to be driven up the wall by my manager constantly going on about being hungry?

[pegweg]

My manager spends all day talking about how hungry she is. She eats normally. It is just this running commentary that never ends.

She will finish a call and immediately say that’s made her hungry. She will go round asking everyone if they’ve had their lunch. If I say no, she will keep telling them to have it.

She will have a meeting, come out of it and say it made her hungry. Rinse and repeat all day.

It is constant. Every meeting, every gap, every bit of small talk turns into her talking about being hungry. If I ask her about something, she will say that has made me hungry.

It is relentless and draining to listen to.

I would say something. I don't see why the fact of her being the manager means you can't say something. She may simply not realise how unusual her habit is.

'I prefer not to talk or think about food that much if you don't mind. I don't seem to get hungry in the same way that you do. I just eat my meals and that's it.'

Performative hunger - weird. Does she have issues with her weight? Is she saying that stress (any kind for her it seems) makes her hungry so it’s not her fault that she has to eat? Which is legitimately a thing we can all struggle with - hence stress/emotional/comfort eating. Though most people don’t constantly verbalise it or draw attention to it.

Does she do it to show how helpless she is to her appetite, because literally everything makes her hungry so she therefore can’t be blamed for being overweight?
Or is it a performative ooh I’m so hungry & I’ve already eaten but going to have to have my lunch now - I need attention for it kind of thing? And is more boasting about how big her appetite is?? And how much she has to eat bcos of it??

Weird & v frustrating to be on the receiving end all day though.

I know she’s your manager but couldn’t you agree it seems to be near constant & if she’s been to the doctor about it as it does seem a lot?

Then stop giving any reaction or whatever attention she is looking for from it & ignore /change the subject whilst being polite & professional still. V difficult I know to do however if she’s directly saying it to you whilst coming out of a meeting or something as you then would look rude.

Nowt queer as folk!

I am not sure why she does it. We don't give her any attention when she does it. I will just walk away when she starts. I have to stay there if I am having a meeting with her obviously so then I have to listen to how hungry she is. I just start looking at my laptop and don't say anything.

She has a normal BMI. She says she gets hangry a lot.

Sometimes the meeting or phone call is not even stressful but apparently it makes her hungry.

She hasn't mentioned she has been to the doctor about it.

as with everything else, I'd recommend logging it for evidence. For a week write down every time she mentions being hungry, talking about food, encouraging others to eat, etc. At least then you've got a record, and if you ever do address it it's hard for her to brush it off as you exaggerating or taking things to seriously if you can say 'Look Mary, on Tuesday you asked me 6 times what I was having for lunch, and told me you were 'starving' 14 times, you can't say that's normal.'

If you have a HR dept or senior manager you get on well with you could raise it with them. Possibly come at it from a health POV rather than 'she's irritating!' Say you don't want to be pedantic but it's beyond an annoying quirk and is both distracting you from work and causes you to have serious concerns - not just for her own MH but you've got no idea if anyone else in the workplace has an ED or whatever.

OTOH if you logged it, you might see 'Okay, although it's really annoying me, it actually seems like she only says it 2 or 3 times a day, it just seems like more, in the scheme of things one or two comments over the 8 hours we're in work isn't that bad,' and might help you to ignore it.

@pegwegok so it’s driven everyone mad to the point you all just ignore it (best option I think). But what does/has she said if you say “I know you’ve told us x times already” or “eat these then!” Or “not sure what we can do to help other than suggesting you have something to eat. Is there a reason why you can’t just do that?” Or “ok! Eat something then!” Or is she too senior to be able to speak like that to?
You could just for kicks (hardly) start meeting her performative appetite at her level & just doing it back to her!! Wonder what wld happen. Make it the reason why you bother to talk to her. Get her to sympathise or be in awe of your mighty appetite lol!

Say it... do you know you constantly say you're hungry ..... its annoying you know.
I would.

Maybe she's stressed. When I had really bad anxiety I was either ravenous or completely disinterested in food. If its happening after meetings it could be a stress response.
She could also try WLI to curb her hunger.

She does it everyday consistently stress or no stress. Every call, every meeting, she is suddenly hungry. I am talking to her about something, she is hungry.

She is normal BMI so I doubt she would get WLI unless done illegally. She doesn't seem to think it is a problem being hungry all day.

Maybe she keeps eating all day to avoid being hangry. I don't know why she is so keen on making sure everyone else has eaten.

Get one of those great big sacks of potatoes and launch one at her head everytime she says she's hungry. 🥔🥔🥔

Tempting 😂

Do you work in a business related to food? Sounds like not so sounds very annoying! With the hangry comments I would say maybe she should get her blood sugar checked or maybe she has tapeworms just to try and shut her up!

Nothing related to food. We do get catering ordered for events and she always run to take all the best food first.

It is really annoying!

I forgot to add she does sound very annoying!

Yeah, Gobstoppers for preference😅

🤣🤣🤣

“Oh goodness Susan let’s not talk about food please - you’ll make us all hungry” and repeat??

Offer her some Dreamies

😂
That would make her more bloody hungry!

I dont know about her eating but the repetition day after day would have me exhausted. i have two colleagues who thankfully I rarely work with but both have things they moan about on repeat over and ove and its just tiring to listen to.

You're right, Dreamies are UPF and would cause a blood sugar high/low 😉

Keto or old skool carb-dodging would be far better. @pegweg can you go all Pamela and suggest two steaks?

I suspect food is constantly on her mind because she’s actually depriving herself all the time. She’s normal weight but she probably has to work hard and deny her natural appetite to stay that way. And now the constant mentioning it is a habit.

Offer her a cheap biscuit every time as pp’s suggest or suggest she goes to the doctors as you are worried about her, and then ask her if she’s been yet when she continues.

She could have a tapeworm? Being serious. I’d be telling her I’m worried about how hungry she is. How it’s all the time. How it’s not normal & frankly you don’t know how long you can keep hearing about it. Does she realise she’s verbalising it so much? Then I’d be begging her to go to the doctors & get checked out. As this can’t continue.

You are all a charitable lot, I genuinely wouldnt give a toss if she has an eating disorder, you can have any disorder you want but you dont have to announce it every 5 seconds. Its the whinging and moaning and repetition I would be more annoyed with. I have no filter and manager or not would ask her if she ever has 'inside' thoughts.

Pamela is a bit of a carnivore actually 😂

She grazes and eats most of the day. When she says she is hungry then she eats something. I was in a meeting with her and she started with it has made her hungry and she got some snacks out to eat. I walked away thinking I will let her eat and come back after she is done but she wanted to carry on the meeting while she was eating 😐

I know what you mean. I used to work with a colleague who talked about her DC all the time. It was so boring.