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No, it's not appropriate.

This isn't a dietary issue, or a health/allergy issue, or anything like that. It's literally the same thing as me requesting a "non-chinese-food" microwave because I can't stand the smell of sweet & sour.

But I think there's another problem - one with the approach you're using here. Instead of asking yourself, "how can I adapt to this situation with minimal personal cost?", you instead immediately leaped to "how can I force change?" Sometimes, trying to effect change is good - but more often, the better solution is to figure out a way to live harmoniously. Trying to wage a war on microwave-meat-smell is probably not the way you want your coworkers to think of you.

In this case, there are all sorts of things you can do. An easy four that come to mind:

• Ask if microwave cleaning/scrubbing can be part of the building
  maintenance. Or even just give it a wipedown once a week on your own.


• Heavily wrap (or use ziploc bags) your own food when it's in the
  microwave. Sure, it might smell when you open/close the microwave
  door, but if you keep your food bundled up, it won't smell when you
  get it back to your desk (smell is just particles of food wafting
  around; keep any meat particles off your food, and it won't smell
  like meat.)


• Breathe through your mouth when opening/closing the microwave.


• Learn to tolerate the smell. (Don't dismiss this. I used to be
  queasy at the thought of touching other people's half-eaten food;
  working as a waiter managed to slowly cure me of that problem.)

The best advice for this is: pick your battles carefully.

If you make a big crusade about a vegetarian-only microwave, even if you win (which is uncertain at best), you will have spent a lot of goodwill of your colleagues and of the company you work for.

Save that for more important issues.
There will certainly be bigger issues and of greater impact at your work, than this one, sooner or later. Use what reputation and influence you have for those issues.

Buy and bring your own microwave if you can, it will be a better solution overall.

It's wholly appropriate in India.

Seeing that you're in India (from your name and because you use the term "non-veg" which is a peculiarly Indian idiom), let me assure you there is already huge local context and sensitivity to vegetarianism.

At most mature workplaces (organizations that have been in existence for more than 3 years, with more than 1000 personnel using the cafeteria) there will already be "vegetarian-only" microwaves. This is more common than you think, and is not a weird request in an Indian setting.

Someone in HR, if you have a HR department, is the right person to direct this request to. The actual implementation might be done by the Admin team if you have one. What I have seen is they keep some microwaves labelled "veg only". Of course this is on an honour system; no one will get punished if they reheat fish in that microwave, but generally people have enough sensitivity to how some vegetarians see the world.

I suggest before dropping an email, you first corner an HR person in the corridor informally, and ask her (note my gender bias) something on the lines of - "Hi _, do you have a moment? I was thinking of this for a while (or other filler sentence); is it possible to have one microwave in the cafeteria labelled as VEG ONLY? Some of my friends at company X said that it is a common practice, so I thought I'd check with you and see if we could do something similar?"

Don't mention the "smell of fish" etc. Such things might be perceived as offensive, like you're looking to rake up trouble, playing the Jain card or whatever. Best to keep it neutral.

This will give you sufficient feedback to how things are perceived at your workplace; do they have history with this topic, has it been tried or discussed before, etc.

Honestly, I would say there isn't much you can do. Consider this; if people are already ignoring the signage about covering food, do you really think they are going to be any better about respecting an additional sign directing them to use the microwave only for vegetarian food?

There's no way to enforce the rules and I doubt management would be willing to enforce consequences for violations. Your only alternative, if you feel that strongly about it, would be to bring your own personal microwave to work. I don't know if that is a practical suggestion, but I think that's the only way you are going to have a meat-free microwave to warm your lunches.

Yes, it’s OK, but it won’t help. Some percentage of those that don’t cover their food will only notice that there are now two microwaves they can use. Example: While eating in a hostel in Ireland, I notice a rack of cutting boards, with a sign saying which color was for fish, which vegetables, which raw chicken, raw other meats, bread cooked meat etc. I pointed and commented, “I doubt that sign is followed.” Another person said, “I never even saw it.”

One thing I learned as an instructor and technical writer is that people don’t read. How often have you seen a frustrated person shoving harder on a handle right below a “PULL” sign?

How about covering your own food, just like the rule demands? It will limit the smell going in both directions.

You can use a tight microwave-safe container to heat your food. Most food-grade containers don't absorb much smell on the outside for a minute or two, and if you still have issues you can even use two containers one inside another (two ziplock bags or a covered plastic container plus a ziplock bag around it). The outside container will generally not get contaminated with food so it will require less often maintenance or change.

Your issue is not limited to vegetarians. A common issue is the smell of pork to someone who is banned from eating pork. I myself don't like most spices people put in their foodh and so on.

Consult with management to buy your own microwave. A cheap one, preferably, with a sign saying "Vegetarian food only". Place it, with permission from management, away from the normal microwaves.

We had a similar situation with the coffee machine. Eventually a few people pitched in to buy a second machine, and everyone was happy.