Man speaks on phone, girl smiles with vegetable
Lifestyle

Reddit debate over job’s ‘vegan only’ office food policy

'I am not working in a place that tells me what I can or cannot eat'

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A Reddit user has taken to the website shocked that a job application stated that only vegan food can be eaten in the office.

The post included a screenshot from the company which read: “Our workplaces are strictly vegan. You do not to be vegan away from work, but you do need to bring vegan lunch and have plant milk to eat on-site or eat lunch offsite. Can you confirm you are fine with this?”

The job applicant wrote: “Applied for a job, received this in an email. Can they really force this upon me or not hire me based on this?” The applicant added it is a Dog Rescue centre in a later comment.

Man looks confused at laptop
A job applicant was shocked by a workplace’s ‘vegan only’ food policy (Credit: Pexels)

‘They can decide to not hire you based on this’

One person on Reddit claimed that the company could choose not to hire the applicant based on this. They wrote: “Yes, they can decide to not hire you over this. There are specific characteristics they cannot base a hiring decision on… gender, religion, ethnic origin, etc… but your dietary choice is not a protected class. If they want to hire on that basis, they are free to do so.”

But people were very divided over the company’s vegan-only food policy. Some people felt it wasn’t a fair rule to have in the workplace. One person wrote: “The only way I could understand this is if it’s a vegan cafe or grocery store and they’re worried about allergens or something. And even that is a hell of a stretch. For any other kind of job, this is weird.”

I am not working in a place that tells me what I can or cannot eat.

Another person added: “I would just avoid the company. You know there is going to be all sorts of ridiculous garbage on top of all of this.” A third person agreed: “I would reply to this email saying thanks but no thanks. I am not working in a place that tells me what I can or cannot eat. Because it is a short jump from there to trying to intrude on other parts of your personal life.”

Colleagues sit around a table
The company said only vegan food could be eaten on-site (Credit: Pexels)

Some people defended the vegan food policy

But other people said they wouldn’t be bothered by the policy. One person wrote: “If this was a job I wanted and it paid well, I would go for it. Wouldn’t be that difficult to follow, and you could ask your coworkers for recipes. I would ask if there are any other odd policies before accepting, of course.” Another person joked: “I probably would be fine with this, since it would automatically prevent people from microwaving fish.”

A third person added: “There’s a vegan market here that has those exact same rules for employees. They don’t want to risk any cross-contamination from your lunch.” A fourth person said: “I worked at WWF and the great majority of people were vegan, out of respect I also brought vegan lunch at work. That’s called adapting to the culture. And that’s normal.”

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