Discourses at Work: Workplace Bullying, Food Consumption, and “Professional” Bodies

Societal discourses affirm ideals about bodies and eating that extend beyond individual self-regulation to shape interpersonal dynamics at work. Drawing on interviews with 33 full-time workers, this study theorizes how larger societal discourses become embedded in workplace interactions, prompting employees to monitor, evaluate, and comment on coworkers’ food consumption. Though this discourse is often framed as casual or caring, it exerts moral judgments about eating, bodies, and self-discipline, which can escalate into bullying. Our findings highlight that fat women were disproportionately targeted for body- and eating-related scrutiny, underscoring how workplace interactions reproduce broader gendered and bodily inequalities. Even children were conditioned by societal discourses to judge eating through a moral lens. This study extends research by demonstrating how eating and one’s body are subject to moral evaluation by coworkers that can result in bullying.