Eating meals at the office desk is common practice for many Taiwanese workers, a recent survey showed, although strong aromas and loud chewing were also shown to negatively affect employees’ performances.
The survey, conducted by 360d HR, showed that 41 percent of workers polled said they often ate breakfast at the office, while 44 percent said they ate lunch at their desks to better manage their busy workloads.
However, 56 percent of workers said their mood and performance at work was affected by the strong food smells that lingered in their offices.
Fish dishes, chive dumplings and stinky tofu were considered to be the foods with the most disruptive smells, the survey said.
Results of the survey also showed that 51 percent of office workers did not like it when their colleagues failed to clean up after they had finished eating.
Meanwhile, 36 percent of workers said their work environment was disturbed if a colleague made too much noise while eating.
When asked how they dealt with the disruptive dining habits of their co-workers, 52 percent of respondents said they did nothing, while 23 percent said they often left their desk and returned only when their colleagues had finished eating. Only 5 percent of those surveyed said they reported their co-workers to management.
However, 55 percent of respondents said if a colleague complained about them, they would eat their meals in another part of the office, while 26 percent said they would ignore their co-workers complaints.
Chen Ching-ling (陳慶玲), 360d HR marketing manager, said office workers should be more considerate about their food choices, adding that people should take the time to eat meals outside of the workplace because it would boost their job performance.
The survey, which was conducted from March 9 until Monday, collected 1,416 valid responses. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
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