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AIBU?

To wonder why meat-eating colleague keeps banging on about it?

86 replies

Ritascornershop · 19/12/2019 04:33

I work with just one other person (but in a building with dozens of other people in the same company, but who we rarely interact with).

My colleague doesn’t just eat meat, she really, really loves meat. That’s fine. I’ve been veggie for ethical reasons for decades. I understand that eating meat is a norm, but what I don’t understand is why she talks about it daily.

She orders books on how to make terrines and sausages and whatnot and has them delivered to work. Then she reads recipes out to me (while I say “you’ll enjoy that - I must get back to work now.” At the end of many work days she’ll tell me she’s “going home to cook a duck/lamb/some veal.” She leaves pieces of raw meat lying around our shared kitchen (shared between the 2 of us). She sits at her desk 4 feet from me eating a piece of pate the size of a piece of pie.

Am I being precious or is this a bit weird? There is literally not a day goes by without her talking about meat or leaving raw meat lying around. She’s quite nice so I don’t think she’s trying to unnerve me. AIBU?

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HaudYerWheeshtYaWeeBellend · 19/12/2019 07:38

Can pigs fly

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WatchingTheMoon · 19/12/2019 07:40

Sounds like a substitute for a personality.

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Ugzbugz · 19/12/2019 07:47

Guess it's like the people who.wear vegetarian or vegan tshirt and hats. No one wears meat eater shirts. All bizarre. As you say nobody gives a shit about anyones elses boring diets and food habits!

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Ritascornershop · 19/12/2019 12:24

I do wear a vegan tank top to yoga I’d never talk about it at work (not eating meat, I’m not a vegan, I just wear the shirt!) as it would make people uncomfortable. But the more she talks about grinding up various beasts for sausage the more I wish she’d stop!

And thanks to all the small-appliance bringers and people like Bunty. As she says, it’s a big old world and many things go on in it.

And as to a relaxed atmosphere - I find her quite lazy and her work could be done better actually, but no-one ever interferes with how her level of staff do things. I just get on with my bit and avoid the countertop as much as I can!

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marchingonwithmother · 19/12/2019 12:39

Just tell her to shut up, sounds a scruffy pain in the arse

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nowaypose · 19/12/2019 12:40

My mum’s ex partner was like this. I have been vegetarian for many years which he knew so every time he saw me he’d tell me to ‘eat some meat’. He loved to regularly ask why I wouldn’t eat meat, don’t you miss bacon etc. It really grated on me. He died of a heart attack at 50 anyway, probably all the meat he ate.

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AutumnRose1 · 19/12/2019 12:41

She’s doing it on purpose to annoy you

Just grey rock.

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derxa · 19/12/2019 12:46

Electrical equipment in the work place should be PAT tested
Exactly. You should complain to management OP

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NomNomNomNom · 19/12/2019 12:47

It's very weird. I would get sick of hearing it and seeing raw meat I'm not a veggie. I do know a few meat eaters who would do this on purpose because they are annoyed by vegetarians. My SiL is vegetarian - I often forgot she was and tried to serve her meat because she's so quiet about it - she always says she's just happy to bring her own food or just eat the veggies/roasts at family gatherings couldn't be more obliging. Her cousin's DH though (who we see a fair bit) has a massive issue with it and will always go out of his way to bring it up - talk about how pointless life would be without steak and complain if we go to her house and there's no meat available (it wasn't Christmas dinner - it was just a quick lunch before we all went elsewhere).

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DontCallMeShitley · 19/12/2019 12:57

Just start talking about the rates of colon cancer among meat eaters and the amount of hormones and preservatives pumped into creatures when she starts talking about eating meat.

And the length of time it takes to pass through the digestive system, and how bad it can make people smell when they sweat.

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Keepmewarm · 19/12/2019 12:59

It’s weird to go on about food no matter what you eat. The only people that I have witnessed talking obsessively about food have eating disorders and really focus on what they would have if they could.

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madcatladyforever · 19/12/2019 13:06

I know loads of people like this who are incredibly tedious and do it to get a rise out of vegetarians and vegans, it's pathetic.
I have a number of friends who like to waft bacon under my nose and ask me how I can cope without it.
I actually don't like bacon and never have - it's salty, greasy and disgusting.
She needs to seriously grow up. I don't discuss my vegetarian diet with anyone.
You go out as a vegan (I was for around 20 years now eat eggs) with a group of friends, you order what you can eat which is nearly always crap and the entire table seems to think it's ok for a free for all discussion about attention seeking vegans, my lack of protein etc etc ad nauseam until you want to punch them right in the face.

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safariboot · 19/12/2019 13:09

She's probably POed with sanctimonious preachy vegans and vegetarians (not necessarily you!) and has decided to act the same way herself.

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HaileySherman · 19/12/2019 13:26

I'm confused. Your co-worker brings frozen meat to thaw at work, lol? That's bizarre behavior, and very possibly unsafe for everyone if the bacteria isn't contained or cleaned properly, or her, since the right way to thaw meat is in the fridge. Strange. Is this for real?

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ohwheniknow · 19/12/2019 14:14

I know this wasn't the point of your thread op but I'm fascinated that people can cook and bring in kitchen appliances to work. My workplace is really strict about how we can use the kitchen etc but as everyone seems happy with what we can do it has never occurred to me that in other places people would be bringing their own appliances in and making themselves stews!

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Ritascornershop · 19/12/2019 14:56

It’s not frozen meat, it’s raw meat.

It’s a kitchenette, just shared between the two of us. I suspect other staff hat bring in their own kettles as there’s a fully fitted kitchen with two dishwashers just down the hall.

I can’t work out if she’s being goady or trying to convert me (back to the meat side). She also goes on about how I’m thin (I’m not skinny, I’m a size 10UK), so it could also be misery loves company sort of thing. She buys half price old cakes & brings them and yesterday bagged me to have a bite and I had to spit it into a paper towel when she’d gone as it too sweet and too dry. And then she circled back later and said “aren’t theor cakes the best?” “Mm” I said “but aren’t they?!!!” She gets a tad anxious if I don’t agree that whatever she’s eating, or pushing, is the best x in the world.

She’s a whole ton more emotional than I am.

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Ritascornershop · 19/12/2019 14:57

And I don’t know what PAT tested is as I’m not in the U.K. anymore. Occasionally she blows a fuse and the custodian comes along and fixes it.

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Ritascornershop · 19/12/2019 14:58

Should have read “nagged me” to share the cake.

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RiftGibbon · 19/12/2019 14:58

I am a lifelong veggie too. I used to work with a guy who was an ex-butcher. Every day he'd tell me about his old job, and how to joint (or possibly disjoint) large carcasses. He was a dickhead though and deliberately did it to try to annoy me.

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PooWillyBumBum · 19/12/2019 15:01

From your update it sounds like she has food issues and is projecting in some bizarre way. I wouldn’t pander to it - don’t eat cake if you don’t want it!

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VivaLeBeaver · 19/12/2019 15:06

What the heck is a boiled egg maker?

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Instagrump · 19/12/2019 15:17

Some people are total foodies. Just a food enthusiast who happens to love meat. I'll bet people like Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall for example probably never shuts up about food either.

It's her thing. Ignore her. But do ask her to make sure raw meat is put away in the shared kitchen. It's not hygienic and very disrespectful to vegetarians.

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Batqueen · 19/12/2019 15:22

Love how many people can not comprehend the idea that meat eaters could possibly ever be unreasonable! 😒

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CSIblonde · 19/12/2019 15:26

If its true, weird. But, bringing in electrical appliances is a fire risk & huge Health & Safety violation. It needs to be safety tested yearly & have the dated safety sticker clearly visible or your Company is breaking a LOT of Company Insurance & Safety laws.

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MrsFoxPlus4Again · 19/12/2019 15:41

I eat meat but I’d find it weird if my work colleagues were bringing in slow cookers to make fresh stew or soap, chomping down on chunks of Pate, leaving raw meat around the office & talking about grinding down animals several times a day. I wouldn’t bat an eyelid at someone leaving fruit out or eating an apple because that’s a pretty normal occurrence compared to dragging your slow cooker in, the full cow, meat cleaver etc

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