Eating At Work: Do or Don’t?
Keep Etiquette in Mind When Eating in the Office
© Melissa Dylan
Jul 31, 2006
Eating at your desk is sometimes unavoidable. Keep the following in mind, and Miss Manners will give you a gold star.
I once worked with a woman who gnawed on a turkey leg while perched at the reception desk of a bank. This was wrong on many levels. Don't be her.
1. Keep it simple. If you eat at your desk, steer clear of foods that must be eaten with your hands. Also avoid food that requires deft coordination, such as spaghetti or anything eaten with chopsticks. Stick to sandwiches (wrapped in a napkin to avoid crumb-keyboard issues), small bite-sized dishes, or smoothies.
2. Shhhh. Don't chomp, talk with your mouth full, or chew with your mouth open. And by all means, don't answer the phone until you've swallowed.
3. Smells are bad. No odiferous foods. Period. Even if you think Kim Chee is the best-smelling food ever, the person two desks down may disagree. (Dude-across-the-aisle, I'm looking at you.) Be courteous and choose foods that don't waft through the office.
4. Be discreet. It gives a poor image to customers to see open take-out containers and dirty napkins all over the place. Even if you have no direct customer-contact, the last thing your co-workers want to stare at is a messy cubicle. Keep your mess contained, and dispose of it when done.
5. Company fridge. Throw out your leftovers. Seriously, what's wrong with you people? Heathens.
Above all else, use common sense. This is an office, not a Renn Faire.
Check out the rest of my articles, such as Bridging the Generation Gap!
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Comments
Aug 16, 2006 9:07 AM
Laurie
:
<p></p>I say it's a big don't. Most people who engage in the practice (myself included) are pretty sloppy. I don't like having butter and crumbs on my paperwork, and I like even less watching/listening to somebody smack and drool while they scarf down a sandwich.
Besides, I like going to a lunch room. It's a chance to get away from the good ole desk and decompress for a couple of minutes.
It's different if you have your own office, of course. In that case, eat all you like! The mess and the smacking are your own private affair!
Aug 16, 2006 11:12 AM
rose
:
<p></p>I wish we had a lunch room, but our office is too weird. No space. Which sucks.
At my old job, there was a TV in the lunchroom, and I swear, every time I went in there, the same people were watching TV. Don't you people have jobs??
Aug 16, 2006 1:33 PM
Melissa Dylan
:
<p>
</p>The guy in the cubicle next to me left an open container of curry while he went gosh-knows-where for about two hours. The smell? Not terrific.
Aug 18, 2006 10:49 PM
rose
:
That's when I'd just go and cover it up. But, you're relatively new at your job, right? That might not go over well.
Aug 21, 2006 1:49 PM
Melissa Dylan
:
Yeah, I'm not really at a point in my job where messing with people's food is acceptible. That didn't stop me, however, from turning off his stereo the other day when he stepped away from his desk. Incidentally, I DON'T wish my girlfriend were hot like you.
Aug 21, 2006 5:07 PM
rose
:
I battle with the thermometer all day long.
but, it's with my brother, so that's different.
Sep 15, 2006 5:05 PM
Melissa Dylan
:
In battles with your brother, noogies are fair game. Sadly, I don't have a brother, as a boss or otherwise.
