Stolen food

Primrose

I'd go back to your HR Department and challenge them about not taking the theft of food seriously. Presumably you have a Terms & Condition handbook which lists forms of misconduct which are liable to disciplinary procedures and I am sure that Theft would be one of them. Ask them what would happen if you were a diabetic, kept certain foods in there which you needed in case your blood sugar level suddenly dropped dramatically and found that food had been stolen? Would they accept responsibility for you going into a coma? This is a rather dramatic scenario but it does have Health & Safety implications which need to be taken into account. And if somebody is capable of stealing food from a fridge, presumably they might be equally capable of walking around the office and stealing a wallet from somebody's jacket or a purse from somebody's handbag? Tell them that if they can be proved not to take office stealing seriously, they will find it difficult to sack a culprit if they find him/her stealing money, etc. if it can be proved that they are not treating all theft offences equally seriously. Tribunals have been won and lost on the way employers' methods of consistency in dealing with disciplinary offences have been carried out.

mymatebob

Primrose wrote: »

I'd go back to your HR Department and challenge them about not taking the theft of food seriously. Presumably you have a Terms & Condition handbook which lists forms of misconduct which are liable to disciplinary procedures and I am sure that Theft would be one of them. Ask them what would happen if you were a diabetic, kept certain foods in there which you needed in case your blood sugar level suddenly dropped dramatically and found that food had been stolen? Would they accept responsibility for you going into a coma? This is a rather dramatic scenario but it does have Health & Safety implications which need to be taken into account. And if somebody is capable of stealing food from a fridge, presumably they might be equally capable of walking around the office and stealing a wallet from somebody's jacket or a purse from somebody's handbag? Tell them that if they can be proved not to take office stealing seriously, they will find it difficult to sack a culprit if they find him/her stealing money, etc. if it can be proved that they are not treating all theft offences equally seriously. Tribunals have been won and lost on the way employers' methods of consistency in dealing with disciplinary offences have been carried out.

What a damned good answer.

starlite_2

Why would a bit of margarine warrant so much fuss?
Fair enough if someone took your entire lunch, but really.....

If you are so bothered why not just send a round email to everyone in the office? No need for sneaky tactics or spying.

brownbabygirl

starlite wrote: »

Why would a bit of margarine warrant so much fuss?
Fair enough if someone took your entire lunch, but really.....

If you are so bothered why not just send a round email to everyone in the office? No need for sneaky tactics or spying.

I suppose you are one of them:rotfl:
Either that or your fingers have been burnt before!:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

onamission_2

sleepymy wrote: »

Do those recommending spiking food with laxatives realise that if someone on medication consumes it their medication could flush through their system causing them to suffer potentially serious consequences? Someone who's on heart medication could end up having a heart attack.

I think thieving is disgusting but I also think reckless endangerment isn't any better!

how would you differentiate from someone who is taking a short course of laxatives for a medical reason. imho if you take some one else stuff without telling its stealing and if you get sick tough.

geordie_joe

onamission wrote: »

how would you differentiate from someone who is taking a short course of laxatives for a medical reason.

I think you'd have a hard time convincing a judge you needed to put it in the margarine for it to work.

onamission wrote: »

imho if you take some one else stuff without telling its stealing and if you get sick tough.

My opinion too, but it wouldn't be the judges opinion if you got charged with something.

starlite_2

brownbabygirl wrote: »

I suppose you are one of them:rotfl:
Either that or your fingers have been burnt before!:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

No I am fortunate enough to have never worked in an office.

Nasty sterile places and oh the politics.

Poosmate

starlite wrote: »

Why would a bit of margarine warrant so much fuss?
Fair enough if someone took your entire lunch, but really.....

If you are so bothered why not just send a round email to everyone in the office? No need for sneaky tactics or spying.

It's not just the margarine. The OP has had her lunch stolen and has either had to go hungry or incur extra expense in providing another lunch. It's also the inconvenience of it too. Why should the OP have to go out of her way to replace something that was stolen from her?

Unless you have experience this kind of behaviour you will have no idea how annoying it is. It's not like it's a one off event that can be dealt with and left behind.

I put a notice on our communal kitchen cup/mug cupboard because my mug kept going missing. Having lost several mugs the next time I arrived at work to find no mug - I went to my workstation and told my boss. He didn't see the big deal, till I went off for 20 mins to hunt it down. I found it on a desk. next time it happened, again I hunted it down and caught the culprit red-handed! I simply asked if it was his mug. He was rather embarrassed and offered me the mug back half full of tea. I told him to drink it and never steal my mug again! The notice went on the cupboard door that day "Do not take cups/mugs if they don't belong to you". My mug has never gone missing since.

It's theft, taking without consent, stealing and it's usually a sackable offence.

Poo

Primrose

Maybe a notice posted on the fridge door "Borrowing without consent isn't borrowing, it's Theft" would help send the message home.

binnie

It's happened to me quite a lot too. In the end I did what most people on here have done, and that was to put it in a carrier bag, or write on the product, "Hands off it's mine" with my name on.
Didn't happen again.

Good luck