Avoid Lunchroom Food Fights

If your smug work friends delude themselves that individual action can take the place of collective bargaining, let them pour their efforts into obsessively reading ingredient labels.

So please, stop passing your designer cupcakes beneath their noses so that their cardboard-flavored 17-grain bread doesn't look so awful by comparison. (OK, maybe just once, with a smile.) They've earned it.

The problem is that drawing any attention to yourself and your food choices can be tantamount to maligning your coworkers' lifestyle from top to bottom. It makes people uneasy, whereas etiquette is a tool to set each other at ease.

Focusing on our differences is also less fun. After all, the more truly tolerant you are of your colleagues' dietary habits and the more open you are to trying new things, the more you can order in together and save on the delivery tip.

And if you really, truly can't take it, just shift your schedule. You can have the kitchen all to yourself if you avoid the noontime rush.

That takes care of kitchen behavior. So what of the office fridge itself?

To prevent any meal misplacing (accidental or not) by unenlightened colleagues, write your name and date on your bag or container. Save the stinky, drippy stuff for home dining, and in case of any spills, do practice random acts of wiping-up kindness.

Remember, while you're in the office, you're sharing many common spaces. So be considerate of your fellow lunch diners, and you'll both break your bread in peace.