This
week, hot beverage politics hit the headlines, as news emerged that Ed
Miliband plays the role of coffee boy in the opposition offices.
David
Cameron chose Prime Ministers Questions as a fitting time to divulge this
information, clearly hoping to suggest that Ed Miliband isn’t ‘butch’ enough
to take on the top dog position of PM.
In
the same week Ed Balls shrugged off claims that that he split a cappuccino over
a colleague’s papers. Don’t be mistaken for thinking that Mr Balls was
embarrassed at defacing government work though.
On the contrary, he was upset at the accusation that he drinks a sissy
cappuccino, when his preferred choice is a double espresso with an extra shot
of hot water.
Discussion
of the inappropriate timing of David Cameron’s comments, and the implicit
suggestion in both Balls’ and Cameron’s statements that you need to be ‘butch’
(manly) to succeed in politics, could go on for hours. Nevertheless, the
incidents also relate to another controversial topic: What foods/ drinks give a
good business impression?
After
all, agree with Balls/Cameron or not, you can see their simple logic: Strong coffee=
strong personality. Recognising this however can open the door to a whole range
of anxieties. Does displaying a weakness for chocolate immediately pigeonhole
you as sweet? Does choosing Chinese over Indian make you a boardroom pushover,
unable to handle the heat?
A
quick browse of the Internet unearths a wealth of similar food/office questions
and insecurities. One forum I came across was completely dedicated to what you
could and couldn’t eat in business meetings, offering numerous scenarios
dependent on what those around you were eating and what time of day it was.
Another
particularly entertaining article from The Guardian discussed the rise of the
breakfast meeting and the issues of tucking into a full English whilst others
reach for a low-fat soya fruit pot whilst downing a wheatgrass shot.
Nevertheless,
by far the most sensible piece of advice, and one which I will forever follow,
came from Karen Brady who tells women not to shun the canapés at dinner parties,
‘because you can see the pained expression on their faces.’ Karen is right,
people may disapprove of fatty but no one likes a killjoy.
By Polly Robinson
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