We all know—we must eat to survive—but in many cases, we are able to choose a certain practice, philosophy, lifestyle, or diet to fulfill our needs. When mingling with different people, it often comes down to the co-existence of individual opinions, tolerance, and/or social decisions. Vegans and meat-eaters share many public spaces which, naturally, can cause some social debates around the topic of food and occasionally even escalate to conflicts.
Reddit user throwaway1035782 decided to share a story and asked the online community for help to find out whether to feel guilty or not after being told off for eating a hamburger in the break room while a vegan colleague was present. Are you a vegan or a meat-eater and what you would have done in a similar situation?
A Reddit user asked the online community how to feel about the fact that a fellow colleague who’s vegan asked them to eat a hamburger outside
Image credits: Unsplash
The user throwaway1035782 posted a story on popular subreddit AITAH of what occurred in the break room involving a vegan coworker. Although the author behind the post and the vegan colleague Carla (the name was changed but the user) normally get along, what happened in the break room escalated into an uncomfortable situation. This story could very well make us question our boundaries or ability to coexist with people who have different eating choices: in particular, vegans and carnivores. Where is the boundary and should there be one between the two groups and how they treat each other’s eating habits?
The whole story was posted on a popular subreddit that has 30.2k followers
As the Reddit user highlighted, Carla is a vegan and although she does tell everyone she’s a vegan, they have worked together for several years and it has never come across as her being pushy about veganism.
Although one day in the break room, when she noticed her coworker coming back from a fast food burger place with the purchased lunch, Carla suggested that they eat it outside despite the fact that they live in a cold and snowy state.
After the incident, throwaway1035782 had some thoughts and actually decided to ask the people online on AITAH, which has 2.6m followers, what their thoughts are on the situation. The post itself received 7.9k upvotes and 1.5k comments to date. However big or small the incident itself was, it sparked quite a few responses and debates among vegans and meat-eaters about how situations like this should be handled at work and in public spaces in general.
Let us know in the comments below if you have ever found yourself in a similar situation or how throwaway1035782 should have actually handled the situation and the feelings involved.
And here is how other users expressed their opinions about the story
