Manager kept scheduling meetings during lunch break — so employee started bringing food into team meetings

An employee (u/rowlandJakubowski on Reddit) decided to take petty revenge on the boss who kept scheduling meetings during their lunch break. Well, it all started when they politely reminded their boss not to schedule a meeting during their lunch hour, that is, between 1 and 2 PM. However, the boss responded as if it didn't matter to him. So, the employee decided to show up at the meeting while eating their lunch, leaving the boss fuming. They posted the story on February 17. 

The employee took their lunch break very seriously and didn't like any interruption. "I'm one of those people who survives on coffee in the morning, so by lunchtime, I'm starving and can't function," they said. The person would always mark "busy" on their calendar so people would know they weren't available during that hour. However, the manager, who was full of himself, started scheduling meetings right in the middle of their lunch break. For the first few times, they let it slide, assuming it was an emergency, but it kept happening repeatedly. "So, after about the third time, I politely reminded him that this was my lunch hour. His response? 'We all have to make sacrifices,'" the employee recalled. They decided it was time to teach him a lesson. So, for the next meeting, the employee joined with a large burrito bowl. "I made sure my camera was on, and my mic was unmuted. I was enthusiastically scraping the bowl and eating, giving a thumbs-up whenever anyone asked me a question," they explained.

Two days later, the boss again scheduled a meeting during their lunch break, and they joined with a large bowl of ramen. After repeating this a few times, the boss finally reacted to them eating lunch during meetings; he confronted the employee and sent them a private message. I immediately smiled into the camera and typed back, 'We all have to make sacrifices,'" they confessed. Soon enough, the boss stopped scheduling meetings during their lunch break. Unfortunately, this isn't a stand-alone story; most employees aren't given a proper lunch break at their workplaces. In fact, Compass Group’s Global Eating at Work Survey of 35,000 workers across 26 countries found that employees are only given 35 minutes of lunch break per day, if they have one at all. In fact, people working five days a week even skip one lunch per week. Forget lunch breaks, 7% of employees in the survey report taking no breaks at all during their working week. Despite the shocking reality, 85% of workers who take regular breaks said it improves their overall productivity at work.

Meanwhile, reacting to the Reddit story, u/heretolookonly commented, "Good for you. Entitled managers are so common and SUCH a pet peeve of mine. Boundaries are important. With people like your manager, even more so." u/selectad8810 shared, "Every company has a lunch break, usually around 13:00, specified in the work contract or company policies. If he scheduled meetings during the official launch break, he is a douchebag, and he should be reported to HR." Similarly, u/skrallet wrote, "I had a manager who did this as well for a while until I started to decline the invitation and propose a new slot every time. He then got the hint."

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