I try to make it a point to “not eat” during meetings. Sometimes this means cramming in a run at lunch, showering and changing and then just eating a granola bar or apple on the way to a meeting. I figure that if colleagues take time to get their eating done outside of meetings, I should not ‘intrude’ by having an entire lunch spread in the meeting because it’s a bit distracting and perhaps it even suggests that I’mnot concentrating at the task at hand. This is obviously for internal meetings. For external meetings, it is obviously a non option unless it is a lunch meeting.
What are the rest of you guys doing? I just end up eating later. In theory, I should just run 10 minutes less, but I’d rather run 10 min more and eat later.
Unless it was specifically set up as a “working lunch” meeting ahead of time, it strikes me as very rude. Basically, once you need to have something on the table in front of you that is taking the place of a pad of paper (e.g. a plate, paper from a wrapped sandwich, tupperware, etc.), you’ve gone too far. Something like pretzels or an apple is okay to snack on to tide yourself over until you have some alone time.
Depends on a lot of things. I’m a “corner office” guy, so I’m either running the meetings or listening to someone run the meeting for me, so I get to make the rules. If I need to eat during a meeting and I knew it was going to happen, then I feed everyone in the meeting. If it happens on accident or under circumstances that I couldn’t foresee I usually excuse myself, or get out of the the meeting and sit in the back, etc.
Likewise, if one of my people are trapped into missing lunch because of a meeting or some other problem then I allow them to do the same thing. It’s only fair and reasonable. However, I would say something if someone takes advantage of the situation or does it too often.
Bring a can of Ensure to the meeting. Eating during a meeting is not always acceptable, but drinking during a meeting is. Of course, you run the risk of being mocked for your geriatric choice of drinks. Just leave the prunes at home, and the rumors of your affinity for Matlock and Paul Harvey should dissipate in short order.
I’m ok with snack type of food that is quiet but bringing in a meal like a sandwich or leftovers from last night’s supper is a bit much in my opinion. I often take in something like raisins and almonds or a muffin. It of course depends on who the meeting is with as well.
Given that the majority of my meetings are virtual through conf call, I sometimes end up eating during them (obviously driven by level of participation/involvement)
Otherwise I will either eat early or late or split the lunch depending on the schedule.
Dev, I eat at meetings, but you know my dynamic is different. For you I’d say don’t do it, as a leader, unless the meeting is from 12-1 or 7-8am or at 6pm.
For you, I’d say ensure your meetings are at the right times and ensure they are short, to the point, and productive.
For me, I figure if I have to put up with prayers at meetings or long drawn out extemporaneous time sucking then they can put up with me drinking a protein shake or eating a banana.
Something I’ve stopped doing over the years is drinking from bike bottles, and have removed all references to IM, Mdot, etc. from my stuff… it’s better to be anonymous IMO.
I consider it rude (I like the ensure idea, I’ll need to remember that instead of just going hungry). If your bosses wanted to get into a tizzy, they could also say that your extracurriculars (ie running at lunch) are impacting your work productivity/performance. It’s also a pet peeve of mine when people “waste” their lunch break doing stuff and then “need” to eat when back on the clock.
I have eaten in meetings when I have back to back to back to back meetings with literally no time to even relieve myself. But a lot of my meetings are all over the University campus (which is huge).
First, as this is a crucial time to drop weight, it’s ok to suck on 1 tic tac, but make it last the entire meeting. DO NOT crunch it.
Second, this is when having an IV Drip is really handy.
Third, if you really MUST eat, then prepare your meal in the morning, blend it all, put it in a camelback, wear the camelback under your shirt and feed the tube through your shirt sleeve. Hold your pen in front of your mouth like you are seriously pondering the importance of the meeting while sucking down your lunch cleverly attached to the pen/cableback tube adapter.
Fourth, reverse eating. A new fad for the ULTRA health conscoius. Cram it like a supository. Avoid a diet of hot dogs, whole pineapples, pickles, or pasta. A PB&J is not only a perfect apres-run recovery snack, but it also wads up nicely to shove it where the sun don’t shine.
I find with most meetings they never start on time anyway so it gives time to eat something. Although I’m used to eating in 5-10 minutes I have between clients.
If you have to attend one, just make sure the food isn’t obnoxiously loud like crunching an apple or crackers, makes noise like a food wrapper or sprays everywhere like an orange. Bananas with some nut butter is fairly quiet.
likes been said either feed eveyone or do it before or after, it bugs me when I rush to a meeting then someone needs to pop for a sandwich cause their highly trained body can’t wait an hour for their next snack. I don’t count adhoc meetings at the last minute in there.
I vote not eating during meetings, especially potato chips.
Side note: I’ve a young lady near me who eats crunchy cereal or popcorn one piece/kernel at a time. It usually takes her one hour to eat and I can hear every snapping crunch. (Yikes!!!) Oh, what am I to do?
If eating during the meeting is the biggest breach of conduct, consider yourself lucky. It’s minor at best. Now, if the eating involves copious amount of noise, slurping, talking with your mouthful, food stuck to various parts of your body, etc. That’s a different problem entirely. The eating itself, not so bad.
In general, I think it’s rude to eat during meetings. However, if there are back to back meetings thru lunch time, then it’s a bit more excusable as long as it’s a simple meal and you can eat it quietly. If you get a real break for lunch, and you use it for another purpose (running), then eating during a meeting is not acceptable.
(obviously driven by level of participation/involvement)