she thought you were overstepping the mark and being rude as you barely know her. Maybe she thought you were being critical of her lunch and she felt small. Maybe she has/had an eating disorder. Maybe she’s got stuff going on in her life that you just don’t have a clue about. So I suggest you reframe things and not expect people to immediately fall in line with how you behave and respond.

It's just not funny. It's not offensive, I wouldn't say it's gross or immature. Just not funny.

I can handle fun jokes and light ribbing but that would’ve missed the mark with me. Fart humour stopped being funny when I was about 12. If I started a new job and someone said that to me I’d be embarrassed for them.

Are you 12?

Your 'joke' is not funny and is just gross.

Totally inappropriate in a workplace.

Crude and not the least bit funny. You’re lucky you got a blank face in response, I’d have struggled to maintain a professional poker face at that.

She’s either wondering as a new colleague whether she’s being told that her choice of lunch is unacceptable under the guise of ‘banter’, or wondering if she’s really condemned to work somewhere in which colleagues make fart jokes.

She’s probably wondering whether, next time she passes you in the corridor, you’re going to start doing that thing where you put your hand in your armpit to make fake farting noises.

Cold egg smell of farts when you're eating them, it wouldn't be a lunch I'd bring as a new employee, egg and fish can stink.
Still, not appropriate for you to comment on.

You don't know this woman and shouldn't make a joke like that at work unless you are sure it will be well received. She didn't find it funny so don't do it again!

Same here.

I mean what next OP? - are you going to write BOOBS on a calculator and pass it round the office whilst giggling?

Pathetic.