Knowing you by your lunch choice

Forget al fresco, these days most people are doing lunch “al desko”. A hastily-bought sandwich gulped down in front of your screen, a curry from the company canteen devoured as you thumb through your post – refuelling is just another activity to be squeezed into the day.

And, like everything else you do at work, your culinary choices send out messages – just as a colleague may make judgments about your unironed shirt, they’re also likely to draw conclusions about what you’re having for lunch.

According to research by Office Angels, 48 per cent of workers think colleagues’ lunch choices reflect their workplace ambitions. Of the 1,500 surveyed, 37 per cent voted sushi and sashimi the food that gave you the highest office status, closely followed by organic salads and super-foods such as blueberries.

Egg-and cress sandwiches, and burgers and fries rated so low, they were tantamount to career suicide.

Surprised that what you eat can affect your professional standing?

Beverly Langford, author of The Etiquette Edge: the Unspoken Rules for Business Success (AMACOM/American Management Association), has some alarming notes on how you may be judged.

“Someone who eats carefully and watches their calories may be seen as disciplined, energetic and modern, while someone who indulges in large amounts of less than healthy food may come across as slovenly, undisciplined and reckless with his or her wellbeing,” she explained.

And if you can’t face non-stop healthiness (or even getting up early enough to make your lunch)? Bring in last night’s leftovers – just make sure they’re of a decent standard.

Sauntering over with your chickpea and chorizo stew while your colleagues munch through shawarma baps will gain you major gastronomic brownie points – and suggest you’re a super-multi-tasker with sophisticated tastes. But beware becoming too chic-food obsessed.

You don’t want to alienate colleagues, or miss out entirely on the networking opportunities of going out to lunch – or even of popping to the coldstore with colleagues.

Ms Langford says it is still about personal choice: “One shouldn’t make others feel that their choices are inferior, or even bad,” she added.

Fatima Khanum, a senior admin officer, has one particular super-healthy colleague who just loves to pass judgment. “I think I’m quite healthy, most days I tend to eat sandwiches,” she said. “Often I buy crisps with my sandwich, and my colleague will grab the crisp packet from me and start reading out all the calories and saturated fats that are in them, and telling me how bad they are.”

Khanum isn’t overweight and feels she’s capable of choosing her own diet. “It is irritating. I think when people make those kind of comments it does affect your decisions. One time I was going to buy something and ended up putting it down and opting for something else, just because I knew what he would say.”

But while being shamed into giving up your favourite treat is pretty horrid, being shamed into taking up a serious snack habit is not much fun either.

“At work I’ll often have a bowl of fruit for breakfast, then chop up vegetables and have it with hummus for lunch, and there are always comments about it,” says legal secretary Jennika Argent. “People see the healthy stuff and think you are obsessed with your weight, and make you feel bad about it.”