
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 20, 1994                   TAG: 9403150150
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: F-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Orlando Sentinel
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

IN SOME OFFICES, DESK DINERS PROHIBITED

Not all companies allow employees to eat while they work. Whistling, maybe. Eating - absolutely not.

Part of the problem is a payroll issue. Some companies prohibit workers from eating at their desks to avoid paying overtime, said Rita Manny, vice president of personnel services at the Employers Association of Florida.

"I don't think employers are concerned because they're afraid employees are going to make a mess," she said. "But if you sit at your desk, you're going to be tempted to do some work. And if you work, then it gets into some complicated wage-hour issues."

Some employers object to in-house nibbling to protect themselves from the mess.

"We have an engineering edict: You're not allowed to bring any food into the studio," said Mike James, promotions director for WWKA-FM, an Orlando, Fla. radio station. "It's because we've got so much expensive equipment in there. When you let people eat around there, people would spill soda or ketchup or crumbs into the master control board and ruin it."

In offices where the paperwork must be pristine - with no mayonnaise smears from the tuna sub you had for lunch - eating at the desk is tempting, but forbidden.

"We don't eat at our desks," said Bud Wulff, at Jackson Hewitt Tax Service. "I would hope that other tax preparers don't either."

by CNB