City department issued — then quickly retracted — an order banning workers from eating at their desks

An effort by a city department to ban sad desk lunches ended before dinnertime Thursday, in another sign of friction among a workforce unhappy with Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s order that they return to the office five days a week.

At 12:30 p.m. Thursday, employees of the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disability Services (DBHIDS) received an email announcing a new “No Eating in the Workplace Policy.”

“Studies show that employees who work in clean and organized spaces are more likely to feel motivated, have a positive mindset, and exhibit greater productivity,” the email said, without linking to or naming the research.

The policy would “prohibit employees from consuming food at their workspaces … this will encourage employees to utilize the designated eating areas at any of our locations,” the email read.

Other city departments queried about the order reported that their employees were still free to nosh at their desks. No specific reason was cited for the unprecedented new order at the DBHIDS, and speculation ran rampant.

Was this a gambit to force workers onto the streets and into beleaguered Center City restaurants for their meals? Perhaps an unwanted furry officemate had been sighted scurrying about? Had someone been microwaving fish in the office again?

Regardless of the reasoning, employees of the DBHIDS met the new order with opprobrium. Some called the email patronizing and condescending. Americans with Disabilities Act considerations were not being considered. The office lunchrooms are not large enough to contain the ravenous hordes of workers exiled from their desks at mealtimes.

And coming seven weeks after the unpopular return-to-office full time mandate — an allotment few other white collar employers, even other city governments, have required — a desk lunch ban added insult to injury.

Perhaps sensing the restive attitude among their ranks, DBHIDS quickly thought better of the new policy and acted decisively to end it. Maybe that microwaved fish didn’t smell that bad. And mice are sometimes considered cute — at least in cartoons.

“Although the draft mentioned that there was a policy that staff should not eat at their desks/cubes/offices, that was not the intended message,” Christina Crews, a spokesperson for DBHIDS, wrote in an email to the Inquirer. “The communication was intended to underscore the idea of being courteous and considerate while consuming food in common workspaces and to dispose of trash and recycling in their proper receptacles, not to prohibit anyone from eating at their desks/cubes/offices.”

Two hours and 43 minutes later, another all staff email was issued.

“We are retracting the email sent Sept. 5 with the subject line ‘No Eating in the Workplace Policy,’” the follow-up read. “Please disregard the message. We apologize for any inconvenience and confusion this has caused. Thank you for understanding. Please keep up the amazing jobs all of you do every day at DBHIDS.”

A spokesperson for DBHIDS told The Inquirer that the original email was a “premature miscommunication” and merely a draft statement that had been accidentally sent out before it was approved and was meant to suggest — not order —that workers not eat at their desks for sanitary reasons.

So rest easy, reader, and please return to your previously scheduled desk salad.