Is it ever okay to microwave fish in an office?

If there’s one thing that can divide an office, it’s fish.

If you work in an open plan office with a microwave, chances are there have been some pretty heated conversations about the reheating of marine life.

During my time as an office-dwelling creature, I’ve had the pleasure of seeing a wide variety of passive aggressive posters – hastily typed out in Word, angry fingers pounding the keys – appear on a plethora of microwaves.

The signs appear and disappear almost as soon as they came, and the slippery scent of salmon is all the evidence you need that (some) people are defying the signs.

‘It’s absolutely disgusting,’ says Kim, who sits near the microwave in an office, to Metro.co.uk.

‘I have to deal with so many repulsive food smells in my day, but the worst is the fish. It’s unacceptable. It’s just so disgusting and really gets in your nostrils.’

However, others are a little more chill about the whole fishy affair.

‘I genuinely don’t see what the issue with fish is (the fish-ue, if you will),’ says office worker Phil, to Metro.co.uk.

‘I actually find heating up any food in the office a bit annoying because it just makes me hungry, but fish is no worse than any other.

‘I guess I just like the smell of fish, but I think people who whinge about it are just being drama queens. Just shut up and do some work.’

So that’s what your average office workers think, but what’s the official line?

‘The cooking of fish – as with curries – is fairly antisocial in a communal kitchen and should be avoided at all costs,’ says etiquette expert William Hanson.

‘If you absolutely have to zap a sardine or reheat a mackerel then do it outside of your colleagues’ regular lunch hours and refresh the microwave after by popping a cut lemon in a glass bowl of water and microwave that for two minutes on full.’

To be honest, colleagues in the microwave queue might be more annoyed about having to wait while you put a lemon on spin, than they are about your cod.

Unless there’s a definitive rule about all smelly foods (and where do we draw the line on ‘smelly’? Is there a Richter scale for smells?) maybe we all just need to chill out a bit.

After all, why should fish be banned if equally strong-smelling foods like curry are tolerated?

The main issue is probably everyone being on the same page – generally if 95% of the office agree on not heating up smelly foods, there’s always going to be one person who swans in and flips the bird while they put their leftover fish curry on high for three minutes.

I don’t particularly enjoy the salty scent of trout wafting into my nostrils while I work, but I am guilty of reheating dhal on the regular, so it’s just a case of give and take really, isn’t it?

Unless we all agree to blow up the microwave and resign ourselves to a life of cold salads and limp sandwiches.

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