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?

Really….
so you can’t ever say anything, to anyone in an office environment, beyond “wow, your lunch looks wonderful…and your hair fantastic…..and what’s that you’re wearing….i must get that myself”
be jeez…..talk about egg-shells mustn’t be crushed. What a completely false, soulless existence for…how many, 30-40 hours a week. OMG 😦 🙄😬🤪

It wouldn't make me feel welcome. I would just inwardly roll my eyes.

It really shouldn’t restrict you unduly to avoid fart jokes, unless you’re a ten year old in an adult workplace, surely?

You think there is literally no middle ground whatsoever between poo jokes and "your hair is lovely" all day long?

You dont sound very socially skilled....

It’s not offensive but just not funny

I wouldn't be offended and would have taken the joke further as you should the beans I have at the weekend! Probably too much too soon without sussing out if they get easily offended though. Xx

You’ve got quite an imagination to take that from what I wrote. 😂

I like to eat my meals in peace without morons making unnecessary comments about what I’m eating and how it will affect my bodily functions, I think most normal people would be the same. That’s about it really. Plenty of other ways to have a laugh with colleagues.

This attitude is really problematic abbeymum. It’s the kind of thing a manager and hr should be nipping in the bud.

its not the jokes themselves. It’s the pushback at being told they are unappreciated. The second someone doesn’t want to join in, you should stop and not be bothered by stopping.

Also eggs don’t give me gas. It’s a stupid joke.

I hate people commenting on my lunch. I’d have felt incredibly uncomfortable in her place.

rather a ten year old, doing their required job, whilst feeling relaxed amongst friends and colleagues and freely able to have a laugh than being surrounded by a bunch of stuffed shirts. We all have different days, home lives, troubles etc…if you don’t like someone’s inane jokes (whether about farts or whatever) say so……engage your brain……give a quality come back. Works wonders, try it sometime……

if

This kind of crap office banter is why I work in total isolation

And why we’re grateful for that

HR are not your friend……….remember that….
they are purely there to mitigate the company being sued, they will quite happily throw you under the bus if it serves the purpose.

Same here.

This attitude of - "if you don't like it then that's on you" is telling op.

I think I'd have smiled politely to save awkwardness but internally been thinking wtf.

Good grief, you are another of those dense posters who assume that if you dont find pathetic toilet jokes hilariously funny you must be a "stuff shirt" - what an old fashioned expression.

The joke isnt offensive, it's simply not funny. If you think thats the only way to have a "laugh" in an office environment then you really are quite ignorant.

I think the first word you used nails it. “Dense”.

Our team do have a laugh in work, but my colleagues are intelligent people, so none of us would find that sort of inane nonsense funny.

I didn’t says anything about having to find it funny…..ok, you don’t find it funny?
your post. “dense………pathetic………toilet…..ignorant…….”
look at what you just posted……says a lot about you!

You literally said people were being false and even used the words: "soulless existence" about an office environment without fart jokes. A tad dramatic, no?

So yes, dense is correct here.

oh dear…..they are being false, if they’re not “allowed” to say anything other than NICE things without being dragged to HR…I might be a dinosaur but you are unrealistic and immature.

She’s new, probably unaware of your ‘hilarious’ team banter and quite likely found you uncouth, at worst, crude.

Do you still read the Beano too?

Not funny and everyone feels self conscious in their first weeks in a job. Mean behaviour imo and you should apologise

Your inability to read the room is quite telling.