Woman Urged to Report Coworker Who Said Her Eating Banana Was 'Distracting'

The internet has sided with a teenager after she shared how an older coworker asked her to stop eating bananas because he finds it too "distracting."

A line cook in a restaurant chain, Redditor u/river_runs_away shared the story with the site's r/antiwork community, where it has received thousands of upvotes and comments.

Statistics show that at some point during their lifetime, 81 percent of women and 43 percent of men will experience sexual harassment or assault. From verbal sexual harassment to being physically followed, what constitutes sexual assault isn't always as well-known as we might think.

In fact, one survey found that around 16 percent of people didn't know what constitutes illegal sexual harassment in the workplace, while another 32 percent didn't understand that jokes could qualify as misconduct.

Explaining the uncomfortable encounter, the poster wrote: "I work as a line cook in a restaurant chain, I'm also a pretty serious athlete. Since I work so much I find it hard to get all the calories I need so I often bring a lot of snacks to work, like rice, granola bars, trail mix, and.... Bananas."

She explained that the only male cook on the kitchen staff—aside from one male manager—is the 27-year-old man who confronted her about her snacks.

"I've been bringing bananas to work almost every day for about a month and eat them when we have downtime. Today he cornered me in the walk-in freezer and asked me to stop eating bananas because he found them 'distracting,'" she explained.

She explained that she awkwardly laughed and walked out of the freezer, but said: "That short interaction made me very uncomfortable. We haven't spoken or even looked at each other for the past five hours."

Unsure what to do next, she asked the internet: "Should I stop bringing in bananas? Do I tell a manager? If I tell the managers, I'm thinking of quitting if he doesn't get removed."

Online, commenters instantly picked up on the uncomfortable and inappropriate nature of the man's comment. One commenter wrote: "Report to your manager. Include him cornering you in the freezer AND making weird sexual comments towards you. I have had to deal with so many gross male coworkers. Please report it."

Another Redditor said: "If he finds it so distracting he can quit," while one commenter wrote: "You should be able to eat whatever the hell you want. That guy is, to use a professional term, a goddamn creep."

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) says: "It is unlawful to harass a person (an applicant or employee) because of that person's sex. Harassment can include sexual harassment or unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature."

"This is harassment. Bordering on sexual harassment... Depending on what exactly about eating a banana this guy finds distracting... I bet I could guess," said another Redditor in the comments: "Don't ignore it. Tell your boss immediately. This is going to turn into something far worse if you ignore it."

Another reply urged the woman to: "Put all of this in writing to your manager. He cornered you in the freezer. That is intimidating behavior. Sexualizing eating a banana is also harassment."

Adding to the post after reading some of the replies, the woman wrote: "There will be updates. Thank you everyone, lots of you have made me laugh and feel more confident."

Newsweek reached out to u/river_runs_away for comment. We couldn't verify the details of the case.