The office kitchen is a curious place. It’s where you’ll find the world’s worst coffee and the world’s best selection of mismatched tableware. It’s the ideal spot to indulge in a juicy piece of gossip with a co-worker, but is also where you can find yourself stuck in some of the most agonisingly awkward conversations, usually with someone from senior management, while you wait for the sandwich press to heat up.

This seemingly innocuous little room is also a minefield of etiquette dilemmas. If someone is waiting for the water cooler behind you, should you keep standing there like a village idiot, filling your bottle all the way to the top, or should you just do a half-fill and briskly move on? Do you need to make eye contact with the person who’s reaching into the fridge at the same time as you? What if they, like, start talking to you? Feigning deafness can work in a pinch, but might prove tricky when they turn up to your 3:30pm strategy review meeting. 

And what about that delectable salmon pasta that you made last night, the leftovers of which you’ve lovingly packed and brought to work for lunch. Is it okay to heat this up in the microwave in the office kitchen?

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Let’s break this down. Sure, you’re allowed to eat whatever you want. And bringing your own lunch to work is a great way to save money and cut down on waste. But here’s the issue: while your fish dish might taste delish, it’s going to cause a stink. Because, to put it delicately, reheated fish smells bad. Reheating fatty fish like salmon smells worse. I won’t go into the science behind it, but the nose knows. 

It’s not just about whoever is seated near you while you’re eating your lunch, either. (Although it will bring a whole new meaning to the term ‘stink eye’). Think about the next person who’s using the microwave after you. Let’s say it’s Jane from marketing. She’s just been through a bad break up, and today she’s had a really rough day on the Tassal campaign. So she’s decided to treat herself to that cinnamon scroll she didn’t have time to eat at morning tea, which just needs a little blast in the microwave to restore it to its soft and fluffy goodness. Imagine how poor Jane will feel when her scroll tastes like old fish guts. 

So, is it ever okay to reheat fish in an office kitchen? We say no. Choose something else for lunch. There’s plenty more fish in the sea.

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