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?

You stink? Is that really going to put someone at ease?

Are you nine years old?

I think even my teenager would roll his eyes at that kind of "humour". Making jokes about other people's bodily functions is pretty juvenile. Doing it while they're eating/in relation to their food really isn't on.

So offended? No. Surprised to be on the receiving end of a joke usually reserved for primary school playgrounds? Sure.

You say it's this person's first week and you're already joking that her house smells of farts and commenting on her food? Christ alive she's probably wondering what she's let herself in for.

Its very rude to comment on people's choice of food. Also a ribbing culture can be a bullying culture, some people don't like constantly having you fend of remarks that you find funny but they find tedious at best, and uncomfortable at worse.

Your colleague did not have a sense of humour failure, you were childish and ignorant. I would hate to work with people like you and your silly mates. Very unprofessional.

i wouldnt understand the joke either tbh

Can’t believe this is real. Nobody could be that rude.

I’m an HR manager and that’s the sort of ‘joke’ that what end up on my desk as a complaint and potential disciplinary,

Maybe think before you open your gob

I don't understand it either. I live on eggs and they don't have any impact on me at all.

Oh I am sure she understood your 'humour' OP but chose to ignore it because it's immature and unprofessional.

So true. This office atmosphere would make me cringe a bit.

I would not be offended. I love a good laugh. But unfunny and facile attempts at humour have me rolling my eyes. Then again, I am regularly surprised at the banal stuff on MN that has people crying with laughter, snorting out their tea through their nose, or waking their kids with uncontrolled guffaws.

YWBU and rude as you don’t know your colleague well enough to make jokes like that. A “joke” at someone’s expense is only funny if both parties are laughing. A face to face apology required

It doesn’t sound like a particularly hilarious joke and probably in a work context with someone you don’t really know would just make you sound odd.

She’ll probably get used to you in time and learn to smile politely when you are entertaining everyone in future.

Could have been a scene from The Office. Your colleague’s sense of humour may not match yours.

Anyway, I reckon the blank face was simply because the joke was not funny. Move on.

I think you’ve misjudged the banter type environment. Fart jokes don’t usually make grown ups in the workplace laugh.

@Toooldtopretend i was literally about to type the same thing before I saw your post! It does sound like a cringey David Brent thing to say. Like lots of people have said, your comment wasn’t funny and it was too soon to try out your Dad jokes on the new starter.

Toilet humour is a niche preference.
Mostly enjoyed by schoolboys and overgrown versions of the same.
Your comment wouldn’t offend me as such but it would make me think less of you.

I would have thought it was a hint not to have eggs in the workpiece. A but mean tbh

This. Light hearted ribbing and 'in jokes' and banter are generally popular amongst the office wankers. Offices without wankers are so much nicer

I see what you did there 😂

Maybe she does, hence the non-reaction. 😉

I wouldn't be offended. I'd just think 'OMG, cringe' to myself.

Why should she ‘learn to smile politely ’ at someone who has shown themselves to be rude and childish?

Hopefully she’ll start to call the OP out on her inappropriate comments and not passively tolerate her.

I wouldn't be offended but I don't find it funny either. I would just smile politely (just because I can see it's not deliberately mean).

Apart from anything else, you realise that, if she happens to have any kind of bowel disorder or difficulties in that department, she will now feel dreadfully shamed and like she's permanently on edge every time she's at work?!

I actually do find fart jokes/comments funny, but only with people I know well and who will laugh along too.

Knowing your audience is a very basic, essential requirement before making any kind of joke that could upset, offended or make somebody feel awkward. There can be an extremely slender line between banter and bullying.

Now you’re being defensive because everyone’s told you your ‘joke’ was shit. You asked the question. Take it on the chin, OP.