Food, Drink & Dining Out Work fridge etiquette

[MrNatural]

The workplace i am currently working at has a lunch room with two fridges.
I store some cheese and margarine/butter in the fridge to use for snacks.
About a month ago, i noticed some of my cheese and butter had been used, but the culprit came forward and actually replaced the butter, so it wasn't such a big deal.
Last week, i purchased a new tub of margarine and put it in the fridge and hadn't used it until today when i have a look and noticed that it had been used.
There wasn't just a couple scrapes been used, about a 1/3 of the tub had been dug out and used.
If a couple scrapes had been used, i could've dealt with that, but to find that 1/3 of the tub is gone, i am actually quite annoyed.
I have come up with a few options to get around this issue.
1) Bring a cooler bag and store my food in that.
2) Label my goods. I have a feeling this would just make the culprit want to annoy me.
3) Put a sign on the fridge acknowledging my annoyance at the problem
4) Send an email around expressing my annoyance.
5) Just take it as a loss and move on

I personally don't go into the fridge and treat it as my own deli and pinch whatever goods i can find, if i don't have something, i will go without it or just go get some myself.
However, at this workplace, that doesn't seem to apply to some people.

What does the BigFooty world think?

 

[Marklar_33]

Add smallpox to the margarine, and wait

 

[TheFreshBanana]

Why don't you just butter up your sandwhich and then chuck it in the fridge.

I can't blame people for thinking a tub of margarine is a communal tub.

I wouldn't use it personally, but if a guy was like, no one can use my tub of margarine, I'd think he's a tightarse.

 

[vWestCoast]

Surely you've got bigger dramas at work than a margarine thief? It costs a few dollars and you're willing to waste your time writing an email or bringing in a cooler bag? Why not just bring in an esky and padlock ffs

 

[HBF]

Why don't you just butter up your sandwhich and then chuck it in the fridge.

I can't blame people for thinking a tub of margarine is a communal tub.

I wouldn't use it personally, but if a guy was like, no one can use my tub of margarine, I'd think he's a tightarse.

Well said. Most places I have worked have had a communal butter or margarine.
When I do bring sandwiches I just make them at home and bring them in.
For the sake of a few minutes in the morning, you don't get all annoyed when someone uses your stuff at work.

 

[Quivorir]

Bullshit. It's mine. I paid for it, you can at least ask if you can use it. If I see someone's keys on the bench I don't go "Oh I'll just take their car down the street the won't mind".

 

[Marklar_33]

Well said. Most places I have worked have had a communal butter or margarine.
When I do bring sandwiches I just make them at home and bring them in.
For the sake of a few minutes in the morning, you don't get all annoyed when someone uses your stuff at work.

I used to keep all my sandwich supplies at work, along with a few different tins of Spaghetti, soup, noodles, because I don't always feel like sandwiches by lunch and don't want them to waste!

 

[HBF]

I used to keep all my sandwich supplies at work, along with a few different tins of Spaghetti, soup, noodles, because I don't always feel like sandwiches by lunch and don't want them to waste!

Fair enough.
I'm happy to make my lunch before I go to work, but I do have supplies just in case..

 

[TheFreshBanana]

Bullshit. It's mine. I paid for it, you can at least ask if you can use it. If I see someone's keys on the bench I don't go "Oh I'll just take their car down the street the won't mind".

Asking is definitely the way to go, but still, considering the large amount of margarine for one person, and the cheap price of it, you still seem like a tightass if you're asking people to not use your tub of margarine.

 

[MrNatural]

Why don't you just butter up your sandwhich and then chuck it in the fridge.

I can't blame people for thinking a tub of margarine is a communal tub.

I wouldn't use it personally, but if a guy was like, no one can use my tub of margarine, I'd think he's a tightarse.

There are communal tub's supplied by the company in the other fridge, along with milk and other things.

 

[MinerBoy]

My biggest 'work kitchen' gripe is with the chicks who think we all love that cat food smelling shit they call tuna and when they open the tin they leave all the brine and flakes sitting in the sink and smelling to high heaven rather than taking 3 seconds of common courtesy to actually rinse it away.

End rant. Feel better.

 

[MrNatural]

Asking is definitely the way to go, but still, considering the large amount of margarine for one person, and the cheap price of it, you still seem like a tightass if you're asking people to not use your tub of margarine.

I can understand the odd scrape taken, but a whole 1/3 dug out i can't handle

 

[MrsEddieBetts]

Please please please don't put a passive aggressive note on the fridge. Someone WILL **** with your food if you do this.

 

[Borry]

Just add chilli.

 

[Quivorir]

Could do this:

In reference to a game called Sneaky Poo, where the aim of the game is to hide a poo somewhere in the house.

I heard about some roommates who played this game.

The hiding places kept getting more elaborate until one day they couldn't find the poo no matter where they looked. They eventually forgot about it until one of them was making a sandwich. They noticed some brown streaks in the butter, dug around a bit, and found a nice big **** in the container they'd been eating butter out of for weeks.

That quickly put an end to their games of Sneaky Poo.

 

[TheFreshBanana]

There are communal tub's supplied by the company in the other fridge, along with milk and other things.

Yeah, it's a tough position, because it's a lose-lose situation unless you just don't bring it in anymore.

I think the best way to solve the problem is just label it with duct tape with your name on it, so people know it's not a communal tub.

But, tbh, I'd probably still be having a laugh with my mates at how stingy MrNatural is but that's just me

 

[TheFreshBanana]

I can understand the odd scrape taken, but a whole 1/3 dug out i can't handle

Yeah, it's odd that 1/3 is gone after a week, so I think some people are confused that it's not the communal tub.

 

[IKnowtheDog]

I can't believe it's not communal butter!

 

[little graham]

 

[MrNatural]

Yeah, it's a tough position, because it's a lose-lose situation unless you just don't bring it in anymore.

I think the best way to solve the problem is just label it with duct tape with your name on it, so people know it's not a communal tub.

But, tbh, I'd probably still be having a laugh with my mates at how stingy MrNatural is but that's just me

It is a lose-lose situation.
If i do anything i just look like a stingy prick, if i don't do anything, the fridge thief will continue on his crime spree.

 

[HBF]

My biggest 'work kitchen' gripe is with the chicks who think we all love that cat food smelling shit they call tuna and when they open the tin they leave all the brine and flakes sitting in the sink and smelling to high heaven rather than taking 3 seconds of common courtesy to actually rinse it away.

End rant. Feel better.

I think most workplaces suffer from this evil. [emoji14]

 

[MrsEddieBetts]

It is a lose-lose situation.
If i do anything i just look like a stingy prick, if i don't do anything, the fridge thief will continue on his crime spree.

It's just butter. Make your sandwiches at home or the theft will continue.

 

[MrNatural]

It's just butter. Make your sandwiches at home or the theft will continue.

It's not for sandwiches, i have saladas.
But maybe i will have to.

 

[TheFreshBanana]

Gladwrap your prebuttered saladas. And while you're at it, add vegemite.

Pure heaven

 

[PastiesPeake]

My biggest workplace kitchen gripe is the office lady mixing the BBQ and Pizza shapes together in the 1 container.

Lose my shit way too much over that.