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WeWork Will No Longer Let Employees Expense Any Kind of Meat

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Re: WeWork Will No Longer Let Employees Expense Any Kind of Meat

#181

Post by munificent »

scott00 wrote: post #176

As a business decision this seems incredibly odd. Being vegetarian or supporting vegetarianism does not seem like it would have disproportionate representation among either their target clientele or their target employees. As such it seems to me it would have minor negative effect on their perception by clients, and moderately negative impact on their perception by employees. I don't see why they would risk that for…

> I don't see why they would risk that for a cause entirely unconnected to their business

Maybe they just really believe in it.

Re: WeWork Will No Longer Let Employees Expense Any Kind of Meat

#182

Post by tzs »

gamblor956 wrote: post #129
tedunangst wrote: post #67

> staff will not be able to expense any meals that include poultry, pork or red meat. What about dolphin?

Like most fake vegetarians, the policy apparently does not include any aquatic creatures like fish, squid, whales, or dolphins...even though the latter two are intelligent mammals with more capacity to feel pain than any type of poultry.

Squid are pretty smart, too, so probably should be included if one is using intelligence as a grounds for deciding what is food.

Re: WeWork Will No Longer Let Employees Expense Any Kind of Meat

#183

Post by curo »

downandout wrote: post #126
curo wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if your company said that they are starting a program to reimburse solar panel installation, but that program doesn't cover reimbursement for gas. Would your argument be that most of the world consumes gas, so they're "forcefully impose extreme views on a whim."

This is a false equivalence. It is apparently a matter of custom at WeWork for at least some employee meals to be paid for by the company. To dictate what employees may order in those situations is unconscionable. Imagine your manager takes the team out for a working lunch, and you basically can’t order anything except for a garden salad from the menu. You have to be at the lunch, but you cannot order like a normal p…

Alright, you call false equivalence, I call petty fogging if you need your analogies to be perfect.

So to make it a proper example: what if your employer had a job benefit to reimburse gas & electric car expenses to visit clients, and then later decided to stop reimbursing gas.

Also, considering WeWork is taking this stance, if a WeWork boss takes you to a restaurant whose only vegetarian option is a garden salad, then she's totally trolling you.

edit: updating my analogy since i can't reply to your nested comment (not sure why)

Re: WeWork Will No Longer Let Employees Expense Any Kind of Meat

#184

Post by munificent »

downandout wrote: post #180
bunderbunder wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's not be hyperbolic here. Serving food that doesn't happen to contain meat isn't forcing you to be vegetarian any more than serving only soft drinks at an event would be forcing you to be a teetotaler.

Serving food that doesn't happen to contain meat isn't forcing you to be vegetarian Sure it is. There will be situations where employees have no choice but to eat company-sponsored food. Mandatory working lunches, dinner with potential clients (I’d love for them to take me to dinner as a potential client/partner and tell me I can’t order a steak...), etc. In those situations, they are indeed “forcing you to be a vege…

That's a real stretch.

If the company refused to pay for an escort, they aren't forcing me to be celibate. They aren't affecting my identity they are just choosing not to pay for a certain act.

Re: WeWork Will No Longer Let Employees Expense Any Kind of Meat

#185

Post by kyledrake »

jlarocco wrote: post #63
kyledrake wrote: post #42

I can't eat a lot of types of food due to allergies. Meat is one of the few things I still can eat without issue. Yes, there are actually people out there (hi, me!) that actually cannot eliminate certain foods from our diets without getting sick. This policy would prevent me from being able to work at that company, for recognized medical health reasons, because I would not be able to do legitimate expenses of food re…

I guess I missed how anybody being "forced" to do anything. Their employees are still free to buy all the meat they want.

Is this the same conversation we're going to have when the company says no IUD costs can come from your health insurance plan?

Re: WeWork Will No Longer Let Employees Expense Any Kind of Meat

#186

Post by downandout »

curo wrote: post #183
downandout wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a false equivalence. It is apparently a matter of custom at WeWork for at least some employee meals to be paid for by the company. To dictate what employees may order in those situations is unconscionable. Imagine your manager takes the team out for a working lunch, and you basically can’t order anything except for a garden salad from the menu. You have to be at the lunch, but you cannot order like a normal p…

Alright, you call false equivalence, I call petty fogging if you need your analogies to be perfect. So to make it a proper example: what if your employer had a job benefit to reimburse gas & electric car expenses to visit clients, and then later decided to stop reimbursing gas. Also, considering WeWork is taking this stance, if a WeWork boss takes you to a restaurant whose only vegetarian option is a garden salad, th…

Again, false equivalence. I’m not being forced to use either form of energy. However, as an employee at WeWork, there are situations where I would be forced to eat WeWork-sponsored meals, to which this policy applies.

Edit: Since my comment no longer makes sense because you completely changed yours long after I replied to it (not a cool thing to do), I think your electric/gas car analogy would be extremely problematic and would likely result in lawsuits. As you know, most cars are gas-based. If it is customary for WeWork to reimburse employees for work-related transportation expenses, and they then changed that policy to favor employees with electric cars, they'd be sued (and rightfully so). The rules are theirs to set - they can either pay for this category of expense or not - but they can't discriminate. I'd imagine that even this vegetarian policy will meet with a few lawsuit threats, but it's so ridiculous that I think they would quietly cave before any suit was actually filed. Imagine trying to justify the cost of defending such a suit to your investors. I'd love to sit in on that meeting.

Re: WeWork Will No Longer Let Employees Expense Any Kind of Meat

#187

Post by meowface »

prepend wrote: post #27
meowface wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like it or not, this is the side of history that will eventually win out. In 50-100 years from now, expect this kind of arrangement to be very common with American companies.

What’s a good way for me to bet you $1000 that you’re wrong? This statement seems so interesting. What’s the basis for this thought process? Isn’t the trend for meat consumption to increase with wealth so as the world develops, more meat will be consumed. [0] [0] https://ourworldindata.org/meat-and-seafood-production-consu...

I'd be happy to take out a $100 bet, but I would probably want to lean towards the 100 year end of the prediction, and it's unlikely both of us will be alive in 100 years.

>Isn’t the trend for meat consumption to increase with wealth so as the world develops, more meat will be consumed.

Note I said "American companies", not companies around the world. I don't think my prediction will hold when applied to the entire world. I believe that within 200-300 years at the latest, there will be a strong cultural taboo in Western countries around hunting, meat farming, and eating "real meat". I figure synthetic and analogue meat will still be very popular. I don't think meat will be outlawed, but I sincerely think most people will treat meat-eaters like how most people currently treat neo-Nazis.

Re: WeWork Will No Longer Let Employees Expense Any Kind of Meat

#188

Post by AdamM12 »

curo wrote: post #106

A lot of comments seem to be missing the facts: - WeWork isn't forcing employees to be vegetarian (it's not like a hiring requirement) - most companies have restrictions and rules surrounding their expensing - WeWork has decided they won't reimburse meat (employees can still buy meat) Should we force WeWork leadership, despite their rights to hold moral positions, to pay for something they don't want to pay for?

> Should we force WeWork leadership, despite their rights to hold moral positions, to pay for something they don't want to pay for?

I'm pretty sure this is the exact argument by social conservatives when it comes to mandated birth control coverage (not taking a stance simply stating a fact).

Another point, not related to my response, is that non-meat dishes at a restaurant are similarly priced to some meat dishes, like a club sandwich and a salad. So the argument from a price standpoint is moot imo.

I can understand not wanting to do it at company sponsored events but seems wack to not do it for an individual's meal. I think this will promote shaming on employees who eat meat.

Re: WeWork Will No Longer Let Employees Expense Any Kind of Meat

#189

Post by bunderbunder »

downandout wrote: post #180
bunderbunder wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's not be hyperbolic here. Serving food that doesn't happen to contain meat isn't forcing you to be vegetarian any more than serving only soft drinks at an event would be forcing you to be a teetotaler.

Serving food that doesn't happen to contain meat isn't forcing you to be vegetarian Sure it is. There will be situations where employees have no choice but to eat company-sponsored food. Mandatory working lunches, dinner with potential clients (I’d love for them to take me to dinner as a potential client/partner and tell me I can’t order a steak...), etc. In those situations, they are indeed “forcing you to be a vege…

It doesn't really work that way. It takes more than having once eaten a single grilled cheese sandwich to qualify as a vegetarian.
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