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Never Going Back - A Week of Not Eating Lunch at My Desk

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Re: Never Going Back - A Week of Not Eating Lunch at My Desk

#61

Post by crazygringo »

hnriot wrote: post #18
buckbova wrote: post #2

I never eat lunch at my desk because I think it's inconsiderate to my coworkers. They should not have to smell or see what I am eating, let alone hear me crunch into chips or an apple.

I find this quite ridiculous, people are not these fragile creatures that can't see, hear or smell anything other than the usual office sights, sounds and aromas. I think you're over thinking this. Unless you're eating weird stuff like boiled lungfish or whatever then I suspect nobody is paying the slightest attention to you eating chips or an apple.

You've clearly never sat next to someone in a quiet office, who is crunching on fistfuls of banana chips for an hour with their mouth open. I swear it would echo, those things are so loud. Maybe it's the whole mouth-open thing that does it. But not everyone manages to eat discreetly, or even 'normally'.

In a loud office, it might not be so bad, but when the office is otherwise quiet, it keeps you from concentrating at all. CRUNCH. CRUNCH. cr-cr-cr-cr-CRUNCHCHCHCHCH.

Re: Never Going Back - A Week of Not Eating Lunch at My Desk

#62

Post by dlu »

I read this as I was eating lunch at my desk... nothing spices up a meal like a guilt trip. Yeah ok, maybe I should go take a real break.

I usually try to take a real lunch, but it is tempting to get a bit of extra time back during midday. It ends up being a slippery slope where it silently goes from once-in-a-while to all-the-freaking-time.

I also probably end up physically leaving my desk, but spending my whole lunch spinning the wheels in my head and that's probably just as problematic.

Re: Never Going Back - A Week of Not Eating Lunch at My Desk

#63

Post by psychometry »

marknutter wrote: post #4

Sometimes I like to eat lunch at my desk, other times I eat in the dining area with co-workers, and other times I eat out. Why does it need to be an all or nothing proposition? There are days when I'm very busy on a problem and I don't want the distraction of taking lunch so I'll either eat it at my desk or eat something low impact like a protein bar/shake. Alternatively when I get stuck on a problem I'll take a long…

>Why does it need to be an all or nothing proposition?

Because that would make for a completely reasonable, non-inflammatory headline and you'll never get to the top of HN with headlines like that, son.

Re: Never Going Back - A Week of Not Eating Lunch at My Desk

#64

Post by ItendToDisagree »

genericuser wrote: post #38
hnriot wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find this quite ridiculous, people are not these fragile creatures that can't see, hear or smell anything other than the usual office sights, sounds and aromas. I think you're over thinking this. Unless you're eating weird stuff like boiled lungfish or whatever then I suspect nobody is paying the slightest attention to you eating chips or an apple.

I do not think it is ridiculous at all. I have an office mate who always eats at his desk about 4 feet directly behind me. He chews with his mouth open and takes his time eating his lunch. So I get an hour of lipsmacking and chewing noises every day. That hour is occuring right now and I am reading hacker news because getting anything done with that slurpy wet smacking going on is rather difficult. I am enough of an…

Once sat a couple feet away from a woman who's jaw made a very loud clicking sound when she chewed. I brought it up, she apologized, said it sucks for her too. We were pretty good friends and liked to joke around and once during her lunch she IMed me saying "I found this video you would love!" and it was a youtube of Mike Meyers from Waynes World describing his faults including how when he eats he makes a clicking sound with his jaw.

Thank you for reminding me of this small slice of my past I had nearly forgotten. It made me smile.

TL:DR "Cool story Hansel"

Re: Never Going Back - A Week of Not Eating Lunch at My Desk

#65

Post by freehunter »

crazygringo wrote: post #61
hnriot wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find this quite ridiculous, people are not these fragile creatures that can't see, hear or smell anything other than the usual office sights, sounds and aromas. I think you're over thinking this. Unless you're eating weird stuff like boiled lungfish or whatever then I suspect nobody is paying the slightest attention to you eating chips or an apple.

You've clearly never sat next to someone in a quiet office, who is crunching on fistfuls of banana chips for an hour with their mouth open. I swear it would echo , those things are so loud. Maybe it's the whole mouth-open thing that does it. But not everyone manages to eat discreetly, or even 'normally'. In a loud office, it might not be so bad, but when the office is otherwise quiet, it keeps you from concentrating…

If your office is poorly laid out in such a fashion, headphones would be a good addition to your desk. When I first moved into a dorm room, I had a hard time sleeping due to hearing other people moving around and talking. I learned to sleep with a fan in order to generate white noise.

You might say "I don't like working with headphones!" but the point I'm trying to make is that in offices without privacy, some amount of consideration has to be paid to mitigate the effects of other people. There's always going to be some noise that someone makes that annoys someone else. You can't stop it at their end, so you try to stop it at your end.

Re: Never Going Back - A Week of Not Eating Lunch at My Desk

#67

Post by schandur »

raverbashing wrote: post #46
buckbova wrote: post #2

I never eat lunch at my desk because I think it's inconsiderate to my coworkers. They should not have to smell or see what I am eating, let alone hear me crunch into chips or an apple.

Thank you. This is very considerate Coming from a culture where no, people don't eat at their desks, this is really weird for me. I go and have lunch somewhere (and this has not been a problem in any country I worked). If I really can't go I starve, or go later. This would be only an exception in "We're saving Apollo 13" kind of stuff.

Funny you should mention about the cultural differences - a German neighbor of mine moved to Munich after a few years in New York.

Whereas she was accustomed to eating at her desk in NYC, she was asked to eat her "stinky tuna salad outside the office!"

Re: Never Going Back - A Week of Not Eating Lunch at My Desk

#68

Post by daveslash »

hnriot wrote: post #18
buckbova wrote: post #2

I never eat lunch at my desk because I think it's inconsiderate to my coworkers. They should not have to smell or see what I am eating, let alone hear me crunch into chips or an apple.

I find this quite ridiculous, people are not these fragile creatures that can't see, hear or smell anything other than the usual office sights, sounds and aromas. I think you're over thinking this. Unless you're eating weird stuff like boiled lungfish or whatever then I suspect nobody is paying the slightest attention to you eating chips or an apple.

I think we know who eats chips and apples in the office. :-)

Re: Never Going Back - A Week of Not Eating Lunch at My Desk

#69

Post by laureny »

msoad wrote: post #55
laureny wrote: post #52

I'm surprised he doesn't mention what I think is the #1 reason for going out for lunch: spending time with your coworkers that is not necessarily work focused. All the reasons he gives seem pretty weak: if you need a break, you can step outside the office for a walk or a coffee or even go read on a bench for 20mn without the activity being necessarily lunch. Eating lunch at your desk has benefits, such as allowing yo…

I decided to have zero "out of work focused" conversations with my co-workers at my new job. It's the best decision I made. Office politics was always against me because I was speaking with my co-workers about things I do outside of work. I learned that co-workers are no my friends. They are sometimes enemies

False dichotomy. It's true that they are not your friends but it doesn't mean that you should never interact with them, nor that you wouldn't enjoy (and maybe even learn from) spending time with them.

You spend more time with your coworkers than with your family, so cutting this entire part out of your life for some nebulous principle is not socially smart.

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