Why your co-worker’s lunch might drive you crazy
The smelly food factor is perhaps a consideration we too often ignore when deciding to eat at our desks.
Tuna sandwiches, stinky cheese and fast food. We only like them if we’re the ones chowing down. If the co-worker in the next cubicle is dining on liverwurst, however, the smell somehow triggers bad moods.
Why do other people’s smelly lunches get on our nerves?
It’s a control thing, Dr. Pamela Dalton, olfactory researcher at the Monell Chemical Senses Center, tells The Wall Street Journal. When individuals can smell coworkers’ lunches, they feel as though they’ve lost “control over their personal environment.”
When we don’t know what we’re smelling, or find the smell off-putting, it can “make us go on alert, distract us from what we're doing and change our mood," she says, citing the mood change is often for the worse.
[See also: 5 signs you're an offensive office eater]
Productivity expert Tony Schwartz challenges office workers to “take back your lunch” and step away from their desks for their midday meal. Go for a short walk, socialize and let your body reenergize as you gear up for a productive afternoon.
So for the sake of your health, productivity and the mental states of your colleagues, keep the warm fish dishes in the lunchroom where they belong.
Research at the non-profit Monell Center found the most common “smelly food” complaints are “reheated fish dishes, fast-food french fries, microwave popcorn and burritos, sandwiches with liverwurst or onion, and dishes with aged cheeses.”
What smelly foods have the power to turn your workday into a grumpy one? Or are you the guilty one when it comes to in-office stinky lunches?
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