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Comment by jonnybgood | Hacker News Reader

> As an anecdote, a few weeks ago, a very good Indian friend of mine started work at a hot SF startup (their backend is in Go!). In her second week, she was asked not to heat up her food in the microwave because her food 'smelled'.

That's a hard one. I personally don't see that as a cultural issue. Startups are usually within small quarters. Big Co's typically have isolated "kitchen areas". I think it's important when working in small quarters organizations to be respectful of the workplace and sensibilities of your coworkers. It's somewhat analogous to BO when someone refuses to wear deodorant or the likes because of their convictions. Unlike noise that can be drowned out with headphones, you can't really drown out smells.

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Indian food isn't BO. It's a different kind of food. For me, personally, I didn't like the smell of bacon at first. But guess what? I sucked it up and got used to it. That's what cultural sensitivity is. If you can't stand the smell of Indian food, then at least be honest about it and don't hire Indian people as a policy. Why this pretense about diversity?

>Indian food isn't BO.

Didn't say it was. I was speaking on sensibilities.

> I sucked it up and got used to it. That's what cultural sensitivity is.

Cultural sensitivity is not telling people to "suck it up." That's how you create problems. We're speaking about the workplace, a professional environment that should be culturally neutral as possible so that cultural particulars do not affect the working conditions of others.

as culturally neutral as possible, and welcoming of those who are a culture fit?

So what's their microwave for if you can't heat up food?

Heating up food that doesn't cause odors that enough others in the office apparently dislike, obviously.

So if I don't like bacon and ask you to stop bringing it to lunch, will you do it? Why, because this is "your" country? My friend is actually a US citizen. If the majority of my coworkers are devout Christians, and they ask me to take off my desktop wallpaper because it contains elements of Hindu symbolism, is that permissible?

Take solace, big corp won't let you change your wallpaper away from the approved one with the company logo, precisely so that no one is ever offended. That is the tradeoff.

Maybe the same thing that makes big corp so safe is also what makes it so boring that your friend wants to work in a startup instead.

Maybe startups have so much potential because you're opinionated but otherwise rule-free, so the tradeoff there is that not everybody is compatible with the company culture.

Maybe I'm a white Mormon, and there are millions of us in the USA (more of us than there are Indians, btw) who don't drink either despite the pervasive American drinking culture, and get pressured to drink. all. the. time. But get along better with an office of mostly Indian Muslims because none of us drink or send porno pictures to each other over email, entirely by choice rather than by regulation. And we can do it all in a tiny company with few rules because we have a company culture.

Maybe startup culture needs more Indian (or Mormon...) founders.

How do you know beforehand what smells others dislike?

What happens when the cumulative dislikes of food smells makes it impossible to bring in most meals?

My partner is a vegetarian and doesn't like the smell of meat. Would you stop eating all your meat dishes in the office?

What happens when someone who was "banned" from eating or heating their food in the office fights back by suddenly banning other foods?

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