Too mundane and pointless for IMHO. This is part gripe, part serious question.
Last week, we started smelling a burning smell in my office. Turns out that someone scorched a bag of popcorn and the stench was circulated all the way to the 6th floor (top floor, where I sit) via the HVAC. Someone familiar with the situation said that an employee put a bag of popcorn in the microwave and walked off, letting it cook for a good 5-7 minutes.
This morning, someone on my floor cooked popcorn and while he didn’t burn it, the stench of all the artificial butter and flavoring at 9:00 in the morning really turns my stomach.
What is it about the workplace and people’s desire to eat popcorn? Most of the time, the popcorn ends up getting burned and making the place reek, yet people seem to be oblivious to others’ discomfort in this regard.
Why popcorn? Can’t people find a snack alternative that doesn’t reek?
I don’t mind the smell of popcorn, but when it’s burnt, the odor is nasty to me. On the other hand, the smell of cooked fish doesn’t bother me at all.
My workplace odor complaint is whoever on our floor overuses the air freshener in the ladies’ room. It’s a case of a little is OK, but a lot is disgusting!!! And it doesn’t help that the venitlation fan in there is broken…
People who bitch about popcorn in general? Pfffffft.
However, people who microwave popcorn for … *checks OP * … “a good 5-7 minutes” have earned their own little circle of hell.
(Full disclosure: I had a roommate in college whose idea of warming up leftovers was to nuke them for, well, a good 5-7 minutes. Jeebus, woman, three chicken wings from last night do not require that much re-cooking!)
TLDR popcorn good, burnt microwave popcorn bad, and is the result of idiots.
Popcorn would be fine. I worked in a medium sized county office for several years with a break room adjoining the office area. There was a lady who brought leftover something every week and heated it in the microwave about 10 minutes before lunch. By the time she was done heating that the entire office smell like a swamp donkey’s ass. They told me it was some kind of Indian cuisine.
A place I temped at a few years ago had this problem - there were some people who’s food was so overpowering (they’d eat at their desks) that some of the rest of us were getting sick - literally throwing up, sick. Had to go home due to a migraine sick. Nobody would do anything about it.
Until we got a new relatively high level manager. Who had to go home early twice because of this. It was stopped. New policy ensued when they moved to a new building - no food at the desks, PERIOD. No chips, no cookies, no nothing. Not even a donut. I was kind of glad that job ended.
Seems by this thread that there are two kind of people in this world: Those who think people shouldn’t be subject to others’ food smells, and those who think the first group are a bunch of whiners.
I am tolerant of most odors, but microwave popcorn makes me ill - and if it’s the “extra buttery” or cheese-flavored kind, I have had to leave the building. The only thing that comes close to bothering me so much is vomit and strong roofing tar odor.
I love popcorn and the smell of it making in traditional ways, but microwave? I’m getting queasy just thinking about it.
I’ve worked a number of places where rules were implemented against people cooking or reheating any kind of strong-odored food, including popcorn, garlicky pizza, Mexican or Indian foods, etc. It’s something like smoking: it’s a closed environment and no one should be allowed to do something that’s highly distracting or unpleasant to others who can’t just leave to get away from it.
ETA: One boss was reluctant to “be a nanny” until he realized he lost 2-3 people for the day every time one programmer reheated his shrimp pizza.
I think I love you. I don’t know anyone else who hates the smell of microwave popcorn as much as I do. There is a no microwave popcorn rule in my house. My husband doesn’t hate the smell but he loves loves loves airpop popcorn. I don’t mind in the slightest, except when the leaves his bowls of greasy kernals sitting on the living room floor.
When I worked for blood services, tuesdays was popcorn day for donors. I usually tied to time my lunches and meetings to be as far away from the donor floor (or have my office door shut) during popcorn times. Ugh. And not a window opened in that building.
A couple years ago a woman at my office put a bag of popcorn in the microwave, set it to cook for God knows how long, and walked away. It caused a small fire, but serious enough that the entire building was evacuated, with the FD showing up, etc.
The CIO found out what happened and went absolutely fucking bananas. He yelled at the woman, swearing at her and berating her. She was so upset she gave her notice on the spot and sued the company.
My desk is just a few steps away from the lunch room and if popcorn were the worst thing I ever smelled, I would be quite happy.
Garlic, onion, curry, peppers, broccoli, many smells I can’t even identify… If it has a strong and potentially unpleasant odor you can bet somebody has cooked it in my office recently. Blech.
We have a pretty strict policy that nothing is to be left unattended in the microwaves, so I rarely if ever have to endure burnt popcorn. But there’s no policy against cooking nasty shit, unfortunately.