I work in a corporate office for a small marketing firm. The office is pretty informal in that we can wear jeans and even Tshirts to work. We don't even have cubicles, just desks with computers within easy sight of one another, and thus we all tend to chat with one another all day. Our office only has about a dozen people besides the manager.
I'm pretty new at work and thus far I get along with everyone. I've noticed in the two months that I've worked here that people tend to talk about really serious, personal issues with one another, in front of everybody (such as so-and-so is cheating on this person, sex lives, and stuff like that). I have a boyfriend but I never really bring him up as a conversation topic at work because I don't exactly feel comfortable talking to them about him.
One topic that does come up an awful lot is the subject of diets, dieting, and the vegetarian or vegan lifestyle. We have a tiny room with a refrigerator and a microwave and a water cooler, but no big lunch table. We're all allowed to eat lunch at our desks. It seems like everyone here is on some kind of specialized diet.
I have these three coworkers in particular who always loudly discuss how awesome their vegan diet is. They brag endlessly about how fit they are, how much energy they have, how nice their skin is.
Though honestly, these two women and one man are considerably overweight, don't look like they could run even one lap around a track without dying, and they kind of look like mid-30s people with teenage pizzaface. Also ironically, between the three of them they've called in sick at least a total of ten days in just the eight weeks that I've worked in the office.
Interestingly, one of my other coworkers, a young woman my age, is also a vegetarian or vegan (I don't know which for sure, I just know she said something along those lines to them) but she actually DOES look really fit, healthy, and beautiful. These other two women kind of gossip about her and talk trash about her and her husband, all the more so recently because she started going out for her lunch hour instead of just staying in the office. The one man is really flamboyant and is like some sad, Sex and the City stereotype of a gay man.
The three of them started talking down to me because they noticed I was eating a ham sandwich on white bread one day.
"That's so bad for you."
"If you go green, you'll have a lot more energy."
"You'll be in better shape if you stop eating meat."
"Eating meat is cruel to animals. Do you know about the meat industry?" (meanwhile both of these women fail to see the irony in the way they both flash designer leather purses and leather boots and shoes every day)
They also quiz me about my exercise regimen.
I wouldn't mind their criticism so much except I'm stuck in a little office with them all day, and when I truthfully tell them that I run five miles, twice times a week and do yoga on the weekends, they try to one-up me by telling me how much more allegedly rigorous THEIR workouts are.
Privately I'm looking at my own body (5'9" 125) and I've got a four-pack on my midsection (my boyfriend is even more fit and athletic than me, as he bikes everywhere), and I'm wondering what planet these overweight men and women are on. I haven't missed a day at work yet, and at my previous job I missed exactly two days in six years, both due to severe colds.
I'm not saying any diet is better than the other, I'm just wondering what I can say to these people that will make them both leave me alone or change the subject with me besides diets, but at the same time not ostracize me like they've done to the other vegetarian girl.
I want to go out to lunch every day to avoid these women, but I can't afford to eat out like that and anyway I don't want them trashing me behind my back, too.
I just don't want there to be any drama at the office, because seriously as days go by I'm more and more tempted to just tell these guys off hardcore.
I'm almost tempted to quit just to avoid them, but I really need this job. I just don't want every day to be unpleasant with these chatterboxes.
I'd talk to the boss about it but he's rarely ever in the office, instead always out hustling his business. These three gossip about HIM too, but are really obsequious to his face.
Is there anything I can do here, to make these people STFU about their diets, while at the same time not appearing mean to them, or starting any feuds?
tl;dr: I work in an office where my vegan coworkers are always bragging about how awesome their diets are, and are always giving unwarranted advice and criticism to me about how what I'm eating is all wrong. How do I get them to stop, without looking antisocial or causing drama in the office?
Submitted July 17, 2016 at 02:03AM by MimosaDixieCup http://ift.tt/29LDxAv relationships
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