Who's eating my lunch????

pimento

aggypanthus wrote: »

Maybe this person cannot afford to provide own lunch.

I'd bet next week's wages that this isn't about hunger. This is probably being done by the same person who poops on the floor of the communal toilet.

powerful_Rogue

Buy a bottle of this from Tesco. Cook some chicken in it - watch the thief's head explode!

lostinrates

thorsoak wrote: »

Reading these last two posts reminded me of a City firm of solicitors that I worked for in the early 90s.... one of the senior partners (a chap in his mid-late 50s, I seem to recall) considered it his "droight de seigneur" to wander in and out of the offices if he was "working late" in the evenings and look in drawers for biscuits/cakes/sweets!

The firm had a policy of ensuring that there were frozen meals in an accessible freezer plus microwave available for the use of anyone who worked late - so there was certainly no excuse for his behaviour. I wonder if he'd get away with it today?

Disgusting.

There is, sadly, still a bullying culture in many places, and that sort of behaviour is really bullying and cocking a leg of marking rather than 'need' or thoughtlessness isn't it?

At my husbands firm and others I know of there is a meal allowance. Food is delivered through an online system giving access to some very resonable places to order food from. There is enough to order a good two or three course meal from, or should you be the kind who snacks at the desk through the night , a lot of snack food.


The choice is fine, but the times can be slow, Meaning that a lot of DH 'so peers complain they end out eating from only one place, until it gets so boring or desperate they order pizza. ( which is difficult as a lot prefer to eat more healthily mon to fri) . DH has some great choices, but sometimes they take a clue of hours to come, which, if you have not known you were working very late until say half eight, and your food doesn't arrive till say, ten or later, leaves you rather hungry. Especially if you skipped lunch.

hazyjo

lostinrates wrote: »

That solicitor is horrid.


What I would say is while she works as long a working day as most people do , he also works before she gets there, after she is gone and at weekends....so deals with duty secretaries, early morning and evening ones too. He'd just never have time to make a cake for his birthday and his earnings don't necessarily mean we have more at the end of the day.....e.g. I have no job at all because of my health, so though his salary is considerable, our household income is half that of many of his peers, with bigger proportionate liabilities IYSWIM. ( our bupa excess this year for example is going to be scarily big:()

Yep, she is horrid. We sit here in pretty much silence most of the day but the minute someone says more than about 10 words, she leans back and shuts her door (another sometimes does too, but 99% her). Rude. She also left a voicemail for a trainee lawyer once to not chat in the corridor as she couldn't concentrate. He'd actually been talking with a Partner and told her as much. She soon changed her tune. Honestly, there's no need! It's a complete status thing!

Don't believe she can't afford to buy cakes. And if she really couldn't (haha), she shouldn't take from other people's. There are two of us on my salary and I really couldn't afford to, but still did. There are around 50 of us and people usually buy enough to go round (tray bake type thing for a fiver and a couple of other choices - I never spend more than a tenner).

thorsoak wrote: »

Reading these last two posts reminded me of a City firm of solicitors that I worked for in the early 90s.... one of the senior partners (a chap in his mid-late 50s, I seem to recall) considered it his "droight de seigneur" to wander in and out of the offices if he was "working late" in the evenings and look in drawers for biscuits/cakes/sweets!

The firm had a policy of ensuring that there were frozen meals in an accessible freezer plus microwave available for the use of anyone who worked late - so there was certainly no excuse for his behaviour. I wonder if he'd get away with it today?

Ours get meals in every night for anyone working late (usually from https://www.deliverance.co.uk/ so not exactly a curling sarnie!). Alternatively they'll get the sushi place to deliver, or pizza.

lostinrates wrote: »

Disgusting.

There is, sadly, still a bullying culture in many places, and that sort of behaviour is really bullying and cocking a leg of marking rather than 'need' or thoughtlessness isn't it?

At my husbands firm and others I know of there is a meal allowance. Food is delivered through an online system giving access to some very resonable places to order food from. There is enough to order a good two or three course meal from, or should you be the kind who snacks at the desk through the night , a lot of snack food.

Disgusting indeed. I've known people go rummaging down drawers for food too (have also had stuff go missing from mine years ago).

(Oh, and whoever mentioned the loo - we had an email round the other day about the state of a loo - we have pretty much worked out who did it (lawyer). They just seem to think 'someone else will clean it'. I'm surprised they don't have someone in there to wipe their [bleeps] too! You should see the state of the kitchen sometimes. They'll knock a spoonful of coffee onto the worktop and just leave it - along with their cereal bowl in the sink occasionally. Honestly, some are lovely, but the others are so up their own [bleeps] I'm surprised they know what the weather's like...

Jx

pollyanna24

tyllwyd wrote: »

Ok, so if the bloke on the next desk to you picked up a bit of your lunch which you'd forgotten and left on your desk and popped it in his mouth, and ended up in hospital as a result you'd say that was a fair punishment? Bringing deliberately contaminated food into the office is just stupid.


And the police officer mentioned earlier who put screenwash in a bottle in a communal fridge - although he was acquitted in the end, if you look at the dates it spent a year going through the courts which can't exactly have been an enjoyable experience.

But in your first example, how could you get taken to Court by just putting something nasty tasting in your sandwich, but that is perfectly legal? If they do have medical issues, I agree, they shouldn't be stealing food. Surely when they go out to a restaurant, they have to check that they are able to eat what's on the menu. Annoying, but people like this have to be more careful about what they eat in general.

lostinrates

hazyjo wrote: »

Yep, she is horrid. We sit here in pretty much silence most of the day but the minute someone says more than about 10 words, she leans back and shuts her door (another sometimes does too, but 99% her). Rude. She also left a voicemail for a trainee lawyer once to not chat in the corridor as she couldn't concentrate. He'd actually been talking with a Partner and told her as much. She soon changed her tune. Honestly, there's no need! It's a complete status thing!

Don't believe she can't afford to buy cakes. And if she really couldn't (haha), she shouldn't take from other people's. There are two of us on my salary and I really couldn't afford to, but still did. There are around 50 of us and people usually buy enough to go round (tray bake type thing for a fiver and a couple of other choices - I never spend more than a tenner).
in your shoes I wouldn't buy cakes. Believe it or not DH once got peer review feed back that he was 'too friendly ' with admin. DH essentially told peer reviewer to stuff it and asked how long he had to wait for work at peek times when the duty secretaries were under pressure of work load?:D. Civility and work place friendships really should not depend on job title. I make a nasty smilie face at your lawyer


Ours get meals in every night for anyone working late (usually from https://www.deliverance.co.uk/ so not exactly a curling sarnie!). Alternatively they'll get the sushi place to deliver, or pizza.

Yeah, sushi is what DH and his colleagues complain about...DH went through a time when he thought he was going to turn into a big fish.


Disgusting indeed. I've known people go rummaging down drawers for food too (have also had stuff go missing from mine years ago).

(Oh, and whoever mentioned the loo - we had an email round the other day about the state of a loo - we have pretty much worked out who did it (lawyer). They just seem to think 'someone else will clean it'. I'm surprised they don't have someone in there to wipe their [bleeps] too! You should see the state of the kitchen sometimes. They'll knock a spoonful of coffee onto the worktop and just leave it - along with their cereal bowl in the sink occasionally. Honestly, some are lovely, but the others are so up their own [bleeps] I'm surprised they know what the weather's like...

Jx

At least I have worked out it cannot be the same office based on numbers. otherwise I'd get DH to come and make real life nasty face at the mean woman,

adindas

Put a lot of very hot chili in your food and disguise it. You will soon catch the squirrel who stole your lunch.

Alternatively if you do not have chili, liquid soap in your food from your kitchen will do ...

Good luck to catch the squirrel.

I know some colleagues at work are doing that just a sort of having fun and trills to upset a particular person especially a lady at work.

thehappybutterfly

amiaspden wrote: »

Personally I'd just go with the cool-bag solution. I gave up using the fridge at work years ago, not because of theft but because there was never any space due to the inappropriate things other people put in there:
bags of apples (do not need refrigerating ever!)
twelve-packs of soft drinks
and on one occasion, a giant thermos flask!
My insulated lunch bag with one small ice pack keeps my food perfectly chilled until noon, having been prepared before 7am.

The point is, and Im not singling you out ami, yours was just the last post to advocate this action, nobody should have to do this. If its a communal kutchen/ fridge, you have to respect others. Things like taking up all the space in the fridge, or using up the last teaspoon without rinsing it, using up the last of the water in the kettle without refilling it etc etc is just plain rude and the guilty party deserves everything they get IMO.

I put up a lighthearted notice from the Friendly Kitchen Fairy setting out some obvious rules which really shouldnt have had to be spelled to a group of supposedly mature professional people.

In my view, if someone takes something that doesnt belong to them, then hell mend them!

Big-Package

It was me

Your lunchbox brings all the boys to the yard
And they're like its better than yours
Damn right its better than yours
I can eat yours
Because its free of charge
Your lunchbox brings all the boys to the yard

shiney85

OP, I think you are being incredibly restrained in your response to the thief, but also a little bit of a doormat. Why should you change, by keeping your food elsewhere? You shouldn't have to. Whilst I love the idea of a blooming hot chilli chopped up in your lunch, I would start with a simple note stuck to your lunch saying something like "My food is being repeatedly stolen. Whoever is doing this, please stop, I cannot afford to feed you and buy myself an extra lunch each day, as I am constantly being forced to. This has been reported to management so they are aware of thefts in the workplace". I would hope this would scare them off. Seriously, stick up for yourself! If someone stole my hard earned lunch I would be beside myself with rage!