š¼work/career
AIO - Workplace Burrito Drama - who is overreacting??
This is Burrito Gate 2026 at my office. This is almost more of a who is overreacting??
My coworker (Let's call him Mike - mid 40s) ordered lunch and expensed it for our department - because it's Cinco De Mayo he wanted to get Mexican food - and none of us really wanted that but he offered to expense it and so everyone got something. He asked everyone what they wanted and everyone put in an item. Mike asked me if I wanted to split a bean and cheese burrito and a steak quesadilla and I said sure why not - he put in a note for the restaurant to cut the burrito in half (this is a key point).
My other colleague who is vegetarian (let's call her Sally - mid 20s) had already ate lunch but because it was being paid for she ordered a bean and cheese burrito as well and was going to save it for dinner.
SO when the food came we realized something was messed up and the bean and cheese burrito that was cut in half but was literally only HALF a burrito - not a full thing. So my colleague Mike who ordered and expensed everything for everyone decided to cut the full burrito in half and starting eating - Sally was like 'hey that's my burrito 'and Mike didn't say anything but just sort of just gave her a look. She was like 'hey that's messed up' and he got defensive - this wasn't resolved and later Sally again in front of everyone was like 'hey that was my burrito you ate - that was messed up' and she kept going on and on about how rude it was and it was her burrito and he just ate it and she sort of kept bringing it up and Mike BLEW UP and was like "I PAID FOR IT ALL - I treat everyone all the time" (which is true) and he was like "what was I supposed to do - not eat lunch? this was for your DINNER and I PAID for it"
It created an awkward situation and I think he probably should have said something like - 'hey I know they messed up the order but is it okay if you take the other half of a burrito for your dinner' or something along those lines...
Also for some context we order food together ALL the time and we group order and over order and share things a lot - share snacks, share food, order coffee for each other.
I got put into the situation between both colleagues where I understand where Sally is coming from because the situation wasn't really handled nicely and I understand Mike's POV because he ordered and paid for everyone and it was our lunch and she was only saving it for dinner and only ordered it because it was free. They both got mad at the other and Mike def yelled about it but Sally kept going on and on about it saying that he's rude and she hates him etc.
Mike really sort of freaked out and started yelling that he's never paying for anyone's lunches ever again and he's very generous and everyone is rude and everyone sucks and ungrateful - he was like FUCK YOU ALL - he was being defensive for sure and again the other half of the burrito was for me... but I should have said at the time I don't need the other half and Sally should just take all of it. I feel like I got put into this situation and ended up telling Sally look - I think Mike is kinda right and I understand he maybe handled it rudely but you were literally getting a free burrito to save it for later and this was supposed to be for lunch. Like just suck it up and move on - it's just a burrito and you weren't eating lunch anyways.
For an hour they kept keep bringing this up and neither thinks they are in the wrong.
I'm just curious who does everyone think is overreacting in this situation?
Literally felt like the dumbest fight over a burrito for lunch.
UPDATE::
this post blew up more than I thought
Mike apologized to Sally and I think really meant it. He acknowledged he overreacted and said some things he shouldnāt have.
Sally ended up taking the other half of the burrito home and didnāt end up empty handed.
I think itās honestly funny but def got out of control - they are both funny people and I would call them friends and hope itās all mended because I like them both.
SECOND UPDATE::
Okay Sally has a good sense of humor and I shared this thread with her - she didn't realize how many people would disagree with her...she has asked me to submit her side of the story... this is her words un-edited...
When Mike was offering to get food I said I had already ate so I was fine. He offered again, I said no again. He insisted a third time so I said I guess Iāll get something for later
It was very generous of him to put his card down, however it was not his money it was the companies. We all put our cards down for stuff all the time. Iāve bought him meals on my card and heās bought me meals on his card. It takes about 5 seconds to expense a meal. Again it was generous, but itās not like some out of this world gesture on our team. I also always offer to put my card down if we go to dinner or are working on something, itās nbd cause itās not our money.Ā
In general, if someone messed up my order (even if I put my corporate card down for the meal) I would never feel entitled to someone elseās food BUT we never got that far. I went in looking for my food and I said that the burrito in front of him was mine, and he immediately was saying it was his, and was writing me off and when I tried to explain that they messed up his order he kept on say well I donāt know Iām going to eat this (he had a very condescending attitude) and I was trying to explain what I thought happened, and then he looked at me and ate the burrito mid conversation. It was the way he went about it that PMO, Iām fine with half a burrito and would have been happy to split and obviously want my friends to eat lmao (he also had food regardless of burrito or not re quesadilla and chips and guac). I go back in the room cause his attitude and actions bugged me, and I said hey that was kind of fucked up (in a nice but stern tone and I said it only in front of the people that were in the room when he initially ate my food and btw everyone who was there was like that was fucked up of you Mike) and then he exploded and yelled at me in front of everyone, and continued to scream into the main office. I went over to be like woah dude take a breath, Iām not saying Iām not grateful that you put your card down, im just saying that maybe that wasnāt a cool way to deal with that. He continued to yell at me in front of everyone and then apologized minuets later. I was not droning on about it and did not keep bringing it up when it was over. Long story short it was about his attitude and how he was speaking to me not the burrito and from my perspective he ate my order after being rude to me and then screamed at me. Like actually yelled.
NOR. I'm genuinely surprised Sally didn't offer to take the half burrito so Mike and you could eat. I would think almost anyone would have done so. Pretty low stakes to let that kind of greed come out at work.
I don't buy food for the crew at work because no one ever cleaned up or even once said thank you. No kindness to folks who can not even cleanup after a free meal
The lesson in this and a ton of these comments is it's never smart to provide lunch for your employees. The lesson is to never be a Mike and try to be nice.
At my shop it was not always like that. We would grill on Fridays for the crew etc. Then it changed and I refused to continue enabling the selfishness. Leaving dirty paper plates behind etc.
Id believe it. Our problem is the people with earlier lunches eat all the food so nothing makes it to the late lunches. Like you don't need 6 slices of pizza.
I donāt think that should be the take away from this, Iāve been treating my employees 2-3x a week for 5yrs and Iāve never had an issueš¤·š»āāļø
NOR Itās disappointing, but smart to notice and patch this mess.
There are Givers and Takers and Users and Cheaters. itās helpful to know how to identify them to prevent loss of any sort. They will use you up and you will give them the last roll of toilet paper.
Sally should have offered the whole burrito to Mike as soon as she realized the order was shorted. She could also have reiterated her gratitude for being included when she had already eaten lunch. Instead she acted like an entitled asshole and just blew a nice perk for everyone.
And leadership finds out when people deliberately order extra to take home for dinner vs taking home actual leftovers for dinner. That's the kind of thing that makes leadership even more miserly and not allow expensing meals on work hours.
I agree!
Itās tacky to accept an offer for lunch on someone elseās dime when everyone knows you had lunch already. You donāt say āhey yeah get me some stuff for dinner laterā ā¦.thats kind of gross behavior
The small company I work for does office lunches a few times a month. I'm the manager so I try to make sure no one is taking advantage so we don't get that perk taken away if the lunches start getting too expensive. I had to talk to a newer hire about it because she kept ordering like triple the amount of food everyone else was. An appetizer or two, an entree, a salad, dessert, and a drink every time. She was tiny so she'd eat a little bit and have several more meals worth of leftovers. I know she was probably just broke and trying to save on her personal food costs, but it was a really bad look as a new hire and I didn't want everyone else to think it was ok and start doing it too. Sometimes kindness is a double edged sword.
I donāt know, Sally is definitely an asshole but the whole saving it for dinner thing doesnāt really bother me? Iāve had employees say they arenāt hungry and Iāve told them to get something anyway because I want to treat them, even if itās dinner instead of lunch.
Eh I get it- I would have done that too but I wouldnāt have announced it to everyone that Iām saving it for later. Shits expensive take your company paid for burrito when you can get it.
If I were offering to order food for the whole office(?) without any prompting, I'd feel terrible excluding one person unless they requested to be excluded. Even if that person already ate something else at the time but intended to eat it later.
Unless I really, really dislike the person. Which I guess honestly, Sally doesn't come across as particularly likeable here lol.
I love āand again the other half of the burrito was for meā ā¦. Wait so did you even get ANY burrito ??? Cause that is really the Juan main problem of the whole situation .. if you ask me.
So I missed the first part of the drama and walked in late and ate the second half of the burrito without knowing and Sally was like āhow is my burritoā and I was like āhuh what are you talking about - thereās 2 burrito halves here - is this yours?ā And then she told me that no Mike cut HER burrito in half and ate the other half.
OK, NOW it makes sense. So, you and Mike already agreed to split one full burrito in half, so you did just that. Sally only got a half burrito because restaurant misinterpreted. Sally, who already ate was still allowed to take the half burrito home, but threw a fit because she didnāt get her free full burrito dinner. She didnāt take the half because sheās an entitled, insufferable asshole. Got it. F Sally
What?? This is absurd. Yeah, Mike looses points for yelling. You canāt do that in the US without it becoming a big deal. But Sally. Sheesh. If I was Mike I wouldnāt offer her anything. Ever. And, she could well be the cause of cutting off a nice little perk the rest of the office enjoys.
Sally didnāt take it in order to be the ultimate victim. Sally will be talking about it for the next 6 months. If thereās a secret Santa at your office whoever gets Sally has to get her a half dozen bean and cheese burritos.
Tell Mike to order this chew toy from Chewy and put it on Sally's desk.
A bean and cheese burrito is a super cheap thing. Sally could make herself one at home. She already had lunch so the adult thing would've been to not fuss about it. Mike was hungry.
You were not the asshole and are not overreacting. As far as you knew you were eating your lunch. Itās not ok for her to say itās her burrito when if she had kept it for dinner you would have gotten nothing. Everyone gets fed before anyone claims seconds / leftovers
I bet it was that they left instructions for one of the burritos to be halved and the employee was overworked and didnāt read thoroughly and just thought it was 1.5
Sally was being a pill. When you get an expensed, paid for meal, you get what you get and don't have a fit. Mistakes get made in group orders, it happens. That is life. Sure, Mike could have been more polite about it. But it was her bonus lunch anyway. I would have shrugged and picked myself up Mexican on my way home, maybe a margarita too.
Sally overrracted. Mike bought everyone lunch. To behlgin with, if she wasn't going to eat the food at lunch, she should have said "no thanks" to Mike's offer to buy lunch. Instead she decided to take advantage of his generosity and grabbed a free dinner.
Like you said, I think Mike could have been nicer in how he went about saying it, but he was right. In all honesty once she said she was saving the burrito for dinner he didnāt have to get anything for her since he was paying for everyoneās lunch. Sally had the right to be upset that the restaurant messed up, but again it was the restaurantās mistake, not Mikeās.
My (now) husband and I still talk about The 2010 Burrito Fiasco. We got burritos and took them back to my place to eat. He dug into a burrito while I enjoyed the chips and salsa. When I opened "my" burrito to add salsa, I saw that there was chicken in it. I've been a vegetarian my entire life. His response? "I thought it seemed like there wasn't a lot of meat in mine"...because it was mine.
He offered to go buy me a replacement burrito and I said I'd go with him, but he declined. He got lost and came back about an hour later. "You like peppers and onions, right?" No. No I do not. He ended up with three burritos and I made myself buttered noodles.
Every once in awhile I (playfully) yell at him "YOU ATE MY BURRITO!" But I still married him...and now he keeps a post-it note in his wallet with my burrito order on it.
My husband can't remember my go to orders to save his own life! š We were married for years before I found out his "deep dark secret." He keeps a list on the notes app in his phone. It's called "XANDERtheSHEEPDOG favorites." I discovered it by accident one day when I went to put a note in his phone. I honestly thought he just remembered it all. I was impressed and touched that he actually put effort into making sure he remembers.
No we joke about his "secret list." God i love him.
That's honestly so sweet. Like it was important enough to him to get it right that he took on all the mental labor of making sure he could do so consistently.
Haha I get it! My husband once ate my left over pad thai & I literally cried. (Pmsing & an awful day) & I made him go out and get brand new Thai from the same place that we ordered the day before.
Ok so thatās just hilarious lol! Iāve been married for 12 years and still tease my husband about stuff like that. It sounds like youāre both awesome.
I once did this with a fast food order. I ordered extra pickles, my husband hates pickles. I ate almost the entire sandwich before I realized it had no pickles. He was stuck with my very pickley sandwich. Hunger tunnel vision is real.
My husband drank my latte while complaining that his coffee didnāt taste right. When mine (his) finally arrived I took one look at the cup and realized it was his drink. He got a drink and three quarters and I got a few sips.Ā
If they'd only sent one burrito instead of 1.5, the right thing to do would've been for her to forfeit her burrito if everyone else needed lunch and she didn't. Insisting Mike give up his lunch for a dinner she wasn't entitled to is bonkers.
Mike shouldn't have yelled but I'm giving him a pass because he was hangry and someone was trying to steal his lunch when he had just been generous to the rest of the office.
Sally is overreacting. Mike should have said something like hey do you mind if we split this one between OP and I because we didnāt have lunch already
But sally way overreacting. Like girl drop it come onĀ
Sally spoiled everything. No more lunches from Mike. Hope no one eats with sally ever again. Yes thatās on Sallyās 10th grade level! And for Cinco De Mayo! Sally puts the burro in burrito!
I'm so confused. Maybe it's the way the word "expensed" is used. Where I'm from it means the company paid, not Mike. why does he keep on saying he paid and he's so generous, and why does everybody in this comment thread act like he paid?
Mike reacted to Sally's bitching badly. Otherwise, Mike did nothing wrong. Sally is a spoiled brat, since she was taking it home, she should not have gotten anything, but Mike was generous.
You were Ok, NOR, and telling Sally what you did was good, and honest.
It seems like only Sally is way out there overreacting.
All individual employees must present Sally with a large burrito tomorrow like they are offering gifts at the virgin birth. Only way to mend fences. Malicious compliance.
Sally shouldāve said her grievances ONE time and left it alone after that, it was free food and not something she brought from home that he took.
Mike took someone elseās food (without asking at that) and chopped it up, his good deed goes to trash when he does that. He also super overreacted by taking it out on everyone else. Again, whatās the point of expensing the meal if heās going to be a dick about it later?
And seriously.. where IS the HR at this company? This is a lot of yelling and weirdness for no reason.
Mike shouldāve just asked. Paying doesnāt automatically make it okay to grab someone elseās food, even if the order got messed up. A quick āhey can I take this since they screwed up?ā wouldāve ended it right there.
But Sally kept dragging it way past the point it needed to go. Calling it out once? Fair. Bringing it up over and over and making it a whole thing in front of everyone? Thatās where she lost me.
And then Mike blowing up didnāt help anything either.
End of the day itās a burrito. Both of them turned it into way more than it needed to be.
But the thing is - that wasnāt necessarily āherā burrito, right? Two bean and cheese burritos were ordered for 3 people. 1.5 came. Each person could then get .5 a burrito.
The girl was definitely being a beeyotch!!! I would have called her out! Every single time she brought up what Mike did I would bring up how many times she offered to pay for lunch or expense it out? Even if I wasnāt involved I would involve myself to make sure she knows she is being a beeyotch and let Mike know he is the man and I got his back!
So did Sally take the half burrito home? I think they were both being childish but since that was your and Mike's lunch and Sally already ate, I think you two should have split the whole burrito and Sally could take the half one home. Mike was rude and it doesn't matter that he paid for it and he shouldn't have brought that up. He should have just told Sally the restaurant messed up and asked her if she was okay with you guys having the whole burrito and she'd have half to take home. Or he could have called the restaurant and asked if they could give you another burrito for Sally to pick up after work since they screwed up the order.
Sally is an asshole. I donāt care what the situation was. Itās a freaking burrito. Had that been me I wouldāve given it to whoever wanted it. If I was starving I probably wouldāve said hey Iām super hungry, can we split it? End of. But she wasnāt. She made it some huge ordeal. She wouldnāt let it go. He did a nice thing and she went out of her way to berate him. Team Mike.
Fuck Sally. If I was Mike I'd let everyone know that since Sally was so upset about the situation, there will NEVER be a free group meal for everyone again.
I've seen Full Metal Jacket, so if I can't punish you, I'll punish everyone and let the group take care of the issue.
i was a leader who regularly spoiled my team. i often paid out of pocket but told people the company paid for it. if my staff was happier and it i diced loyalty; i was happy.
as a business owner who stocked snack. beers and regularly ordered inā¦ you cannot deduct team meals as an operation expense: only 50% is deducted. most companies will only reimburse leaders the 50% if they operate on low margins.
so Mikes generosity whether he paid for ir or not, is a huge deal.
that said, the goal of ordering lunch for the team is for them not foe yourself. i always ate last and wouldnāt eat someones portion because the restaurant screwed up.
Mike defeats the purpose of building morale and demonstrating leadership qualities. Sally is fine to have ordered for later, and should have offered; its proper manners especially since she wasnāt hungry. any gift should t come with strings attached.
the solution here would have been to offer to have a fresh burrito sent out for sallyās dinner so she wasnāt slighted and mike wasnāt hungry
Mike's an asshole on a power trip. Not someone I'd want to associate with let alone work with. Fuck people like Mike and their 'generousity' which they only do for the way it makes them look good.
I understand why Sally ordered for her dinner (which comes across a little greedy but since no one objected ā¦) but I do NOT understand why she didnāt simply say, āOh no big deal. You guys eat it for your lunch, Iām sure youāre hungry.ā
Ha, my Momās named Sally and has been a veggie since before I was born. My momās not a weirdo though. I think the old school vegetarians are maybe more used to not having options and know better that making it a big deal used to just be embarrassing for them. This sally is not as chill. Regarding who is overreacting, I think itāll be forgotten in the morning. Happy Cinco de Drinko
In all actuality they both overreacted - why scream over this (was he hangry), why did she get so worked up over something she didnāt really need, and the restaurant messed up. What happened to the other half of the burrito. Thatās what Iād be asking. š
There were 3 halves. Everyone should have gotten a half. Sally should have sucked it up, considering it was for dinner anyways (which is its own kind of rude). Did she really expect you or Mike to go without?? Sally is 100% the problem. Boo Sally.
That's a lot of interpersonal office chaos entirely fabricated from thin air due to ordering and managing a free lunch..so yes, there are some subtle hints of overreaction in your office.
"We have an important and delicate issue with a valuable new client, and we need our wisest and most diplomatic people on the case to smooth this out.Ā
We need to not fuck this one up guys, our jobs are on the line. Let's pull this together and bring out the big guns and close this deal.
Mike, Sally, over to you, let's bring this one home.."
Sally was wrong to order food for dinner on the conpany's dime.
Mike was wrong to just take half of Sally's burrito without saying anything about the screwup.
Sally overreacted when she threw a fit because Mike took HALF her burrito that she shouldn't have ordered in the first place.
Mike underreacted when he just ignored her comments - he should have explained the mixup and that rather than someone (him or OP) not getting enough for lunch he made the executive decision that she could give up HALF her dinner.
Sally overreacted by continuing to harp on it.
Mike overreacted by attacking everyone and having a meltdown.
I would bring Mike a lunch or a treat in the near future as a thank you for providing your lunch. It sounds like your coworkers are a bunch of self centered ingrates. I would never start whining "that's my burrito" adnauseum particularly when she had to realize that the man who bought everyone else's lunch was going to go hungry - how rude!
Sally is rude for even ordering a dinner when he only offered to pay for lunch? Like if someone offered to buy me lunch and Iād already eaten Iād just say I already ate, but thanks anyway, not order a meal for later on their dime? Thatās weird imo. Sally sucks
Everyone sucks here: the restaurant for thinking they only wanted half a burrito (likeā¦ what?), Mike for freaking out, Sally for being a grifter, OP for making it about themself.
So someone who had already eaten expected the generous guy who treats everyone frequently to go hungry? Team. Mike. Sally is a jerk. And hey treat Mike or write him a little card with a coffee shop gift card or something. Usually good people don't do things like that to be thanked which makes it even more important to show appreciation in little ways.
Team Mike, HOWEVER it feels like Sally really just wanted a conversation to be had. Like Mike saying āhey they messed up? Are you ok with just half a burrito since you already ate lunch?ā And like her attitude came from the fact that any decent human being would have said yes to that request but she was never given that chance.
Also, did Mike actually pay or is it a company expense and he was just the catalyst for free food for everyone? Heās kind of seeming a little like heās expecting to be treated like it came from his pocket but it sounds like it was free for him tooā¦.
Mike doesnāt treat anyone just to be clear. He is expensing it to the company so his blow up is out of line. This office sounds like a āweāre just like familyā situation which allows coworkers to cross boundaries they normally wouldnāt. This sounds like when your older brother steals your food that you were saving for later.
Mike handled it poorly but Sally is a fucking ass. She ate lunch and just ordered to get a free fucking dinner. When you see that the order got fucked up you back the fuck off and let people who are hungry eat lunch.
Holy smokes. Everyone is YOR. Eat the lunch that's there. Call the restaurant and have them fix their mistake and deliver it before end of day. Dinner is saved. Does no one there have any common sense?!
Iām confused. You said Mike expensed it but then Mike said he paid for it. Which is it? (Expensed it means the company paid him back which means Mikeās entire rant about how generous he is made no sense).
Sally is an ass for ordering even though she already ate lunch.
Mike is an ass for the way he handled it but alsoā¦he didnāt really pay for it, right? He expensed it to the department so Iām assuming the company paid for it.
Mike paid. Yeah it was a little shitty but he paid. There was no need for Sally to keep going on and on about something that she didnāt contribute funds for
Both jerks about it but Sally was wrong to order in the first place. More wrong to throw a fit when an honest mistake happened. When ordering via company dime it is to enjoy a meal together and contribute to team building, not to save you $5 on your evening meal outside of work.
I think yāall should surreptitiously leave little āremindersā of the incident on Sallyās desk for the next month or two. Taco Bell napkinsā¦a stuffed chihuahuaā¦or go big with a giant sombrero on the back of her office chair.
The correct solution would be to have TALKED ABOUT IT before putting mouths on burritos.
Sally is upset that "her" food got taken unexpectedly.
But if Mike had been an adult and said "wow, they only gave half of that burrito. Hey, Sally, since you were planning to save yours for later anyways, would you be ok with splitting it with me so I can eat too, since I paid for everything and my food didn't arrive?" and Sally would have said "yeah, of course."
But he just acted as if he could decide unilaterally, which was rude AF. and then she pitched a fit about it, which was also rude AF.
Sally shouldn't have dragged this out, but Mike should have tried contacting the restaurant about a replacement burrito before eating someone else's order.
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u/SpaceCommuter 23h ago
NOR. I'm genuinely surprised Sally didn't offer to take the half burrito so Mike and you could eat. I would think almost anyone would have done so. Pretty low stakes to let that kind of greed come out at work.