Top of my list: anything involving food.
I’m allergic to casein and whey (proteins found in milk). And any amount of cross-contamination will make me physically sick. Caffeine and alcohol aggravate my mental health issues.
This was a disaster at my last job.
Every event involving food, one of the following happens:
- Pizza party, donuts, cake, etc as rewards. A number of people choose not to eat these because of calories, so people allergic to the food can choose not to eat it.
- Spend over a hour making a list of safe restaurants that are too expensive for me to ever have been to and still getting sick because food safety is for plebs.
- Help plan the catering for an event I’d rather not attend.
- Standing around awkwardly while everyone apologizes multiple times for forgetting my food allergies. I don’t want to be there and now I am responsible for making everyone else feel better about the situation.
- Told to get lunch on my own and expense it. Forget the receipt and have accounting get my manager involved.
And for fun, the worst situation: a VIP coming to the office to work with me for two days on an important project.
Well, if course everyone involved had to go to dinner with him. I had to pick the restaurant. Said restaurant did in fact not understand food safety, despite their claims to the contrary. Realized this about half an hour into the meal. I was severely sick for the next two days and felt terrible for the next week.
The damage was severe enough I couldn’t keep food down initially. Probably should have gone the hospital, but I didn’t want to pay hundreds of dollars on top of my misery.
I suspect this was career limiting. Got a new job eventually. So fuck that guy.