My secret is finally out at work! 😆

I can’t say for sure when I first realised that I had a problem with the sounds of people eating, but it’s definitely got worse in recent years. I’ve put it down to me just getting older (M 51) and generally becoming more grumpy and intolerant of things I don’t like, but it’s definitely developed into more of an issue for me.

For a while now I’ve struggled with it at work at various times throughout the day, but have never said anything to my colleagues. I’m in a fairly quiet office of only 10 people, and my room has 5 of us. My main triggers are crunchy foods and sloppy foods, and whilst we have a small kitchen for prepping food and drinks, we all usually eat our lunches at our desks, and obviously there’s snacks too. I’ve never mentioned it because I don’t want anyone to feel self conscious about eating around me. It’s MY problem, not theirs after all. However last week there was a moment where I just had to leave the room and for whatever reason I felt the need to explain why.

One of my colleagues has a regular schedule that includes eating his apple at around 10:30, and for some reason he always stands up to do so, which makes the sound travel even more. That’s when I go downstairs to the kitchen to make a coffee. Then there’s another colleague who bites and chews his crisps (really loudly!) with an open mouth and that’s just about the worst trigger for me. If I can’t leave the room at that point I’ll put my AirPods in until he’s finished. My boss also has a habit of walking around the office discussing jobs with us, whilst also eating his pot of porridge (am), bag of crisps (lunch), or a pear (pm) and it’s sometimes really hard to stay composed and focus on the conversation. The fight or flight response is sometimes surprisingly strong!

Well the other morning it had been a particularly frustrating journey into the office, and upon my arrival I’d discovered that my crisp crunching colleague had still not finished the simple task I’d assigned him a coupe of days before. It should’ve been a 2-3 hour job and he’d stretched it out to two days! I was under pressure from the client to get stuff done so I was a little highly strung already. Then at that moment my boss pulled up a chair next to me with the intention of discussing progress, but he was also eating his porridge! I felt trapped! I tried to explain why but I simply had to stand up and leave the room right then. It’s the strongest response I’ve had in a while. As soon as I got out it occurred to me that my reaction would’ve seemed a bit irrational to everyone, and I was worried I’d offended my boss.

Anyway after cooling down a little, and giving my boss time to finish his porridge, I came back in to further explain why I’d reacted so. He understood, wasn’t offended and clearly just found it amusing. Not the worst way it could’ve gone I suppose.

He’s since made a few jokes about not eating around me, and has in fact left the room again when he’d accidentally walked in with food. There’s been a bit of banter, but nothing I can’t handle, and at least now people know why I sometimes have to ‘randomly’ leave the room or put my headphones in!