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Lunch breaks are supposed to offer a little peace, not another mandatory round of workplace conversation.

For one employee though,  every snack or meal somehow summoned the same coworker with questions, commentary, and restaurant recommendations.

Eventually, one particularly messy taco encounter pushed their patience beyond its limit and prompted a blunt request for solitude.

See how the office reacted.

AITAH for telling my co-worker to leave me alone when I’m eating?

Any time I eat any food my co-worker makes a comment.

Something along the lines of: “What you go there? Where did you get that? Oh, I love *insert whatever I’m eating”.

Not only is it annoying but she also interrupts my break. I eat at my desk because I use my half hour lunchtime to go on a walk.

For the most part I just give a quick answer in hopes she walks away.

But lately she’ll have to have full conversations with me while I’m eating. I’ll be sitting at my desk, and she’ll be standing in front of me.

It’s not just when I eat my lunch, but if I open a bag of chips or pop a can of soda. Like clockwork she comes over, makes a comment and hovers.

It makes her uncomfortable.

At first, I thought she was hungry, but she always has snacks at her desk. She only does this to me because we share a cubicle wall.

The worst is when she starts recommending restaurants or grocery stores that sell something similar. So, then she’s asking me follow-up questions if I’ve been here or there to try various dishes.

Meanwhile I’m trying to enjoy my lunch while she expects answers while I have food in my mouth.

Things came to a head when I got food from the food truck at work. I sat down and put hot sauce on my tacos. Just after I take a bite, there she is, “ohhhh what’s that?”

It was pure chaos.

I didn’t realize that the tacos were hot, so my mouth was half open, grease from the meat was running down my hand, I got hot sauce on my lap, and she was standing there looking at me.

Didn’t even offer me a napkin.

I set my food down and walked to the break room to wash my hands and get water from the fridge.

I drank some water and went back to my desk, and she was waiting for me.

She asked me what I was eating, and I bluntly just said “tacos.”

Then she goes on rant about a Mexican restaurant down the street and asks if I’ve been there. She asked if I like guacamole.

She asked if I’ve ever had horchata… A line of questioning while I was trying to just eat my food in peace.

She couldn’t take it anymore.

Finally, with food in my mouth I ask her, “can you leave me alone while I’m eating?”

Her whole demeanor changed after that, and she didn’t speak to me at all that day.

Then the next day she didn’t bother me during my lunch. The rest of the week was lovely. I was actually relaxed while I ate my food.

But people were judging her for being blunt.

Then another co-worker came up to me and said I had really hurt my co-worker’s feelings.

She was telling everyone I was rude to her and told her to leave me alone. I didn’t really deny it and honestly, it’s been nice to not have someone watching me eat every day.

But of course, the office thinks I’m an ******* and could have been kinder when I told her.

I told someone else I work with if she was doing this to them, they would understand. Everyone told me I handled it wrong and could have said something, “nicely”.

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AITA?

Her coworker is almost a second job at this point.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this.

This commenter sums it up.

Good advice.

A pro.

Sometimes, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Another reader chimes in.

The coworker finally stopped interrupting meals, but soon told the entire office that OP had rudely hurt her feelings.

While colleagues criticized the delivery, Redditors largely agreed that persistent hovering made a direct boundary both understandable and necessary.

Nothing complements a dripping, hot-sauce-covered taco quite like an unsolicited interview conducted inches from your face.

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Author

Chris Allen