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?

Not particularly funny I wouldn’t make the connection between eating an egg and farting

I absolutely agree. I'm there to work not to be insulted, trade jokes, or be 'lightly ribbed' which could be just a bullying culture.

It only counts as a joke if it’s actually funny. HTH.

You think this demonstrates you have a sense of humour!? I’m so embarrassed for you.

I wouldn’t have laughed because it’s not funny. I’d probably have thought ‘oh god, I’ve got a colleague that tells unfunny jokes🙄’

I wouldn’t be offended no. It was just trite and not funny.

And if this is an example, it sounds as though the ‘light ribbing and jokey atmosphere’ are circling the drain of a bullying/harassment claim at some point. Nothing quite like insinuating on their first day, that a new colleague smells. Makes for a wonderful workplace atmosphere (no pun intended).

Commenting on anyone’s food or the way they eat is just rude. Did you not learn manners?

I’m going to put money on the fact that you and your colleagues use the word “bantz”
If I’d been the new colleague I’d have just thought you were a dick tbh.

If that’s you trying to be funny OP, I’d stop. You aren’t very good at it.

The only person who seems to have taken offence in this scenario is the OP who is pissed off that the new colleague didn’t laugh at her pisspoor “joke”

All the new colleague do was to respond with a blank face. They haven’t complained or retaliated etc.

But this non-response seems to have been enough to upset the OP into whining on mumsnet that it must be their new colleague who is flawed

Is your name Colin Hunt?

I would have thought you were objecting to the smell of my lunch and telling me not to eat it at work again. And that after just telling you I ate it every day.

Yes I would have a blank face too as I'm not quick enough to untangle the complexities of how to respond in real time.
Are you joking/Are you easily offended/Are you the class bully/Do I have to completely rearrange my diet for you (will cause farts as well as really complicating my life)/Are you always this forward and offensive/Was taking this job a mistake/etc.

That's a really mean move on a new colleague. Establishing the hierarchy on the first day.

Oh no, how cringy (for you not her).

I have a colleague who is from India, when she first started with us she always used to eat alone in her car. I wondered if she was uncomfortable with us and asked if there was anything wrong.
She said that at a previous workplace someone had called her lunch "stinky" and so she ate lunch alone ever since. 😥.
OP, Words have consequences.

Since when do eggs make you fart??? Bad joke OP

A lot of po faced people on this thread. It was a throwaway jokey comment. No offence and I would've laughed.

Don't think our OP will be back.

With any luck she's planning out some damage limitation and kindness for her new colleague next week.

Quite crude remark to say to someone you don't really know, especially a colleague. I wouldn't have been amused either.

@Abbeymum - even in a 'very friendly and jokey culture' it is a good idea to get to know new people before starting to make jokes with/at them.

I do accept that you had no nasty intention when you made the joke, but crucially, she doesn't know you or your workplace culture - so she probably didn't know that this was light-hearted ribbing, and that you are happy for her to rib you in return (I assume - because otherwise this would be bullying) - she may well have interpreted it as a nasty jibe at her.

Mike Hunt more like !! Not offensive, just bantz !!

I can never understand why people feel the need to comment on what other people are eating! If it isn't stinking the office out, mind your own business!

I would have laughed because I work in a very bantery type place.
I actually find jokes like this more comfortable than places that don’t joke but that may be because I work with 95% men.

But I never comment on people’s food, unless it’s a compliment and even then it’s a thin line.

Some people have issues around food and it’s just something that doesn’t need commenting on.

I used to have an ED and the amount of women who thought it was appropriate to comment constantly about how I wasn’t eating or my lunch wasn’t healthy enough etc or what’s that awful smell etc - this wasn’t being clumsy, it was bitchy women who likely had issues around food themselves or wanted to belittle you.

I had a colleague who brought in home made Indian made by his lovely wife who was in between jobs. He couldn't eat his lunch in peace for people coming to see what the aroma was. She could have fed the entire office had she been inclined.

People are so snide sometimes.

I honestly would not have liked this.

I’d find it irredeemably naff.