When work is busy, many grab lunch and eat at their work space.
Berta, the intern, brings home-cooked food and warms her meals in the lunchroom microwave. Whiffs and traces of her lunch spread throughout the office as she makes her way back to her desk.
Luna, the tenured, full-time employee, eats her Subway sandwich, trying to focus on her own food’s flavor – all while trying to work.
Next, Berta pulls out a whole apple. As Luna tries to complete a project on deadline, she hears the intern taking loud bites out of the apple.
When Luna looks over at Berta, she sees juice splashes sprinkle the intern’s work space. The intern continues to enjoy chewing on crispy apple bites with her mouth open. Several co-workers hear the munching. Nobody says anything.
As Berta finishes the apple and strong-smelling contents in her container, she dumps all remnants into Luna’s garbage can. Apparently, Berta never got one of her own and was afraid to ask for one.
Sheila Valesano, Corporate Human Resources leader who resides in Illinois
Eating and proper disposal of food is another office space etiquette issue, Sheila said.
“Some companies have published instructions about this,” she said. “Signs read ‘Don’t put food into waste basket,’ or ‘Only dispose of garbage in the lunch room.’”
As company protocol, all food refuge items are usually kept in one area that’s heavily monitored for pest control, Sheila said. If garbage disposal isn’t monitored by the company, it becomes an issue.
Proper garbage disposal gets particularly bad around lunch time, when a lot of different food odors come together,” Sheila said. “It can be offensive.”
Disclaimer: All characters appearing in this short story, excluding interviews, are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
