Current Events > Has your food ever been eaten/stolen by coworkers?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I see these stories every now and then of an office thief eating other peoples food, or someone just assumes the food is theirs for whatever reason.

Has this happened to you?

I have been at my job since June 28th 1999. We have two refrigerators at work in the control room. I work at a power plant and we can't leave the premises so we have a full kitchen with stove, microwaves, and fridges.

One single time over the course of my weekend someone was grilling and decided my good hamburger buns from the awesome bakery looked better than their shitty buns so they used mine but they replaced them with a fresh package and told me about it the day I returned. I was on my weekend so didn't care.

We had a guy on 3rd shift who every once in awhile would clean out the fridge and dispose of anything that wasn't a condiment or like drink bottle but he would put up a message for like a full week before he was going to do it. So sometimes lazy people might lose a chinese takeout or something but seriously they weren't going to be eating that a week later anyway.

So being on year 26 this has never been a problem for anyone no. But if you leave condiments like bottles of ketchup or bbq sauce or whatever it is understood those are universal sauces and will be used up by everyone. That is known and accepted.

Would people really leave their food in the fridge for that long that the guy would eat it?

No, because I simply don't eat if I'm at the office. Back when I used to pack a lunch, I'd just have a small snack that wouldn't need refrigeration.

A friend of mine once booby trapped his food with a pinch of capsaicin powder and some laxatives to find the dormmate who has been pilfering the food.

No, that has never happened to me

My fucking mug was stolen my by boss and she displayed it in her office.

My brother did tell me a story once that his work had a policy that if you leave dirty dishes in the sink it's gonna get thrown out.

So he bought a personal coffee mug.
Turns out, someone else used it, didn't wash it and then it got thrown out

Nope

Not to me personally, we have a cafeteria at work and I just get fresh food there; it has happened at work though. A coworker has a dairy allergy and keeps special creamer in the fridge. He was incensed when people started using it as though it were meant to be common property and sent out a scathing e-mail to everyone on the floor. This was a bit before Covid so we never really needed to sort through the fallout of that tirade, and he switched jobs before the return to office push.

Never had it happen to me but I do know it happened to a co worker who left their deli sandwich in the fridge they would bring to the job in the morning and eat at lunch time. She was pretty angry when she discovered someone from another department that used the same work fridge had taken it.

Sorry, my blood sugar was low

Yes. But it was my own fault

When I was doing an internship around 2010, one of the managers was affectionately and ironically nicked "Frankie Fitness". I had brought a banana for breakfast and left it on my desk when I went to go do something. When I walk back I see him eating a banana and think "that's weird, never seen him with a healthy option before..." before realizing it was mine. It was kind of funny enough that it didn't really bother me, and he ended up buying me a legit breakfast to make up for it.

Were more likely to have the reverse problem. There will be a work event, leftover juice is put in the fridge, everyone forgets about it, people who see it in the fridge assume it belongs to a specific person and itll just sit there for way too long.

Happened to me when I worked at Target, but it's Target, so what can you expect? We were clearancing out frozen precooked grilled chicken at one point, so I bought a couple of big bags and left one at work, in the freezer in the break room. I came back a few days later (didn't work over the weekend) and every single piece was gone, and to make things worse, whoever ate it all left the empty bag (which still had my name very clearly written on it) in the freezer. There was so much it had to have been multiple people, too. I mentioned it to my managers and they just shrugged.

Once i accidently ate someone's lean cuisine that was in the freezer. I'd typically leave a few in there and thought it was mine, but apparently i ate all mine. I felt terrible when I found out and bought the coworker lunch every day for the following week.

Once worked at a place that had a camera in the breakroom and a sign on the fridge that said you'd be terminated if you were caught eating food that wasn't yours.

Haven't had it happen to me but at the prison if something had been in the fridge unlabeled 3 or more days I considered it fair game.

Kajagogo posted...

Once worked at a place that had a camera in the breakroom and a sign on the fridge that said you'd be terminated if you were caught eating food that wasn't yours.

Where I work now sign says label and date your food or it will be thrown away. So basically if Tony label and date it you aren't allowed to complain if it goes missing. I don't touch people's food here though. It's a full sized fridge and we all share it. At the prison it was a mini fridge so limited space so food being there many days was annoying

yeah, but i've generally been of the mindset that if you're desperate enough to steal from me go ahead, have the chicken.

Yep.

Yes, people stealing food is a big problem where I work. They put up cameras to watch the break rooms a couple years ago because it became so rampant. Somehow people are still doing it on occasion though.

Before they put in the cameras, I had to start leaving my food in my vehicle because I was having items stolen out of my lunchbox almost daily. It all started around the beginning of covid when my employer started bringing in temp workers.

BeefEaster posted...

Yes, people stealing food is a big problem where I work. They put up cameras to watch the break rooms a couple years ago because it became so rampant. Somehow people are still doing it on occasion though.

Before they put in the cameras, I had to start leaving my food in my vehicle because I was having items stolen out of my lunchbox almost daily. It all started around the beginning of covid when my employer started bringing in temp workers.

Cameras are almost useless unless the supervisors wanna put the work in. Not only would they have to watch god knows many hours of footage they'd need to be able to identify that was your food someone else took out of the fridge.

We have had some people investigated and terminated using the cameras. But, yeah, it's really difficult to pinpoint stuff like that most of the time.

It's ironic too because I work at a huge bakery, and they have free bagels in the break rooms with butter and cream cheese that everyone is allowed to eat their fill of.

When I did desktop tech support, a few of us went to Wendy's. We came back and ate our lunch at a table outside the building. Another guy sat down with us, grabbed my drink, drank from it (mouth on straw), and then put it down.

Everyone at the table was stunned, but he was acting like there was nothing wrong with what he had just done.

My Sprite was once accidentally drunk by a coworker but he apologized and bought me a new one immediately.

nah. at my current job people are pretty good about that, we have lots of fridge space and everyone is assigned a cubby in one of the fridges.

at my last job, i had my own office and i was allowed to decorate it however i wanted. that meant a mini-fridge, microwave, electric kettle, and rice cooker.
it was super cool

BeefEaster posted...

We have had some people investigated and terminated using the cameras. But, yeah, it's really difficult to pinpoint stuff like that most of the time.

It's ironic too because I work at a huge bakery, and they have free bagels in the break rooms with butter and cream cheese that everyone is allowed to eat their fill of.

Perhaps they didn't like bagels. Id be a beggars can't be choosers in that situation as I don't like bagels but I can tolerate them

Where I work I just go to the kitchen and take something. The chef doesn't mind as long as we don't get greedy with it.

CableZL posted...

When I did desktop tech support, a few of us went to Wendy's. We came back and ate our lunch at a table outside the building. Another guy sat down with us, grabbed my drink, drank from it (mouth on straw), and then put it down.

Everyone at the table was stunned, but he was acting like there was nothing wrong with what he had just done.

Had a boss who would ask if he could have some of your drink and while you are expecting him to pour it in a cup or at least water fall it he would put his lips and everything on the bottle then hand it back to you.

He pestered me all the time because I knew that and therefore told him no everytime. I honestly think he did it to see who had balls to tell him no. Most people would cave cause they didn't wanna be on the boss' bad side.

He did a lot of things I feel he was just testing people on. Like he'd butcher some of the easiest to pronounce names. Like one guys name was Curran pronounced like kerr-an but hed say Conan. Also had a Mexican employee who was named Jesus and he's pronounce it Jesus Christ. I know the man wasn't that dumb.

yes, several times when i worked at Wal-Mart. it was really fucking aggravating.