BLOG

Office Eating Etiquette Hacks

May 31 2016

Darren Best

Don’t aggravate your colleagues. It’s that simple, you work with each other for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week all year-round. So any habits you bring with you to the lunch table are going to start to grind on others pretty quickly. Lunch is a very important part of the day, especially if you work in an office. It breaks up the day and can make a huge difference to your mood and your overall productivity for the rest of the day. So don’t ruin it for everyone else. We’ve come up with an easy-to-follow guide to make sure you’re not the office lunch loser. office eating etiquette image credit to: itakdalee/ Shutterstock.com

Here’s our best office eating etiquette hacks:

1. Everyone loves a sharer – if you’re a good cook and you consistently bring in Michelin-star standard lunches, then every once in a while it would be nice to bring in enough for your colleagues to share. 2. No-one likes a boaster – and like above, if you can make nice food, don’t boast about it. Food can be a touchy subject, no need to shove your fresh courghetti and pancetta in their faces. Just keep your enjoyment to yourself. 3. Label your lunch – this is especially important when you work in large offices. People inevitably end up bringing in similar lunches, a salad is a salad right? Well, no. It’s your salad and you should be proud to claim it as yours. 4. Tidy up after yourself – This is THE most annoying habit your colleagues can possibly have. They clear up enough at home, let alone having to clear-up after your royal highness. Washing up can even result in brilliant ideas, studies have shown. 5. Keep your fridge space clean – There is probably nothing more annoying after leaving your dirty dishes in the office sink, than taking up fridge space with slowly decomposing food. Keep on top of it and keep everyone happy. 6. Good manners go a long way – it goes without saying really, but be courteous to your colleagues. It’s simple and can make your fellow worker’s day. Offer your seat when you’re done, wipe down the table when you’ve finished and don’t rush your lunch (you’ll only look like a pig). 7. Don’t hog the microwave – in most offices, people want warm food for lunch. So the microwave is the hub of all activity at lunchtimes. Form an orderly queue and spend no longer than 2 minutes warming your food through. You’re not cooking a meal, and those with soup, "back of the line!" 8. Smelly food is a big no! – Its always the fish. Reheated salmon or trout is the worst. It may taste great, but no-one will appreciate the aroma of fishing yard clogging up the office atmosphere. And if you have to have it, you pescatarians can keep it simple and eat your fish cold or next to an open window. 9. Loud food can be annoying – so we’re not saying don’t eat crunchy apples or thick-cut crisps, by all means go for it, but definitely do it with your mouth closed. 10. Keep a toothbrush/toothpaste at your desk – this could be the most charming office etiquette hack on this list. Your colleagues will certainly appreciate the efforts you make with your hygiene and if you’re a client facing business this is even more important. 11. Be flexible with your lunchtimes – in most offices, your whole team can’t all take their lunch at the same time as phones need to be manned and emails need answering. So don’t demand ‘your’ lunchtime, it won’t look good on you, to your team or your boss.     Feature image credit to: Andrey_Popov/ Shutterstock

This site uses Google Analytics cookies. We use the Google Analytics to help us improve the site. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come to the site from and the pages they have visited on the site. Please accept if you would like to continue with cookies enabled. If you want to change your settings click here