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Coworker sniffed my lunch. I made him buy a new one. Am I being unfair?

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S

Sho_Nuff82

Member
Figboy79 said:
You over-reacted for sure, OP.

Arnold was being inconsiderate for picking up your food without your permission, but your reaction was kind of extreme.

My office is a lot closer than most, but when someone brings in something delicious smelling/looking, we at least ask if it's okay to pick it up, or smell it, or taste it. Arnold should respect people's stuff, but you should relax a bit as well. He was inhaling the aroma of your food, not breathing on it, or rubbing his face in it.

I'm sure this is what Arnold thought he was doing to your food:



And this is what your reaction makes me think you thought Arnold was doing to your food:



A firm, "Please don't pick up my food without asking," probably would have set better boundaries between the two of you. I don't think I'd have ordered him to buy me replacement food, but if it bothered me that much to eat it, I would have bought new food, but I wouldn't have told him about it. I definitely would have told him that I'm not comfortable with other people touching my food without my permission. I think most people can understand and respect that kind of boundary.
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Dying laughing at those pictures.
 
P

partyphone

Banned
The Lamonster said:
What if he had kissed that chicken?
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better consult the holy books on this one.

It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. For God did not call us to be impure, but to lead a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his holy spirit.
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seems pretty clear!
 
V

vainglorious

Member
348726
 
A

Always-honest

Banned
Hoo-doo said:
The fuck is your problem dude. He sniffed your food, he didn't masturbaate in it.

At some point you are going to have to admit to yourself that your germaphobia is causing you genuine issues in everyday life and social situations.

Explain to him that you're ridiculously anal about food and germs, and that you didn't appreciate the completely innocuous thing he did because of it. This is on you.
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Sorry but yeah, this.
 
M

Mercury Fred

Banned
OP, you probably could have handled it a little differently, but what your co-worker did was fucking disgusting and yes he should have replaced your meal.
 
LifEndz

LifEndz

Member
I get grossed out by shit like this all the time, and once my food's been prepared and is ready to be consumer I don't want people putting it next to their face and sniffing it. Hell, I once saw an old person in a pizzeria sniffing the tops of all the open seasonings containers. Put her nose right on the goddamn garlic container and took a big whiff. Skeeved me out so bad that I don't use those containers anymore.
 
N

NeoGold123

Member
LifEndz said:
I get grossed out by shit like this all the time, and once my food's been prepared and is ready to be consumer I don't want people putting it next to their face and sniffing it. Hell, I once saw an old person in a pizzeria sniffing the tops of all the open seasonings containers. Put her nose right on the goddamn garlic container and took a big whiff. Skeeved me out so bad that I don't use those containers anymore.
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I can only see your avatar standing in some line somewhere, then seeing the sniff, and then BAM!
image.php

it's on.
 
D

Darryl

Banned
probably venting stress and externalizing

I bet if you were more comfortable with your position in life and your relationships with the people around you, a group of a dozen people could pass around a box filled with your lunch and you would just giggle.

let's start one step at a time. just try to let one person sniff your food box. then we can work it up to a dozen.
 
Shadax the wizard

Shadax the wizard

Member
This reminds me of a colleague that used to smell my lunch and moan loudly, occasionally stroking his chest and belly. He was a fun guy though and I'm not easily bothered by that kind of stuff.

EDIT:

WaterAstro said:
Was your coworker doing this with your food?
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That was basically my colleague, lol.
 
B

brianjones

Member
would rather have OP as a coworker than somebody who fucking smells my lunch.. who does that?

don't back down i got your back
 
I

IvanJ

Banned
I cannot believe what I've just read.
If I were Arnold, I would make it my mission to sniff his food every single day. Heck, I'd mess with him by becoming friends with the Chicken place's cook, wait for OP to pick up his chicken then grin and snigger while zipping up my fly.
 
S

Spikematic

Member
This entire thread has been a blast to read.

My two cents (not that it matters, but what the heck): What the guy did was super gross and I would've flamed him myself. Grabbing someone's food and sniffing it is NOT normal. So I don't really see your reaction as unwarranted.
 
Y

Yagharek

Member
Correct way to react to this situation:

Colleague sniffs food.
OP should have said something like: "It's good, I'll show you where I got it from/how I made it tomorrow" or "Yeah, you want to try a bit?". Both human responses.

Wrong way to respond:
See either Assistant HR response or the OP's original post.
 
K

Koriandrr

Member
Wow, OP. I take it you're not in Europe. I share my food with people all the time and try their food too. It's totally fine. You sound like a brainwashed corporate asshole. No offense, you seem pretty conscious about it to begin with.


Good luck connecting with people with this attitude. I do hope you have some real friends.
 
Z

Zelias

Banned
Your coworker sounds creepy and I'd have been unhappy with what he did, but holy shit dude your reaction was not sensible. Like you are now going to be the office wierdo for this.

Good idea for a sitcom though.
 
R

RichiRamjag

Member
Yagharek said:
Correct way to react to this situation:

Colleague sniffs food.
OP should have said something like: "It's good, I'll show you where I got it from/how I made it tomorrow" or "Yeah, you want to try a bit?". Both human responses.

Wrong way to respond:
See either Assistant HR response or the OP's original post.
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Assistant to the HR
 
D

draetenth

Member
brianjones said:
would rather have OP as a coworker than somebody who fucking smells my lunch.. who does that?

don't back down i got your back
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Spikematic said:
This entire thread has been a blast to read.

My two cents (not that it matters, but what the heck): What the guy did was super gross and I would've flamed him myself. Grabbing someone's food and sniffing it is NOT normal. So I don't really see your reaction as unwarranted.
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^ Yep, don't care how many people have interacted with the food, the less there are the better (plus, out of sight out of mind). I've read enough of GAF threads about bathing/deodorant/brushing teeth/whatever to only confirm that people are dirty, nasty fucks.
 
C

Cappa

Banned
The Abominable Snowman said:
So I work for a medium-large Enterprise IT firm, and occasionally bounce from office to office, location to location to tackle projects and make sure things are how they are supposed to be. My name is attached to many projects, but unfortunately due to the type of work I really don't get 'close' with my coworkers.

So this past couple of weeks, I am put into a new office where I don't know anyone minus one older lady I worked with on a previous project (Serah). There are a few people on the team as well, but the only person who really talks to me besides Serah is an older fellow, Arnold. I don't mind too much, he's a funny guy and likes to laugh. It's funny seeing him excited about something because his accent (I believe he grew up in Austria? German and Russian roots?) comes out. He has this annoying habit of invading space, though. If we are having a conversation, he will slide up next to me like hes whispering a dark secret but continue to talk out loud. When he comes up to greet you, its always a slight 'massage' to the shoulder or back of the neck. Very weird but I guess he's just very extroverted and comfortable or something.

So today, I'm sitting in my little cubicle. The cubes are about 6' high and 7'x7' wide. Right outside the 'door' to my cube theres a big water tank. I come in with my glorious honey chicken from a chicken shack next door. The aroma is just as golden as the crispy skin and honey sauce, just emanating and beautiful. Arnold walks over to my desk after smelling and says "Oh my god what do you have? It smells so good!" and I tell him where and what I got. At the time I was refilling my water bottle with water, where I can clearly see Arnold pick up my food container, flip up the lid, and SNIFF my food. My food was so close to his face, I swear I could see the front part of the lid brush up against his top lip.

So as he tells me how good it looks/smells I go "Did you just sniff my food?" He says yes, and I immediately go "Well you can have that one and get me another one. I don't want your nose hair and breath and boogers in my food." We do a little back and forth about how he already ate and I wasn't going to eat that so he can just have it and he leaves my cube. I wait for a minute and put the container of food on his desk and go back to buy another container for myself. Needless to say, he went off to Serah and started complaining about how I was trying to 'get over' on him and I was rude (I said it in a very nice manner, IMO). Later, Serah comes over and explains how I was being crass and unprofessional etc etc. I explain to her that I think that it's gross, I barely know him and he's breathing on my food. I ask her point blank if she would have eaten the food afterwards and she says "No, but I wouldn't have made a scene about it or told him" and I make my point that if he didn't know, he would not change.

So in the end everyone leaves for the day and this is the first day Arnold didn't stop by to say "Have a good night". I expect many days of Arnold not stopping by in the future, but I'm only here for a few more weeks and who knows if I'll see him the next time I am here.

GAF, am I wrong for 'causing a scene'? Am I overreacting to someone breathing all on my food?
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Wow I cringed reading this. The arrogance in you is amazing,yes you overreacted. You could have simply said that you didn't appreciate him doing that.

I highly doubt he did that in an attempt to gross you out. It sounds like previous to him doing that you were giving him every reason to smell your food.
 
T

TaterTots

Banned
Sounds like Arnold was under the assumption you two were buds. If this was a friend of yours I doubt you'd have the same reaction. With that said, you did take it too far. Saying words like, "boogers" and putting the food on his desk was too much. I'd apologize for how you handled it.
 
A

Alienous

Member
How are you going to tell another grown man, a co-worker no less, that he has to go get you a new lunch?

Like, how do you not immediately be stopped by even the non-violent consequences of saying that?
 
M

Mik2121

Member
Both of you are weird, but if I had to pick I'd go with Arnold. At least he wouldn't go ape shit if I said hello to him.
 
N

n00bsauce87

Member
The Abominable Snowman said:
Thanks. I feel as though if anyone purposefully does something to your food to make it unappealing to you, at the very least you should tell them what they did wrong. In the future, maybe I won't bark at them about boogers or tell them to get me a new one, but I will let them know they made my food unappealing to me. It's like finding a hair that isn't yours in your food. Some people think it's innocuous, and some would take it back and ask for a new one. He didn't exactly 'poke' at the food sort to speak. It was most likely grease or sauce that was outside of the container or maybe on the side when he picked it up. Either way, by picking up the container his hands were adjacent to my food and when he sniffed and breathed on it it made it completely unappealing to me.
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No prob. If this was reddit, I'd be downvoted to hell. Thank goodness there isn't a karma/rep system here. But what if there was a lucky mod that wanted to change my username description? Any takers? I asked a couple of friends about it and they all agreed it was a bit over the top but they understand where you are coming from. Like a broken clock, the collective of GAF can be right two times a day as well. I'm jumping ship now.
Another new page get. Dunno if I'm lucky or cursed
 
O

Orniletter

Banned
Every single inch of everyone's body is literally encased in all kinds of bacteria and fungal hypha.

The OP is inhaling particles which have hundreds to thousands of microorganisms on them this very moment.

Yeah, the Arnold dude invaded his personal space and he shouldn't have done it, but the OPs exposing his body to various things worse than could ever come out of a nose every day.
 
D

daemonic

Banned
This would make a great Seinfeld episode. George starts new job. Obnoxious coworker sniffs his lunch. Hilarity ensues.
 
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