Let's bitch about our stupid, annoying co-workers

I'm not the exploding type, just the type to vent my frustrations to the world. I am getting really sick of my workspace smelling like burnt popcorn every day all day though. She's on her second bag of the morning, she had five bags yesterday.

This is a noob question I'm sure, but how is she burning it? Could you gently suggest cooking it for a shorter time will make it taste nicer?

Leave passive-aggressive notes on the microwave. No. Unplug the microwave!!

Remove the microwave.

I can't even walk past the popcorn section in the grocery store without getting a little queasy. I think you're within your rights to do something.

It sounds like she's not right in the head!

Why won't you say anything to her about it?

Time for direct action, can you show up at work really early, say four or five in the morning and just, like, break the microwave?

At my last place of employment, this would have been my first thought - the boss entrusted me with a set of master keys that could open shared spaces like the lunchroom and conference rooms! Scary having that kind of power.

Also, why doesn't she just pop all of her popcorn the day before and bring it into the office? I keep cold popcorn around the house, I actually like the taste better once it has cooled off!

The reason I don't say anything is that people have been confronting her about since I started working here a year ago and she shrugs it all off. Granted, no one has explicitly asked her to stop popping it completely, but plenty of others have expressed their displeasure and annoyance. Her tyipcal response is that, "well, then no one should be allowed to cook anything in the microwave". Basically I'm just not sure if its a battle worth fighting at this point.

Jeez, where is your microwave in relation to the rest of the workforce? I keep imagining my own workspace, where there is some food smell but it's usually take-out and smells good.

You know, one diplomatic solution to this is to envision a re-design where no one is distracted by food cooked in a microwave. Of course there will be the usual red tape...

how do you burn something in a microwave anyway?

The microwave is off in a separate break room area, but there is no door so its effectively open to the rest of the office. Also, being an architect's office, the entire suite has an open floor plan so the smell travels really easily. I get the worst of it because I sit at the closest work station to the break area.

xpost - by letting it cook too long, leaving it unattended

"well, then no one should be allowed to cook anything in the microwave".

Well, no one should be allowed to cook the same fragrant thing all day long, every day! Beyond the smell, it seems like it has to cut into her productivity to be constantly burning and eating popcorn.

OMG an architect's office has a break room with no door. When I was in school this would have been frowned upon. It's amazing what people aren't willing to spend money on! Your employer should accomodate your staff better, break rooms should be more private anyway. People have conversations and parties in them and stuff and you don't want to distract the staff.

Also I don't know how your workplace is but visitors and clients don't always want to walk into a scene where employees are stinking up the joint and stuffing their face with food!

At my old job we had a management that was more than willing to entertain new ideas....just that we didn't always have the money.

Seriously, I am all for direct action on this, you have suffered enough, fucking break the microwave. Take out the fuse, just incapacitate it and claim insanity, like in that film Falling Down.

Hahahaha. I like that idea.

Now my rage is directed on the coworker that just accidentally moved an entire project folder into another location. I 100% believe that it was an accident, but I know have to spend all afternoon crawling through and making sure all of the xrefs in our drawings are still attached and properly referenced.

Honestly I think you should consider breaking the microwave. If you can do it without getting caught and fired, do it.

http://www.google.com/search?aq=1&oq=how+to+break+a+mi&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=how+to+break+a+microwave

Do it! Break it! For all of us.

jon, someone in my office totally scorched a bag yesterday - way down the hall from me, but oh how that stuff reeks - and I immediately had the fear that your co-worker had relocated. Seriously, disable the microwave; it's got to be so coated with burnt stink that anything cooked in it is going to pick it up and activate the smell.

Thread has kind of made me crave popcorn tbh.

The microwave is off in a separate break room area, but there is no door so its effectively open to the rest of the office.

Move to the UK, health and safety regulations say you can't have a microwave in a room w/no door here

(at least, when the builders took the door off one of our work kitchens the microwave was confiscated and an email went round saying the above was why. but seriously, good luck, this does sound pretty crazy-making)

jon break it. do it. break the microwave jon.

Oh! I get why you can't have a microwave in a room with no door!

Jon - fake a pacemaker! Do it!

Well it looks like I'll have about 10 days to plan the destruction, just got an email that she'll be gone on vacation through the first week of August! Also, please note, this will be her fourth(!) week-long plus vacation of 2011 so far.

first week of August? is she going to the Eden Corn Festival?

http://www.edencornfest.com/

I don't know, but I will operate 100% under the assumption that she is.

Better to break it while she is there, looks more suspicious if it suddenly goes wrong while she's on holiday. You will also get to see her reaction when she realises she can't have her snack. You will be victorious!

1 year anniversary w/ NO COWORKERS!!

it truly is everything i had hoped it would be.

enjoy this golden era before the first feelings of cabin fever and stir-craziness

i have been to the eden corn festival!

^consider your microwave targeted for destruction

um, i don't microwave popcorn!
my grandfather's house is just near there.

maybe i will spare your microwave under the grandfather clause

enjoy this golden era before the first feelings of cabin fever and stir-craziness

i should note that part of my work involves getting teamed with a small group of folks (6-14) anywhere from 3-5 times a year. these gigs are petty much 7 days/ week, 15+ hours/ day, and will usually for about 3 weeks straight. so i get more than my fill of other people and their stinky food and annoying tics before I retreat back home.

in fact, i've not had popcorn in at least 6 months. but the last time was popped in a kettle on the stove by an expert popcorn maker who manages to use 99% of kernels without burning. :)

i really enjoy working for a company with 10 employees, more than half of which are not in the office on most days.

Perhaps, as a sign of solidarity we should all disable our microwaves at the same time? Annoyed co-workers unite!

But then I can't use it to heat up my mackerel curry!

Now my rage is directed on the coworker that just accidentally moved an entire project folder into another location. I 100% believe that it was an accident, but I know have to spend all afternoon crawling through and making sure all of the xrefs in our drawings are still attached and properly referenced

In an old job I was moving files around one Friday afternoon to clean things up--had moved them all but not relinked anything yet, and then was told over the weekend that my casual position was ended as of right away. It was pleasing to know that i"d had my revenge without meaning to, since my boss, who eliminated my position, was going to have to spend ages tracking everything down without access to my memories of where I'd moved it all

looolll
xp

the thought of someone eating that much popcorn in a day makes me feel sick. I usually feel queasy if I eat just one by myself.

like she must be crapping pellets by now

yeah i am now more struck by this woman's eating disorder than the awful smell. obv she needs serious help.

but god i can't imagine how awful it must be to have to smell that every single day.

at my place, we have signs DIRECTLY ABOVE THE MICROWAVE warning people that making popcorn anywhere besides the first floor is disallowed.

So when I walk by someone carrying a freshly popped bag out of the break room, I want to do terrible things to them, especially cuz they burn it half the time!

Fucking burnt popcorn is so freaking carcinogenic. I've said it before, but that woman is on the A train to serious-illness town.

Also, couldnt you show yr boss/HR some of those articles on "popcorn lung" and say "hey isnt this a risk for the rest of us?" and see if they freak out? Make "we could sue" noises. Most companies hate that shit.

i vape my popcorn

yeah breaking the microwave is a really good idea

they most definitely will not just buy another microwave