AN office worker recounted the run in she had with her colleague over their communal microwave.
She shared how her co-worker accused her of “food-shaming” and threatened to report her over the issue.
In her Reddit post, user Runaway_Smoke explained how making a throwaway comment about someone’s lunch almost landed her in front of HR.
“I was working at my desk when I noticed an absolutely foul odour,” she said.
She described how the smell engulfed the entire office and became increasingly difficult to tolerate.
“I tried to ignore it but it got so overwhelming that I look off my headset and quietly asked, ‘Did someone microwave fish?'” the Redditor wrote.
The office worker explained that she hadn’t intended on directly confronting someone and was simply wondering aloud about the lingering smell.
However, the culprit, who was within earshot, got defensive about her lunch.
“I heard my coworker mumble something and asked her to repeat herself,” the poster recalled.
“She said, ‘Yeah, it was me. Don’t food shame me or I’ll go to HR.'”
The Reddit user explained why she found the situation so “infuriating.”
“We have a massive café downstairs that she could’ve used to heat up her food,” she said.
“Instead, she chose to heat it up in our communal kitchen space and stink up the whole office floor.”
She added that she was even more annoyed about her colleague’s over the top response.
“The fact that she was so comfortable threatening to go to HR is beyond me,” she said.
While the Redditor admitted to enjoying fish as well, she explained that she would never eat it in the workplace.
She also revealed that the interaction was the only encounter she had with her colleague other than saying “good morning” and “goodbye.”
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Reddit users shared their thoughts on the situation in the comments section.
“Person’s going to be surprised when they find out that ‘Stinky’ isn’t a legally protected class of worker,” joked one reader.
“Go to HR yourself and tell them she threatened to report you for simply asking what was causing a smell which was incredibly distracting,” suggested another commenter.
“Then let her go to HR, I’m 100% sure HR will side with you and tell her to heat up the food in that cafe. That smell can keep you from doing your work properly,” pointed out a third person.
“Funny, we just got a note from HR reminding us that particularly odoriferous foods are not to be eaten in the work area,” said one Reddit user.
