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Are there any rules that apply to providing a seating area to eat at work?
I work in a small, high street office (so my desk on the ground floor of a high traffic street, though not visible from outside), where I am the front line person dealing with the public. We don't get a lot of people through the door, but a few throughout the day. A lot of time I am on my own in the office, so I have no choice but to eat at my desk, as it is inappropriate to close the office to the public while I eat. When there is someone else there, which is rare, I used to be able to go to the kitchen to sit and eat lunch, but the owner of the building has just redesigned things, so that we no longer have an area to sit, just a galley kitchen with no chair or table.
It is really bothering me that I no longer have the option of eating in privacy upstairs, and have no other choice but to eat downstairs where if a member of the public comes in I have to hide the plate and stop eating, deal with them and then continue, as well as answer the phone etc.
Is there an obligation on employers to provide somewhere to sit and eat in the UK? Of course, I could always go out for lunch at a cafe etc, but lets be realistic, it is never going to be as healthy or cost effective as making my own healthy lunch. It is really bothering me, but does not seem to bother the business owner (my boss). I have tried to gently say something like "its really unfair for our landlords to not even leave space for one table and chair, especially for us (our office) as we have no where private to eat." but that has not seemed to work thus far!
Any advice on what to do? Maybe in the current job market, I should grin and bear it?
I work in a small, high street office (so my desk on the ground floor of a high traffic street, though not visible from outside), where I am the front line person dealing with the public. We don't get a lot of people through the door, but a few throughout the day. A lot of time I am on my own in the office, so I have no choice but to eat at my desk, as it is inappropriate to close the office to the public while I eat. When there is someone else there, which is rare, I used to be able to go to the kitchen to sit and eat lunch, but the owner of the building has just redesigned things, so that we no longer have an area to sit, just a galley kitchen with no chair or table.
It is really bothering me that I no longer have the option of eating in privacy upstairs, and have no other choice but to eat downstairs where if a member of the public comes in I have to hide the plate and stop eating, deal with them and then continue, as well as answer the phone etc.
Is there an obligation on employers to provide somewhere to sit and eat in the UK? Of course, I could always go out for lunch at a cafe etc, but lets be realistic, it is never going to be as healthy or cost effective as making my own healthy lunch. It is really bothering me, but does not seem to bother the business owner (my boss). I have tried to gently say something like "its really unfair for our landlords to not even leave space for one table and chair, especially for us (our office) as we have no where private to eat." but that has not seemed to work thus far!
Any advice on what to do? Maybe in the current job market, I should grin and bear it?