
Ask HN: How to handle catered lunch perk directed at specific group of employees - officeperks59
The satellite office I work at here in San Jose recently began a dedicated, twice-a-week catered lunch program. Before, this had mostly been an adhoc thing where the people in the office itself had ordered food&#x2F;expensed it.<p>The issue I have is that I found out the proteins that will be included week-to-week will consist of only chicken or vegan&#x2F;vegetarian options. No beef, lamb, pork, etc.<p>According to an office administrator this is because people in the office are either vegetarian or &quot;chicken only&quot;.<p>I think having a free occasional meal perk is nice and I appreciate that we have one in the first place as some don&#x27;t, etc. But personally I have some allergy-type issues concerning chicken (food hypersensitivity is the only real term to describe it), so I mostly avoid it except when there&#x27;s absolutely nothing else and no time to get food elsewhere. And even so, having variety is nice.<p>But it seems like the protein options are the way they are based on the employees here at the office.<p>I get that employees aren&#x27;t required to take advantage of perks, but when said perks are specifically for a subgroup of coworkers within the office it&#x27;s a little frustrating..<p>What should I do?
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matt_the_bass
Maybe this is a little gruff but politely tell the office admin that you have
a chicken sensitivity and eat the veggietarian. You apparently are the only
person in that office that is t happy with the arrangement. Perhaps after a
few weeks you could request a change of menu.

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officeperks59
Actually, my entire team feels the same as well as at least a couple other
coworkers in the org who work out of this office.

But yes, I was told 'everybody' in this office is chicken/veggie only. I don't
think a poll or survey ever went out about it unfortunately.

But I might try emailing the office admin and see what happens.

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matt_the_bass
Maybe ask what the budget is and then propose additional choices that meet the
budget. This way you save work for admin so perhaps easier to make it happen.

