how can I shut down diet talk at work?

A reader writes:

I work in a 15-person team within a larger organization. We have a hybrid work scheme, with mandatory in-office Mondays and at least one other day on-site per week. We’re a fairly close team, and we all get along despite differences in age, life experience, etc.

One of my colleagues, Emma, is a bit of a health nut. Every few months, she tries out a different diet or fad to try and make herself “skinny.” I think she’s already a healthy weight, but she’s very focused on it and on top of that she’s health-conscious and seems to enjoy reading about diet and nutrition.

Emma never parades her new diets around or tries to shame anyone about what they’re eating, but she’ll usually explain why she’s not partaking in team lunches, office snacks, and so on. It’s never meant as anything but idle small talk, but it often sparks long conversations among the team about everyone’s different eating habits, etc., often including descriptions of some foods as “bad” and some as “good” and how eating high-caloric foods is “being bad.” With such a large team in an open-plan office, these conversations can get quite loud and distracting.

I used to join in with these conversations and discuss my own weight loss woes. However, I’ve recently started getting therapy for disordered eating. I don’t have a diagnosed eating disorder, but I do have issues that mean my relationship with food, diet, and body image are highly negative at the moment. I used to enjoy the occasional chat about health fads, but I now find them extremely uncomfortable and stressful to listen to.

Is there a way that I can avoid these unpleasant and sometimes triggering topics of conversation without coming across as rude? Nobody at work knows about my situation because there’s no need for them to, and I don’t want my medical problems becoming office gossip. I also don’t want others to feel like they have to monitor what they say around me.

Is there a way to explain my sudden loss of appetite (ha ha) for this topic that won’t get me into awkward conversations?

You can read my answer to this letter at New York Magazine today. Head over there to read it.

The post how can I shut down diet talk at work? appeared first on Ask a Manager.

View the full article