Poll of the Day > Questions for Americans

(+) Yeah! (+)

Is it really a thing that coworkers steal food/lunches at work? I don't mean someone mistaking the condiment you put in the fridge as a communal thing, but seeing food there that they know belong to someone else and intentionally taking and eating it anyway.

An American colleague made mention about that when during a call, but I always thought that was just a sitcom bit. If someone did that here it would be counted as theft and would probably result in the perpetrator getting fired.
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Its immediate dismissal or a temporary pay drop at Best Buy. Its considered theft. When it happened at our family business, I reimbursed the girl and asked the other girl not to do it again. I told her if she needed money for lunch just ask me.

When its a statist, overpopulated corporation, you get harsher rules. When its more down to Earth its less about faux moral principals and more about practicality.
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I've heard of it happening, and if it does I think it more depends on the kind of work you're doing and the kind of people that work attracts, as well as work-force size and familiarity with your co-workers.

I work with a small-knit group of co-workers, we know each other pretty well and I've never had food stolen in the 10 years I've worked there.
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I should mention that what surprised me was that it was also implied that employer/job site just seemed to ignore it or shrug it of with a "well these things happen, nothing we can do" attitude, which made me ask here if that was really a prevailing opinion over there.
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It's never happened to me. It's a major dick move
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You're surprised that in one of the fattest countries on Earth there are some people who double dip at lunch hour by eating other people's food as well?
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Yes, it happens all the fucking time at my job if you don't have your own zipped up lunch box.
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At my current job, it has happened a few times. Not to me. Once it happened to my supervisor before I was there. He apparently knew it was someone from a group of workers(dont know how), and basically said he would fire all of them if one of them didnt replace it by the next day. And it happened more recently with someone elses food or drink. They said if were hungry, dont steal. Theyll buy us something if we need. But they willl fire you if you steal there.

It was different in the Air Force. They had a rule about not taking others food. But it could be hard to keep your food if you didnt have a lunchbox. Once, when I forgot my lunch, so I went and bought some stuff. And had a some cans of soda with me and put everything in. A bag and into the fridge. It was Friday, so we make sure the fridge is cleaned out by the end of work. About three hours before work ended, people started cleaning the fridge(not bale cause they had to, but so they could steal any food and drinks in there and claim they were cleaning. When I got in, I noticed like half my stuff was gone. I had to go around the room colllecting my stuff. Nobody stopped me when I took my stuff back because they knew they stole it. Not like the military would do anything about it, anyway... They would do stuff if you worked in a smaller section, maybe. But not in the section I was in.
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