How To Deal With Noisy Eaters at Work?

Retrogamer

Thanks for the comments / suggestions folks.

I told one of them today that they eat really noisy. We get along on all other matters so it was more of a jokey way i told him. Will see how it goes after that.

Earphones / headphones aren't an option i'm afraid. Lots of people come up and ask us for help with things and management think it makes us look too relaxed / not wanting to help or speak to people.
Even with them though, i'd need the volume cranked right up to blank out the noise totally.

When i say noisy eaters btw, it's not just crunching apples or crisps noise. That doesn't bother me because you can't eat those things silently.
It's things like Yoghurts, grapes, sandwiches. Normally people eating these don't make much noise but the lip smacking and slurping is so loud that even if i tried to make as much noise eating them as i could, it would still fall short of the noise they make.

There's a few new members of staff in this department along with me, and one of the noisy eaters is one of the new members as well so i don't think it's malicious in any way. Just unlucky for me.
When it comes to people grinding their teeth, dragging nails down a blackboard or other horrible noises i can tolerate these easily compared to the slurp / lip smacking fest at my desk. I try and ignore it as best as i can but it's really hard.

Their hygiene with licking / sucking fingers clean and stuff doesn't bother me. I don't touch their desks or equipment so that's their business. I just wish they could do it with a bit less volume.

There is an area where you can eat away from the desk but a lot of people work through thier breaks so managers are pretty thankful for this and in return don't bother when people eat at the desks. Strictly speaking we shouldn't. I do it myself from time to time but even if it's hot coffee, i'll do it as quietly as i can.

mehak_327

Retrogamer wrote: »

This probably sounds silly to most people but here's the situation.

I've recently changed roles at my job and had to move to another department with some new people.

In the new team we sit at a big long desk with room for about 20 people, with the manager sitting at the end.
Because our shifts are long (11 hours) the manager / department lets us eat at our desks if we want as long as it doesn't hinder our work.
I'm fine with this, i eat at my desk as well sometimes.

There are two people i sit between who are really noisy eaters. I don't mean crunching noises or anything like that. When they get a coffee, it's as if they need to hoover it into their mouth rather than drink it like normal people.
Anything they eat, is so loud with slurping and lip smacking noises i genuinely couldn't make any more noise than them if i was trying to eat as loud as i could. One of them is into their fitness so he eats at his desk maybe 3 times a day and every time they have to suck their fingers clean, again making as much noise as you probably can in the process.

A few other people feel the same in the team by how annoying / distracting it is but they don't want a potential confrontation or falling out by asking them to turn the mouth volume down a bit.
I've avoided speaking to the manager just now as i'm quite new to the department and it's a pretty minor thing, but for some reason i'm really struggling to ignor eit.

Any suggestions?

Why not create an anonymous email ID (hotmail, yahoo, gmail, etc) and email them at their work email address ? Don't email from work though. Email it from home or if you want to be ultra safe, email it from internet cafe. Make sure the subject line is relevant "Message from *company name* - office eating etiquette", or something on those lines.

When creating a userID, pick a proper name to avoid being picked up by junk filter

19lottie82

urrghhhh I had to sit across from a noisy eater who also used to chew with his mouth open........ it was horrendous. My heart would sink whenever he appeared with food. It's one of those things and once you are aware of it, you just notice it 10x more!

My general technique was to put in my headphones when he was eating but I did tell him to shut up a few times!

He would tell us he used to use online dating sites and meet girls, but he never heard from them after the first date. I guess he took them to restaurants......

BigAunty

Though not in the workplace, but on a long-distance bus journey, I was left bewildered and frazzled by a passenger who noisily sucked out the contents of individual grapes from a bunch - not chewing and swallowing them but apparently biting off the end and hoovering up the insides as loudly as possible. Why, dear god?

Takeaway_Addict

mehak_327 wrote: »

Why not create an anonymous email ID (hotmail, yahoo, gmail, etc) and email them at their work email address ? Don't email from work though. Email it from home or if you want to be ultra safe, email it from internet cafe. Make sure the subject line is relevant "Message from *company name* - office eating etiquette", or something on those lines.

When creating a userID, pick a proper name to avoid being picked up by junk filter

Do not do this terrible idea! You will be found out and it will escalate against you badly.

The issue probably is more likely it is slightly loud but now you have noticed it will feel very loud and grinding!

Retrogamer

The email thing wouldn't work anyway as the companies IT system filters out any email addresses not already on an approved safe list as spam.

The best way to describe the noise is suck grapes and your fingers and drink tea and make as much noise as is possible (i'm not over exaggerating here)

Then imagine that lasting about 5 minutes , 4-5 times a day

Takeaway_Addict

Retrogamer wrote: »

The email thing wouldn't work anyway as the companies IT system filters out any email addresses not already on an approved safe list as spam.

The best way to describe the noise is suck grapes and your fingers and drink tea and make as much noise as is possible (i'm not over exaggerating here)

Then imagine that lasting about 5 minutes , 4-5 times a day

You could play the long game and do a bit of pavlovs dog (in reverse).

Each time they start eating get something that makes equally an annoying noise. For example a recording of a mosquito or something that goes

clack clack clack clack

eventually it might just put them off eating near you!

totalfailiure

Just so I know, why can't OP just tell them that their behaviour is annoying? I totally understand why it is and would do something myself but you all seem to say that being direct is a bad idea. How else can it be done?

Retrogamer

totalfailiure wrote: »

Just so I know, why can't OP just tell them that their behaviour is annoying? I totally understand why it is and would do something myself but you all seem to say that being direct is a bad idea. How else can it be done?

I told one today, as mentioned in this thread. He laughed it off as if i was joking, but he didn't eat anything the rest of the day so will see how it plays out going forward.

The other person doing it though always seems agitated / angry and i've hardly spoke to them so far about anything at all. I don't want to put up with the noise but i don't want a hostile work environment either. The one i've not mentioned it to yet is the finger sucker

scooby088

Thats the problem with eating at your desk, are you silent OP when eating? I am sure you have a qwerk that annoys the hell out of fellow workers, im afraid if I was a manager I'd make everyone eat away from their desks but thats me.