Roanoke business asks workers not bring meat

[Gifted Gourmet]

the article

CCI of Roanoke, a telephone service provider, has branded its lunch room a ‘vegeteria’ and plastered signs all over the place asking its 300 workers not to bring meat into the vegeteria. Meat-eating employees would like to raise a beef over the policy, but they're afraid they'll be fired. The company says it has a special room for workers who want to eat meat, but the workers say they don't know where it is.

Does this remind you of some of the threads here on similar topics of forbidding employees to eat ham in a Muslim-owned workplace and the English guy who would not rent to non-vegetarians because they were stereotyped (by him only, apparently!) as more violent ??

Is this a trend of the future? Are meat eaters, or even the "flexitarians" of whom I spoke recently, "the endangered" today? Smokers have their cubicles in airports and this is beginning to look like it may be spreading to food issues .. of course you can't die from second-hand meat meals ...

Talk to me!

[Carrot Top]

Sorry....I promised myself I would not respond to anything on eGullet today (uh, yeah, once in a while I'm somewhat productive... ) (and besides that, the horoscope warns of arguments in the air! ) but this is precious.

That sentence...'the workers say they don't know where it is'? (the special meat-eating room...) Huh? In a facility that holds three hundred employees (that is a building much smaller than the average elementary school) they can't find it if they look? Or, if they ask???

I can't even begin to say how silly this all is...

The larger issue is silly, too...but has its salient points to discuss, obviously, in 'real life'....but....sigh.

Back to work here....thanks for the laugh, GG (even if it was unintentional! )

[Busboy]

Good to know that even in the 21st century employers still feel the need to control aspects of their minions' lives that have absolutely nothing to do with their jobs.

This is the kind of thing that makes non-vegetarians more violent!

[s'kat]

That sounds like a very Atkins-unfriendly company.

Seriously, what does it matter if you eat meat or veg for lunch? I'd love to hear what the employees think about this policy.

[Gifted Gourmet]

I'd love to hear what the employees think about this policy.

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I think they probably consider their jobs more valuable than their bologna sandwiches ... as the article notes, Virginia is a right to work state ... and lunch is just, well, lunch after all is said and done ...

I can't even begin to say how silly this all is...

thanks for the laugh, GG (even if it was unintentional!

No, actually I thought it was just a joke too! .. So, I spent some time tracking down corroboration from Roanoke news media ...

[Carolyn Tillie]

Seriously, what does it matter if you eat meat or veg for lunch?  I'd love to hear what the employees think about this policy.

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Some vegans are extremely sensitive to even the smell of meat. After Shawn and I moved in together, his Vegan Sister wouldn't set foot in our house for TWO YEARS because she could sense the lingering smell of meat and it made her nauseous (or so she said...)

Whatever.

[ludja]

Can you imagine a workplace where one would be forbidden to bring in and eat a vegetarian lunch?

[Carrot Top]

No, actually I thought it was just a joke too! .. So, I spent some time tracking down corroboration from Roanoke news media ...

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Mmm. Strange phrasing for what one would call 'journalism'...sort of a walk down the garden path, but to where?

I looked in the local paper on-line to see if it was reported but got sidetracked by the larger story of the local Roadkill Festival. Anyone interested in attending? (Or should I go take photos....) Info at roanoke.com (the Roanoke Times).

[Fresser]

What if the facility in question were a kosher meatpacker and asked employees not to bring in any outside food? Would this be allowed?

I'd like to think that a kosher meatpacker would provide meals for employees who thus could not bring their own. But this issue boils down to how an employer can regulate what is or is not brought into the workplace.

[Gifted Gourmet]

With some assistance from Carrot Top, I was able to locate the full article with many more updated details on this "Vegeteria" phenomenon in Roanoke, Virginia:

the update is here

Mason, who is a PETA member, wants to go beyond catering to current vegetarians. He sees a person's craving for meat as a nasty habit that can be broken. By providing free vegetarian lunches and stocking the room with information pamphlets about vegetarianism, Mason hopes to nudge his carnivorous employees toward a different lifestyle. ''I try to combine as much preaching with living by example,'' Mason said. ''That's why the cafeteria is free. Nobody's forced to eat in the cafeteria. They can go somewhere else. If they want to spend their money, that is their right.

[eunny jang]

I think this is ridiculous, and I hate prostelyzing as much as anyone.

But, I'm sure they can do this. No one has a condition that requires them to eat meat for every meal at their desks.

Me, I bristle at dress codes.

[reesek]

it reads like an "onion" article.

" 'They have this thing called 'soyberry steak' instead of Salisbury steak,' says Michaela Goodman, a 19-year-old customer service staffer, while delicately picking at a plate of corn and coleslaw."

that cracked me up...almost as much as this:

"It also will hopefully teach them respect for animals, he says, a value symbolized by Lucille, the paralyzed dog he adopted that follows workers around on a little wheeled contraption."

you couldn't pay me enough to work in a place like that. but 'soyberry steak?' you just can't make that up. it's brilliant.

[Gifted Gourmet]

You got that just right, reesek! I think the idea of working for such an individual who is spreading his sanctimonious "eat as I eat" doctrine is beyond belief! The concept he espouses of "well, I provide the meals for free!!" is even worse.. demeaning actually .. very ...