17 Of The Most Depressing Work Lunches Ever

One of the many rubbish things about becoming a grown-up (and there are plenty) is the miserable weekday lunch.

School might have been pretty awful for most of us but hands up who misses eating smiley faces and pineapple upside down cake off those plastic trays?

As an adult not only are you responsible for your own midday meal, chances are that you'll either end up eating last night's leftovers or a random selection of whatever the hell is about to go out of date in the fridge.

In the UK, 50 per cent of us are so busy at work that we don't even go outdoors to eat these pathetic meals. Instead we're stuck eating at our desks, getting indigestion while our boss lingers so uncomfortably close they end up breathing all over our limp cheese and pickle sandwiches.

Dining 'al desko', as some awful people have named it, is even more prevalent in the US where 62 per cent of the workforce eat where they work.

Sad Desk Lunch is a Tumblr account dedicated to immortalising the more pathetic workday meals, here are some of our favourites...

1. We have it on good authority that this is supposed to be a deconstructed turkey sandwich, using rice instead of bread. Yeah, because that made it extra tasty looking...

2. We're big fans of crisp sandwiches here at Yahoo but this measly amount of potato to an excess of bread is too sad for words.

3. Sorry mate, there is not enough mustard in the world to resurrect that burnt husk of a hot dog.

4. This submission gets points for trying to be fancy but everyone knows that pâté sounds much fancier than it looks, a fact proved by this unappetising desk snack.

5. Cheese crackers in a tin of cold Campbell's soup - Andy Warhol would be proud.

6. We now move into the 'Wait, what the hell is that?' portion of the list. First up, this yellow matter.

7. Right, that's definitely sweetcorn. But what's the mystery ball? Leftover stuffing? A protein snack? The ugliest potato we've ever seen? Answers on a postcard please.

8. We're gonna need a bigger bottle of hot sauce.

9. If you told us this was lasagna, we'd believe you. Of course, if you told us you'd found this in a drop down toilet in Delhi we'd believe that too.

10. Nope, nope, NOPE. Geuninely have no idea what animal this tinned monstrosity once was. Wait, isn't that the thing that exploded out of John Hurt in Alien?

11. This is the kind of lunch you eat when you want your co-workers to start worrying about you. Attention seekingly bad.

12. A tub of plain mashed potato. Proof that tupperwear makes ordinarily wonderful food something disgusting and wrong.

13. Apparently this is a polenta tart with tomatoes and avocado sauce. Looked better last night, right?

14. All the way from Germany, what you're looking at is processed meat (from Lidl) covered in ketchup (from Ikea). Yes, the poster was that specific.

15. Then you've got people who combine ingredients that are fine alone but together create an unholy concotion not meant for human eyes. Like this smorgasbord.

16. Who doesn't smother their potato letters and peas with mustard?

17. And some men just want to watch the world burn.

Are you guilty of eating a Sad Desk Lunch? Share your pictures with us on Twitter!

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