We have a cafeteria and breakfast and lunch is provided, together with fruit during the day. I usually eat breakfast at home, else I get way too hungry during my commute.
I also have co workers who will bring their breakfast to their office desk and eat, or their lunch to meetings. These are of cause the same people who have never learned to chew with their mouths closed.
I used to have cereal at work mainly as I used to wake early and start early.
The main reason I didn’t eat at home was that I was worried I would need a shit on the bus on the way in.
It’s not about getting 10 minutes more sleep. It’s because even if I got up earlier, I wouldn’t sit down and eat. I’d be running around, straightening up, doing all sorts of random stuff that I probably should have done the night before. Time management problem? Sure. But I have to be realistic about what I “should” do in the morning and what I’m actually going to do.
I’m way better off having the oatmeal with raisins from the caf than the nothing at all that I’d have otherwise. Plus, oatmeal is good for you, and it makes me feel righteous to eat it.
Well, in some visions of The Past, Wifie would get up to fix Hubbie his bacon & eggs before he left for work. Then clean the kitchen & tend to her wifely chores all day–when not watching soaps & eating bonbons. When he returned from a hard day at the salt mines, she’d meet him at the door with a martini & dinner waiting.
Single folks or working couples would rather do whatever (extra sleep, check the 'net, watch the news or a good episode of Angel) with their early mornings & return from work to a kitchen at least as neat as it was after last night’s dinner. It’s not that they absolutely do not have time to fix breakfast & clean up the kitchen. But that is* their* time, to use as they wish.
We’re having a heat wave here in Houston–yes, hotter than a usual Houston summer. The kitchen has the Western exposure, so early morning is sometimes the coolest time to finish washing those dishes put on to soak or put them away.
Lots of people at work eat breakfast or lunch at their desks. I do, often. It’s generally no problem, except for pungent-smelling food. Or the insufferable co-worker who never eats regular meals–but buys several bags of pretzels from the vending machine every day & sits there rattling the bags & crunching. All day long. And goes off on tangents because of her low blood sugar.
But that’s a matter for the Insufferable Co-Worker thread.
And the caf makes big pots of* real* oatmeal, which is better than packets of the instant stuff.
I am not going to make a pot of oatmeal for my own self every morning. What could I do with the leftovers, after fixing the crack in the sidewalk?
I’m currently unemployed, and before that was a telecommuter, but before that I spent about 10 years (my entire in-office career) as a eat-breakfast-at-my-desk person. It never occurred to me to do otherwise. We had a cafeteria where cold breakfast was free (for the first several years), I ate my free hot lunch at my desk 90% of the time anyway, and a lot of the time I ate dinner there too. Besides, there’s nothing difficult or intrusive about eating while reviewing my email.
Even after the food was no longer free, that extra 10-15 minutes of sleep was worth a heck of a lot more to me than scarfing down cereal while trying to pick up the house.
I’ve eaten my breakfast at work for years. Why not? I’m not hungry first thing, and now I have to take medication on an empty stomach in the mornings. I get in early and toast my bagel and eat as my computer is booting up and I’m checking my e-mail. And yes, having an extra 15 minutes of sleep isn’t a bad thing. That’s also why I wear simple hair and minimal makeup. From bed to door in 20 minutes, including making sure my 12 animals are fed and watered and two have their medications.
StG
I take a thyroid med first thing and have to wait a while before I eat breakfast, so that naturally falls to work time. But it’s perfectly acceptable to eat breakfast at your desk here, and I often am standing in line right along with the big kahuna(s) at the bagel place next door, anyway. Different professions have different workways, too. If you’re doing physical labor, manufacturing or lab work or are customer-facing, then it’s not unreasonable for there to be some restrictions. Me, I’m but an humble cubicle dweller; as long as I don’t get cream cheese on my TPS report, I’ll be OK…
One of the things I insisted upon when we built out this small office (<20 people) was that we have a functional kitchen so that employees could fix meals here. People will eat breakfast at their desks or in the conference room all the time. We stock the fridge and cupboards with communal items like milk, coffee, oatmeal, cereal and other such stuff. On certain Fridays, my business partner is known for making French Toast for the whole NY office.
I’m an early riser and I’m here by 7:30 AM most mornings. Most times I fix eggs on the electric griddle and eat at my desk.
Just as an FYI…you’re next.
The company I worked for just layed off a team of 4. 3 years ago the team was much larger. The woman in charge of it complained about whiney workers and started ‘offshoring’ to India. She talked about the great savings in budget etc etc.
3 years later, she was layed off. You see, once the team in India had set up and learned their tasks, Senior Management basically asked the question ‘Why stop here?’ and moved her position over as well.
She was teary eyed on the day she was layed off (Last Monday)…but I really didn’t feel sorry for her. She started the process and it ate her.
It will eventually come to you to.
It will also eventually come to Senior Management as well, though that might take 30-50 more years.
Or shave five minutes off of their shower time. I know someone who swears she takes a 20 minute shower. How much dirt could one body accumulate that it would require almost a half-hour of washing?
While I can see the appeal of eating at work, I refuse to do it because I like cold cereal, and I’m not about to leave a big jug of milk in the community refrigerator or get those weird-tasting Parmalot things. Also, I’m a slow early-riser. I like eating out in the rose-colored sunlight on my patio, with my plants and my cats and with NPR playing in the background. Eating in my windowless office, surrounded by all the piles of work waiting for me, does not sound like it would make for a relaxing breakfast. I think I’d get indigestion or something. Of course I could eat in the breakroom, but then I’d be the chick eating breakfast instead of working. And when I get to work, I’m kind of ready to work and do nothing else.
When my skin is being a problem my cleansing-and-medication ritual is referred to as a “shower” or “bath” even though the actual washing is a relatively minor part of the whole process. Application of medicated stuff to extensive areas of skin affected by a problem could easily take 20 minutes.
Which is not to say that is what is going on, only that in some cases the dirt-removal part is a minor aspect of a whole procedure. Or maybe she just likes to stand under the shower head until she runs out of hot water.
I work in an office of slightly less than 20 people. We have a full size kitchen in the lunch room, along with pots and pans, kettles and toaster ovens, and a stocked pantry.
A walk through our lunch room just before 8:00 will regularly show a half dozen people eating their breakfast, or munching on muffins and donuts that were brought in or left over from yesterday’s meeting. Same thing at breaks. Lunches are often people cooking on the stove, making omelets or cooking soup.
It has a real homey feel to it.
I eat breakfast at my desk all the time. My reason? A mixture of laziness (sleep a little longer) and an inability to eat first thing in the morning without feeling ill. So I take a yogurt smoothie and some grapes and eat them at my desk. I can’t really imagine why anyone would take issue with me doing this as I am the one who is responsible for keeping my desk presentable.
Yeah, it’s on company time, but it’s not like I have to focus 100% on eating and only eating while I’m doing it. Regardless, my team is more of the “get your work done and we don’t really care” type of crowd than the “why is he taking an hour and two minutes for lunch, let’s fire him” crowd.
I eat breakfast at work too. Partly it’s a time saving device. If I ate at home, that would mean leaving for work ~10 minutes later. For my commute, with traffic and the distance, leaving 10 minutes later typically adds an extra 15 minutes to my total commute - meaning that breakfast at home gets me to work ~25 minutes later. Now sure - I could just get up 10 minutes earlier, then have breakfast at home and still get to work at the same time. But I’d rather get the extra 10 minutes of sleep, then eat at my desk while going through e-mails, etc.
First, eating breakfast might take more than a mere 5 minutes. Second, a 20 minute shower isn’t really “nearly a half hour” – you’re ascribing the shower 150% of the time you were told, which is commonly known as “exaggerating.” Third, the idea that showers more than 5 minutes long are somehow “too long” is a very typical-male concept. I don’t take 20 minute showers myself, but when most women shower they are not only giving a quick scrub-down but perhaps also:
[ul]
[li]Shampooing, THEN conditioning their hair. The longer/thicker the hair, the more time this takes.[/li][li]Shaving or otherwise grooming body hair – armpits, legs, and perhaps ahem other areas.[/li][li]Pumicing feet.[/li][li]Applying moisturizer.[/li][/ul]
What amuses me about this thread are the value judgments about how other people choose to spend and organize their time. So WHAT if I choose to take a 20-minute (or 30-minute, or 60-minute) shower, or sleep a little more, or whatever, rather than eat breakfast at home? You don’t? You prefer to eat at home, for whatever reason? That doesn’t make you or your way BETTER, it’s just DIFFERENT. If I’m happy with my way (not stressed, not feeling unorganized, happy) and you’re happy with your way, then what’s it to you?