[Loughla]

>no social awareness decides to eat at their desk instead of taking lunch elsewhere

What? How is eating your lunch at your desk a social awareness thing? If it doesn't smell and isn't loud, what's the problem?

[brailsafe]

It requires social awareness to be conscientious of the fact that it might smell or produce noise. I'd wager that anyone who's worked in an open office and is sensitive to these things could attest to the prevalence of people who underestimate how often they chew with their mouth open, for example.

In one case, an adjacent developer was bringing in hard-boiled eggs and cracking them against the edge of his desk while wearing headphones and chewing with his mouth open, while the smell of the eggs wafted over the 3ft to mine, and then he'd get started on the apples. He'd do this 3-5 times a day, so needless to say I'm not enthusiastic about open offices. I did also awkwardly bring this up directly with him, but it's tricky to navigate a situation in which it's not just the food, but also the mouth sounds and occasional burps. If I did get a break from this specific person, it would just allow the sounds from everyone else eating chips or having conversations to be more prominent. By the time covid roled around, I was already burnt out from trying to compensate from all those things, and the respite I could have got from working at home just arrived too late to save me.

[4ggr0]

> If it doesn't smell

I guess that's exactly the problem. The only food which doesn't smell is cold food.

[brailsafe]

Ya that's what I meant there. Someone who is both eating lunch at their desk and who lacks social awareness about the sounds and smells.