Real Life: Zarinah can’t have lunch at the office – her colleagues eat disgustingly

A new job always takes some getting used to. But what if it’s not the work itself, but the office lunch that completely knocks you off your chair? Zarinah knows all about it. “I’m not exaggerating when I say that sometimes I sit at the table gagging,” she says. And no, that’s not a joke. 

Smoke, smoke and more smoke

It starts with the team’s smoking habits. “I thought smoking had pretty much died out, but here at the office, non-smokers are in the minority. Great for the smokers, but meanwhile I eat in a smoke screen. It’s not that they smoke indoors, but they do smoke on the balcony or by the front door, and all the smoke merrily wafts in behind them. Yuck!”

And it’s not just a whiff coming off the smokers; the smell gets into your clothes, your hair and your lunch. Everything you eat at the office tastes as if you’re standing in a cigar shop.

Mold in the sink: welcome to the jungle

Things only get worse in the kitchen. “I don’t want to come across as a complainer, but some things are simply beyond the pale. There’s an egg lying around that should have been ‘cleaned up’ days ago. And the sink? Mold! The drain is full of old food scraps, gray and discolored. Seriously, disgusting!”

The battle for the microwave

And then, of course, there are the microwave struggles. Zarinah: “You want to heat up your meal, but the microwave is dirty, sticky or—even worse—covered in splatters of someone else’s curry, ragout or that mysterious lasagna no one knows how long has been sitting in the fridge.”

Anyone who ever thought an office lunch would be a peaceful break clearly hasn’t seen Zarinah’s lunch spot yet.

Mackerel on a knife and in Nutella?!

And we haven’t even mentioned the way people eat. “There’s a colleague from IT who eats mackerel salad every day… preferably with his mouth open. But the worst part is that he uses the same knife to dip into the jar of Nutella. Seriously. My jaw literally dropped—without me eating a thing.”

And the cheese slicer? You could make an entire horror movie about it. “One colleague grates as if his life depended on it, but in such an uncontrolled and inefficient way that it becomes a huge challenge for the next person to cut off a normal slice. No one looks up, no one says anything. As if it’s the most normal thing in the world.”

Watch where you look… or eat

Everyone knows the situation: you’re having a quiet lunch and a colleague enthusiastically starts talking about their weekend adventures. At Zarinah’s, the following scene comes next: “And plop! A drop of sauce or a strand of chicken lands on my plate. At first I thought it was a one-off, but by now it happens almost every day. My plate has become a kind of front line, and I have to keep an eye on it constantly. Lunch at the office isn’t relaxing here; it’s a full-contact sport!”

Old yogurt tubs and salads: it can get even dirtier

“Leftover salads are stored in old yogurt tubs. Fine, nothing wrong with not wasting anything. But could you rinse the tub first? Does no one see how disgusting this is?!” By now, Zarinah is sure of it: great job, animalistic-eating colleagues.

Having lunch with them? No, thanks

After three weeks, Zarinah threw in the towel. “I no longer eat lunch at the office. These days I take a walk and eat my sandwich while I’m walking. Not exactly sociable, but it’s better than sitting among those disgusting-eating colleagues.”

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