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Topic: Lunch at desk etiquette
| Author | Message |
| . | Posted – 2/27/2008 10:32:47 AM | show profile What is the etiquette for eating lunch at your desk? I work in a cubicle and was eating my lunch while watching a DVD on my computer when my manager came to me and screamed "What are you doing?" in front of everyone. She yelled at me about this for five minutes. It doesn't say anywhere in the employee handbook that you cannot watch DVDs at your desk (let alone during lunchtime!) Of course, I took the DVD out right away and apologized, but I was wondering what people thought about this humiliation in front of co-workers for something that I was doing on my own time. No clients ever pass by my desk and I had the sound so low that I could hardly even hear it. Thank you for your input! |
| Jill of all trades | Posted – 2/27/2008 10:41:09 AM | show profile Certainly not what your manager did That sounds awful! Talk with some of your co-workers and see what else she's flipped out about. Then try to have a private conversation with your manager. |
| writerandeditor | Posted – 2/27/2008 10:44:24 AM | show profile Well, unless you are paid by the hour, your lunch time still isn't really your own time. I often eat at my desk, and while I'm not always working, I don't watch DVDs. It does seem to be poor etiquette to be blatantly not working when you're at your desk -- for some reason, surfing websites doesn't seem as bad as watching a DVD during lunch. I realize that if you chose to go out to lunch, rather than sit at your desk, you wouldn't be working either, but sometimes appearances matter in an office. However, I will say that public humiliation is almost always wrong, and it's a crappy managerial tactic. Shame on your boss for handling the situation in that way. There's no reason she couldn't have spoken to you privately about that. |
| foodlit | Posted – 2/27/2008 11:28:19 AM | show profile That's pathetic. If you're sitting at your desk eating a sandwich it is clear that you're on break. You are allowed to take a lunch, I assume? I would go to that manager and just ask her what is and isn't acceptable, and remind her that you were at lunch. She sounds like a horrible person. |
| detour_memphis | Posted – 2/27/2008 11:45:32 AM | show profile What's next - changing clothes in your cube? What you did is a bit much BUT your boss could had taken care of the issue in a different way. My office is full of people who eat full-course meals at the desk and it is accepted. I don't like to see it but I'm not the boss. When I was the head of a creative group - I told everyone to use the breakroom for meals and snacks - not their desks. The DVD is another thing - I hope you had on headphones. I hope it was a chick flick and not anything rated R. It is about having class at work - movies, full-course meals, cellphones, texting, surfing the net, eBay, and other things I see done daily is not part of the course. Go talk to your boss but you started this... |
| fourfold | Posted – 2/27/2008 12:08:08 PM | show profile | email poster Robin: As a manager, I can actually sympathize with your supervisor. My reaction to seeing an employee watching a DVD at her desk would depend on how good a job I thought the employee was doing. If I knew the employee was really producing and was merely taking a much-needed break, I would probably let it go. That said, I do feel that an activity so blatantly recreational is probably better done at home. But if I felt the employee wasn't as productive as she should be, I would flip my lid. You need to be careful. Unfair as it may seem, you do need to manage impressions. If a salesperson is having a slow day, it's better to be seen at his or her desk reading a how-to book on sales than a novel. That's just the way the world works. If you really want to kick back and relax during lunch, get away from your desk. |
| . | Posted – 2/27/2008 1:33:42 PM | show profile Thank you all for your comments. I do understand both sides. The movie I was watching was Rated PG, so there was no issue there. And it's kind of funny that I was yelled at for innocently watching a DVD at my lunch hour, while I have worked in an office where a guy was caught outside buying drugs from a drug dealer and was only suspended from the job for one day. Then when he came back to work, he was promoted within a few months. Just getting some perspective here. |
| observer | Posted – 2/27/2008 4:03:38 PM | show profile i try to keep my surfing and any other personal things at my desk to a minimum - at lunch or not. i would encourage you to try to mend fences with your supervisor and to also be very cautious of her in the future. be professional, get your work done and lay low. good luck! |
| Printingman | Posted – 2/27/2008 4:38:20 PM | show profile | email poster Robin, your not getting it. You shouldn't eat unch at your desk let alone watch a DVD not that its so outragouse but it looks very unprofessional besides there's nothing more disgusting than the smell of takeout salad dressing or worse wafting around an office. If your serious about your career, you should rise above all hat and go out somewhere for lunch or go to a designated lunchroom etc. I don't agree with the manager berating you in front of your coworkers any issue a manager has with an employee should be dealt with in a closed office setting |
| Gayarthurthomas | Posted – 2/27/2008 4:38:27 PM | show profile I enjoy watching porn, pulling down my pants and masturbating at my desk -- BUT NEVER DURING LUNCH!! I like to show my employer some consideration. |
| . | Posted – 2/27/2008 4:47:00 PM | show profile I have never heard of having lunch at your desk being a bad thing. And my lunch was not a smelly lunch--it was a piece of bread with margarine on it. That is not the issue here, but I respectfully disagree with the statement that having lunch at your desk is "outrageous" or "unprofessional" (of course, as long as it is not a smelly lunch). |
| . | Posted – 2/27/2008 4:52:16 PM | show profile I see that you meant that watching the DVD was "outrageous" and "unprofessional." I disagree with that as well. And doing that with the non-smelly lunch should have been fine. I will never watch a DVD at my desk again, but I will continue to eat bread and other non-smelly food at my desk. And as long as there are no clients walking around, I don't see why watching a DVD at my lunch hour (with the sound basically off) would warrant disciplinary action, especially since I was never told that it was not allowed. And, as an aside, people in my office do much more offensive and even illegal things during work hours. |
| write2rachel | Posted – 2/27/2008 5:40:33 PM | show profile TONS of people in my last office ate lunch at their desks. There was a lunch room, and people were supposed to use it... but still everyone ate at their desk. I enjoyed getting away -- unless I had to work through lunch, of course. Every office I've worked in was pretty laid back... and as long as I had headphones, they wouldn't care what I was watching during lunch. If it's the office policy, there is nothing you can do about that. However, I think it's kind of crappy that she had to call you out in front of everyone. She could have called you into her office, sent an email, or even just said something quietly. To me, make a scene is more unprofessional. ------ www.rachelcericola.com |
| write2rachel | Posted – 2/27/2008 5:42:05 PM | show profile making -- not make I hate that you can't edit posts! |
| . | Posted – 2/27/2008 5:42:28 PM | show profile Thank you, Rachel. |
| Chamsah | Posted – 2/27/2008 6:10:07 PM | show profile All about appearances I managed a large group for several years so here's my two cents. Eating lunch at your desk: completely fine. At all the media jobs I've had over the years I've rarely had time to go out for lunch. Eating at my desk has always been the norm. Might not be the best habit since you tend to scarf down your food so you can get back to work quickly. But in many ways, you look better eating at your desk than being gone for an hour. You'll come off as always available, hard-working and conscientious. (See below.) Watching the DVD: A no-no. Sorry but I agree with other posters on this one. Every time you are sitting at your desk, you need to look productive. Notice I said LOOK. I've told many people who worked for me never, ever to look like you're not working. It just looks bad, like you don't have enough to do. In this day and age, looking you're not working, even for a little while, makes you vulnerable to layoffs. So next time you are munching that margarine sandwich, surf the internet or flip through a newspaper and act like you're doing research, etc. But unless you work at an entertainment magazine, you shouldn't be watching DVDs. Good luck! |
| Cyrus | Posted – 2/27/2008 7:02:32 PM | show profile The simple way to get around this issue is to eat lunch somewhere else. I worked for a manically paced media company earlier in my career, but they encouraged people to eat away from their desks using the theory that the employees could benefit from the time away to recharge. As far as lunch not being your own time, I staunchly disagree. If you're given a meal period, it's yours to do with what you want in terms of where you eat, what you eat, etc. ------ Cyrus Afzali Astoria Communications www.astoriacomm.com |
| Printingman | Posted – 2/27/2008 7:40:38 PM | show profile | email poster When I worked for someone which was quite a while ago, i would sometimes eat a bagel and cream cheese and coffee in the morning at my desk but of course I got i the office at 7:30 before anyone else arrived. I still think it's rude and non professional to eat at your desk in front of your co-workers, it just doesn't look good to management. DVD's a definite no no. |
| PublicityChick | Posted – 2/27/2008 7:50:45 PM | show profile how long have you been in the workforce? as a manager, i eat lunch in my office because sometimes there's just no time to eat out. it's perfectly accepted in my work environment. everyone eats at their desk. however, watching a DVD at work? pretty silly and it shows a lack of professionalism. if you're new to the workforce, this is probably just an oversight and you haven't had enough exposure to office ettiquette and, unfortunately, office politics. one thing that might be helpful is talking with your boss about her expectations in the office. also, are there co-workers who you can observe? best of luck! |
| astrahook | Posted – 2/27/2008 9:29:36 PM | show profile Bread and margarine? You should have been yelled at just for eating that! |
| Astera | Posted – 2/28/2008 1:45:53 AM | show profile I've never heard of anyone watching a DVD at their desk while at lunch, but I know plenty of people surf the Web and go on YouTube and the like. My policy would be not to ever have anything on your screen that makes it look like you're goofing off, even if you're not. Regardless, there was no call for your manager to scream at you. Even if you were in the wrong, yelling is not an effective management style. As for eating lunch at your desk, people have done it at every job I've ever had, and it's never been an issue. But different companies have different workplace cultures, so maybe your manager doesn't like to see people eating at their desks. Who knows? At my current job, there is a policy against making microwave popcorn in the office microwaves, because the smell tends to linger, while at another job, people snacked on the stuff every single afternoon. You just have to get attuned to these things. The safest course of action would be to go out for lunch. I make it a policy to do so, even when I am busy, because it breaks up the day and refreshes me so that I am more productive in the afternoons. If you don't want to go to a restaurant, maybe there's a nearby park or a courtyard where you could go to eat. |
| nandy | Posted – 2/28/2008 8:12:19 AM | show profile No place I've ever worked has had an issue with eating at your desk, even the ones that had cafeterias on site. Most of the time, it was appreciated that you were available for a quick question. People did respect the fact that you were eating and would not intrude unless what they needed to know had a time factor, such as a client on the line right then. However, I know if I want uninterrupted time, I have to leave my office. There is a small conference room set aside for eating lunch from 12-2, but it has been taken over by a group of assistants who eat there regularly. As a manager, I would be intruding on their "space and discussions". There are only about 8 seats at one table. So most manager eat at their desks or go out. The DVD thing is kind of tacky. I sometimes play a solitaire game, but that's about it. I may surf the net, but I even feel guilty doing that. So I end up doing some research...not stressful stuff, just time consuming. |
| . | Posted – 2/28/2008 9:05:58 AM | show profile Thank you all for your responses. I agree with everyone about the DVD...it was a mistake on my part. Of course, it did not warrant the yelling. I think the yelling in front of my co-workers looked much worse than the DVD. I have been in the workforce for several years and I have seen people listening to their Ipods all day long, and not just during their lunch hours. I have also seen drugs being dealt during work hours, and people on personal phone calls throughout the day, sometimes for hours. I have also seen people dring vodka at their desks during lunch hours (mainly managers in their offices). I think the main problem here is the fact that yelling at somebody in front of co-workers is considered okay by many employers, while having an employee try to innocently enjoy her lunch hour with a DVD is considered unprofessional. And I just don't really see the difference between watching a video on You Tube and watching a DVD, but that's just me. I think watching a DVD is better than watching something on You Tube because you're not even downloading anything. Of course, I will never bring a DVD to work again. (I will eat lunch at my desk again!) But I just wish that employers respected their employees a little bit more...if I were higher up on the totem pole at work, my watching a DVD at lunch would have been considered "a good way to relax." |
| . | Posted – 2/28/2008 9:06:44 AM | show profile drink vodka, not dring! (They don't let you edit here.) |
| Callu | Posted – 2/28/2008 9:16:39 AM | show profile Brown Bagging it I work at a large media outlet where almost everyone in my office eats lunch at their desk. If we didn't eat lunch at our desks we either wouldn't eat lunch or wouldn't meet our work deadlines. Only once have I heard of a member of the hierarchy commenting, but it was done politely. Nobody took that as an indication that we shouldn't eat at our desks, only that he preferred that we didn't. But, as he doesn't walk an inch never mind a mile in our shoes, we carried on as normal with no repercussions. I personally prefer the breakroom when I can, but it's not practical very often. Watching the DVD may be a touch too much, though people in my office regularly call up Metacafe and Youtube during slack moments so I suppose it depends how uptight your office of office manager is. Personally, I would not be bawled out in front of my colleagues without response, and would have told the "supervisor" where to get off. Of course, I might have been suspended or fired, but then at least I'd have time for lunch! Don't fret about it, it's only work. |
