AITA for telling my coworker their “special diet” is just an excuse to avoid contributing at potlucks?

A Reddit user shared their frustration over a coworker, Jake, who claims to follow a “special diet” but never contributes to office potlucks, while still eating large portions of everyone else’s food. Feeling fed up, the user finally confronted Jake, suggesting his “diet” was just an excuse to avoid participating. The comment embarrassed Jake and made the atmosphere tense, leading some coworkers to criticize the user while others quietly agreed. Was calling Jake out justified, or was it unnecessarily harsh? Read the full story below.

‘ AITA for telling my coworker their “special diet” is just an excuse to avoid contributing at potlucks?’

I work in a small office where we frequently organize potlucks for team-building events. Everyone usually brings a dish to share, and it’s something we all enjoy—except for one coworker, Jake (34M). Jake claims to follow a “special diet” for health reasons, but he’s never been specific about what it is. Every time we have a potluck, he doesn’t bring anything, yet he always eats everyone else’s food. He’ll fill his plate and say something vague like, “This fits my diet,” without explaining further.

Last week, we had another potluck, and the pattern repeated. I was annoyed because I brought homemade food, and Jake took a large portion without contributing anything. I finally said, “Jake, if you can eat all this food, your ‘special diet’ doesn’t seem like much of a restriction. It just seems like an excuse not to bring anything.”

The room got awkward, and Jake looked embarrassed. He muttered something about “not having time to cook” and left early. A couple of coworkers later told me I was too harsh, but others quietly agreed that Jake has been taking advantage of the potlucks. Now I feel conflicted. I didn’t mean to humiliate him, but it’s frustrating to see someone freeload off everyone else’s efforts. AITA for calling him out?

See what others had to share with OP:

DutchPerson5 −  Jake is on a financial diet. Edit: Thank you kind Redditors for my first awards! Edit: Thank you everybody for breaking my upvote record by several 1000++ Edit: Why do people keep giving awards? And upvoting? 10.000 in 4 hours is 41 votes a minute?! Edit: What is this mechanism? Lol 30 awards in 5 hours is 1 every 10 minutes?!

dr_lucia −  Stop organizing pot lucks as team building. If you are the manager or the boss, you should order food for everyone. If you aren’t someone should suggest the manager do it– or have no food.

Uropa_Hoppenstedt −  I always thought that teambuilding is sth paid by the company. Why do you spend your off time and your own money to prepare potluck dishes for that purpose?

Low_Map4007 −  I hate pot lucks because in the past women were expected to bring a full on homemade meal while the guys brought a two liter bottle of soda.

Ok_Homework_7621 −  Forcing people to cook for work is a good way to break the team. Find some money in the company budget or find different activities to do.

Evening_Lock6267 −  Imagine spending your own time and money preparing food to eat under the guise of ‘team building’. These events should be fully covered by the company, period. Sounds like what y’all are doing is putting new recipes together for Jake to try, very thoughtful of you!

Outrageous-Victory18 −  But you DID mean to humiliate him. Otherwise you would have had a word with him in private. I agree something needed to be said, but I don’t see why you couldn’t have said it privately.

CoppertopTX −  Stop doing potlucks. I won’t ever eat at a potluck, and a couple of months ago, my reasoning of “I have no idea how clean y’all’s kitchen is” paid off when 46 people went to the hospital for a foodborne illness at a company potluck.

shammy_dammy −  How exactly does potluck = team building? And how is what you’ve done here helping to team build with Jake? Sounds annoying among other things.

Last_nerve_3802 −  UGH – I cant stannnnd this forced “lets eat together” crap.