My coworker and I work servicing machines throughout the county, so we carpool in a work van. I bring my lunch everyday in my lunch pail. He eats out everyday, and everyday he tries to pressure me to join him inside the restaurants he’s eating in. There’s no way I’m taking food from home into an establishment and eating without purchasing anything. He says I’m being a jerk for having him eat alone. AITA?
NTA. Suggest he get his food to go and you can both eat in the work vehicle or at a picnic table at a park.
NTA.
If he wants company for lunch he can get takeout.
NTA. If he’s so insecure about eating alone, he can get his food to go and go eat wherever you settle down to enjoy your packed lunch.
I mean, clearly you are NTA.
Even my seven-year-old nephew understands that you can’t bring outside food into a restaurant.
Why doesn’t your coworker get takeaway?
He said he prefers to eat inside rather than the work van, and now when I go eat my lunch in the van, he comes out with his food to eat in the van also. BUT, he has a very poor attitude as if it’s my fault that he’s eating in the van and not inside. On the flip side, I’m perfectly fine eating lunch alone. I don’t need company lol.
Your coworker is incredibly self-absorbed. Don’t let him get to you. He is most certainly the asshole in this situation.
NTA – he can order take out and eat outside with you, but it is totally uncool to take food into a restaurant.
NTA
He can’t eat alone?
Nope.
NTA
Does he need an audience for every meal, or just lunch? I would ask him that, but maybe you’re a better person than I am.
Tell him you’ll eat in the restaurant if he’s buying.
NTA… you will literally get kicked out for even trying to eat your home lunch in a restaurant…
Just reading your comments. If he wants company, that’s a him problem, not yours. Maybe he’s embarrassed with eating by himself.
I would have thought with being stuck in the van all day together, that he’d be fine with being alone for half an hour / an hour.
Thank you! Sometimes that half hour break alone is needed. Not all the time, but it is nice.
If he doesn’t want to eat alone then he should get his food to go and eat with you in the van. Problem solved.
NTA, most restaurants do not allow outside food. If the coworker wants company when he eating he needs to get takeout.