To bring proper meals into the office?

[tellingeveryonehowbadly]

I’m on a bit of a health kick. Usually I bring in stews, casseroles etc.

My meal prep went wrong this week and I’m planning on taking a mini roast into the office tomorrow. There’s a few of us in the office who are trying to eat healthy and we were discussing lunches, I said this and a colleague went “urgh, great. The smell of gravy again”.

AIBU to do this? Everyone in the office tends to bring hot meals, but they’re usually ready meals. I figured a homemade meal would be fine, but now I feel a little self conscious.

For me, you are in an enclosed environment with an array of different smells wafting through the air, people eating at different times so the different smells lingering together longer.

Bit of a different set up in a restaurant, you are usually in, eat, then out, not having to work with the different smells lingering around and don't get me started on the chomping 🤣

I don't mind the smell of gravy, I don't mind the smell of curry or eggs or whatever people wish to eat but the smells altogether in a working environment can be pretty off putting.

I think it should be mandatory that every workplace should have a separate eating area but that's me. I'm just thankful my employer does. Its bad enough when people start spraying strong perfumes or sprays around the office floor and you can practically taste it.

Personally, I think hot food in an office is grim! Your office must stink, but as everyone else is having ready meals there is nothing wrong with your lunch!

I hate the smell of food in the office 😬 I just bring cold food - sandwiches and a banana.

I'm in the minority though- my colleagues bring soup and baked potatoes with tuna and reheated pasta. The mix of smells can be really overpowering sometimes, esoecially meat/fish smells (I'm vegetarian). I don't comment on it though!

You are frighteningly hung up on this gravy granules thing.

Bisto definitely wasn't cheap the last time I looked.

Put cling film on the container of food before you microwave it. Smells aren't so intense this way.

I have never had Bisto gravy so have no idea how bad it smells - it can't be as bad as the smoked fish I brought into work the other day!

We had to give up eating at our desks after a mice infestation. They must have been feasting off what was in the keyboards!
It's pretty bad that your company can't spring for a small table and chairs for its staff

Just ate my lunch that was fish and mashed potatoes that I heated up in the microwave in the break room at work. Thankfully everyone is a grown up so no one comments on other people's food except to say oo that looks nice or similar.

YANBU and well done for keeping up the healthy eating.

Brocoli and Stilton soup in the staff microwave. So so foul

A colleague used to make goat curry .She'd leave the bones in ' for extra flavour' but then chew the meat off them and stack them up on a napkin on her desk. The smell, the pile of bones. Nasty.

Another thing that was good about days of old. Many places of work had staff canteens. Where people went to eat. And did not have breakfast, lunch and dinner at a desk.

We had this too. And someone left food in their pedestal and went away on holiday. You can imagine….

Because it is a place of work. Or supposed to be.
Where people hopefully try to concentrate. Think. Apply themselves to whatever task they have to do. Often with deadlines.
Some people are able to entirely switch themselves off to noise. I could.
But smell can be harder to switch off. Especially a smell you suddenly do not expect. Anything very strong smelling is distracting. And therefore annoying and inconsiderate.

Especially if it is next to you or opposite or on your bank of desks.
That is why.

Pollack

Crack on. I reckon your colleague is jealous.

Yuck, no wonder they objected.

I do think we all should eat in the canteen because of situations like these, but if they’re having hot meals so can you.

Since Covid we’ve been eating at our desks and can’t lie, I do dislike the lingering food smell afterwards, but it’s not up to me to decide who eats what.

There’s nothing wrong with bisto 😂

You don't need to mention that she was vegan here. That's akin to saying 'a Muslim colleague brought in a curry'.

Not all vegans eat cabbage soup.

Plenty of non-vegans eat cabbage soup.
The soup did not smell worse because she was vegan.

We had folk getting worms once. We had people filling up their water bottles, putting them to their mouths and then the next person would press the neck of their bottle against the same dispenser....

They ended up banning bottles and having us all drink out of tiny carboard cones.

What’s wrong with gravy? My previous colleagues used to be jealous of my Mini leftovers roast for lunch. I love a next day leftover roast!

Now I want to make a proper roast and bring leftovers in, cauliflower cheese included!