# To the Wailing Banshee in our office. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 7, 2003, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-wailing-banshee-in-our-office/173728 "2003-05-07T18:40:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2003, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-wailing-banshee-in-our-office/173728/61 "2003-05-16T22:50:08Z")
I had a cereal-eating co-worker once too, and it bugged me also. But that workplace was maybe a little different. It was the pre-press department of a printing company, which is supposed to be kept pretty spotless anyway to help keep the film clean and scratch-free. But we also punched a timeclock for our pay as well as punching in and out of a timekeeping system for billing purposes, and we had a designated break length. And we did not have our own personal cubicles – it was one large work area, and while people generally usually worked at the same table every day, most of us didn’t have “personal” space except for a locker. So what bugged me about the cereal is that eating it entailed standing around and the use of both hands, besides the potential for spillage. Food at your workstation was discouraged, but allowed as long as one could be neat about it and not get icky fingers (no Cheetos or chocolate or sloppy sandwiches). Cereal, you have to “assemble” and then eat it all at once before it gets soggy; you can’t just leave it to the side and take a bite once in a while as you work, as with other food. And then you have to do something with the spoon and bowl; you can’t just throw a wrapper away. That kind of food should be eaten on your break, in the lunchroom, IMHO. Every time she did that, I would think, “For God’s sake, just get up five minutes earlier and have your breakfast at home!” ---
**Author:** ![Esprix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprix/32/7899_2.png) [@Esprix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprix)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2003, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-wailing-banshee-in-our-office/173728/62 "2003-05-16T23:17:54Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by **NoClueBoy** _ > > Of course, _bowells_ of cereal is another problem altogether. :eek: What is a “bowell?” 😕 Esprix ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2003, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-wailing-banshee-in-our-office/173728/63 "2003-05-17T05:27:24Z")
Did I misspell? Bowells as in bowell movement. Which can also be disturbing in small offices. ---
**Author:** ![Wonko\_The\_Sane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/258eb7/32.png) [@Wonko\_The\_Sane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wonko_The_Sane)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2003, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-wailing-banshee-in-our-office/173728/64 "2003-05-17T05:35:20Z")
In the US it’s Bowel, but I knew what you meant, and I loved the concept! For someone else, that is. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2003, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-wailing-banshee-in-our-office/173728/65 "2003-05-17T10:51:56Z")
[QUOTEThat kind of food should be eaten on your break, in the lunchroom, IMHO. Every time she did that, I would think, “For God’s sake, just get up five minutes earlier and have your breakfast at home!” \*\*[/QUOTE] Oh well that makes sense. I work in an environmental company. We all have offices but no “lunch room” and we all eat at our desks. And it’s not the type of physically demanding job like a printing shop where the whole time one is “on the clock” he/she has to be performing a certain task. Our day is pretty much our own (well, it’s really our CLIENT’S own hehe), we work on reports, go out an do field work, brainstorm (and/or gossip and BS), it’s not a “clock in, work steady until your 10am break, to the 12noon lunch, 3pm break and so on” then clock out. Those of us that workout eat 5-6 times a day, so we DO eat a “breakfast” at home, but since we eat every 2-3 hours we need to eat again a few hours after arriving at work. ---
**Author:** ![Bruce\_Daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Bruce\_Daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Daddy)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2003, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-wailing-banshee-in-our-office/173728/66 "2003-05-17T11:57:31Z")
I eat massive quantities of food at my desk. Scrambled eggs, grits, toast, grilled chicken, greens, mashed potatoes, pizza, salad, sandwiches, country fried steak, lasagna, tacos, meatloaf, green beans, fried okra, etc. But **Cereal** :eek: 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2003, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-wailing-banshee-in-our-office/173728/67 "2003-05-18T05:12:50Z")
> [@](#): > > I do eat cereal at my desk, and I do make shakes (though NOT out of old coffee, eeeuuuuw, I make “EAS Myoplex” shakes), but not at my desk, I make them in the kitchen and then carry them to my desk. **CanvasShoes** , it’s not that the cow-orker in question was having a shake at her desk, it was that she busted out a blender at her desk to make them… out of old coffee… that she’d frozen in little styrofoam cups in the office freezer. Kind of a domino effect of bizarritude if you will. I think making your shake in the kitchen is the right way to do it. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2003, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-wailing-banshee-in-our-office/173728/68 "2003-05-18T06:32:05Z")
Yeah, the frozen coffee thing is really WEIRD. ---
**Author:** ![Annie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/858c86/32.png) [@Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2003, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-wailing-banshee-in-our-office/173728/69 "2003-05-19T01:26:00Z")
Do you have a recipe for that blender coffee thing? 😃 How about this for office garstronomic assault- _sauerkraut_ . In this weeks’ episode of _Diets That Make You Fart Out Half the Periodic Table_ , Maybelle rumbles into the lunch room at 11:45 daily to nuke up a big nasty bowl of Costo’s finest industrial kraut. This shit has a aromatic blast radius of 100 yards. Problem is, it’s a fifty-yard office. With lousy ventilation. THEN she wants to know why no one’s coming in for lunch! Sorry Maybelle, can’t join you for lunch, I’m chundering my breakfast. ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2003, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-wailing-banshee-in-our-office/173728/70 "2003-05-21T17:05:40Z")
**Annie** , I’ve done the cappucino smoothie thing at home where I’ve brewed fresh coffee and then frozen it in my own ice-cube trays (as God intended :D). It works well if you like Frappucinos but don’t like going into a diabetic coma from their sugar content. I worked at a clinic where there was an ironclad rule of no popcorn and no seafood in the microwaves. Apparently the lingering aromas of those two food products made the patients retch. ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2003, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-wailing-banshee-in-our-office/173728/71 "2003-05-21T17:46:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Annie \* > \*\*_Diets That Make You Fart Out Half the Periodic Table_ \*\* I just hurt myself laughing - I hope you’re happy. ---
**Author:** ![NotMrKnowItAll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/6bbea6/32.png) [@NotMrKnowItAll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotMrKnowItAll)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2003, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-wailing-banshee-in-our-office/173728/72 "2003-05-21T18:43:28Z")
**Bruce\_Daddy,** Just one question. What does it sound like when she sneezes? ---
**Author:** ![Bruce\_Daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Bruce\_Daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Daddy)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2003, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-wailing-banshee-in-our-office/173728/73 "2003-05-21T19:59:37Z")
😕 Whoopie cushion? Firetruck? It doesn’t make a sound because no one is there to hear it? not sure what the judges were looking for here. . . ---
**Author:** ![NotMrKnowItAll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/6bbea6/32.png) [@NotMrKnowItAll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotMrKnowItAll)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2003, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-wailing-banshee-in-our-office/173728/74 "2003-05-21T20:50:05Z")
Suppressed? Quiet? So loud that bits of dust fall from the ceiling? Just curious, been around many in cubicle-land who sneeze incredibly loud. One fellow in particular sounded like the lead to a Wagner opera. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2003, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-wailing-banshee-in-our-office/173728/75 "2003-05-21T22:18:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SanibelMan \* > \*\*“CORPORATE accounts payable NINA speaking! JUST a mom-ENT!” > > I can’t believe I’m the first person to say this. \*\* 😃 ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-wailing-banshee-in-our-office/173728/76 "2003-05-22T02:57:09Z")
## quote: Originally posted by SanibelMan “CORPORATE accounts payable NINA speaking! JUST a mom-ENT!” ## I can’t believe I’m the first person to say this. ??? ---
**Author:** ![Jaade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dfb087/32.png) [@Jaade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaade)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-wailing-banshee-in-our-office/173728/77 "2003-05-22T03:20:14Z")
I have a coworker who I abore, for many many reasons…I won’t go into them all now, though I may one day write a Pit thread about him. Speaking of noises that irritate though, he is one of the loud yawners. I HATE that. You know, when someone has to let everyone n the immediate 500 yards can HEAR you YAWN?? ~J ---
**Author:** ![Bruce\_Daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Bruce\_Daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Daddy)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-wailing-banshee-in-our-office/173728/78 "2003-05-22T14:48:20Z")
> [@](#): > > ## \*Originally posted by CanvasShoes \* \*\*quote: > > Originally posted by SanibelMan > “CORPORATE accounts payable NINA speaking! JUST a mom-ENT!” > > ## I can’t believe I’m the first person to say this. > > ??? \*\* It’s from the movie Office Space. If you haven’t seen it, stop what you are doing immediately, do not pass go, do not collect $200 and rent it. mmm yeah. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-wailing-banshee-in-our-office/173728/79 "2003-05-22T16:54:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Racer1 \* > \*\*I sit just along from a woman who has a laugh like a hiccupping dog. A very loud hiccupping dog. It is so loud it interrupts people talking to me over the phone to the point where they have to stop and wait for her to finish. These people are in other damn countries! > > \*\* Oh God oh God oh God I just remembered! We had a receptionist who had a laugh like a stuck pig. A loud squeal with undulations that made you want to jam icepicks into your eardrums and permanently deafen yourself. She was very sweet, and she applied for a job in our department, but I think her laugh was one of the reasons she didn’t get it. She’s no longer here at the company. ---
**Author:** ![Bongmaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Bongmaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bongmaster)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-wailing-banshee-in-our-office/173728/80 "2003-05-22T21:01:23Z")
LOL, I’m still cracking up. Hell I’m almost ready to quit and I don’t even work in your office… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-wailing-banshee-in-our-office/173728.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-wailing-banshee-in-our-office/173728.md?page=5)