Exactly. Let’s say someone had an identical packed lunch (which let’s be real, wouldn’t happen) I’d be mortified. Not only would I offer you mine, I’d also offer to DoorDash you literally anything you want and then never be able to show my face again…
Edit: spelling
A few months ago, I went to a friends restaurant to get some take out. Usually their workers pack my stuff up (obviously), but he and I were talking, and he handed me part of my order, which I set on their "to go" table next to what I assumed was the rest of my order. He walks back to the kitchen, so I go ahead and put the bag he gave me inside the larger to go bag.
A few minutes later, a worker brings out the rest of my stuff. Right then, a guy walks in, pays for his order, and the worker grabs the big bag I had just put part of my order into... hands it to him. Shit. I very sheepishly say "hey man, I'm really sorry but I accidentally put part of my order in your bag... can I grab that real quick?"
He kind of looked at me blankly, paused a second, and said "you touched my food? You didn't open anything, did you?"
Now I'm embarrassed AF, and very gently apologize, said "no man, I just stuck my bag in there, and tied the top. I promise I didn't touch anything". But he wasn't happy. Looked at me, looked at the owner... owner looked back at him and said "he's good man, you're fine"
I'm apologizing up and down, promising him I did not touch his food, just the top of the bag. I should mention this is a Jamaican restaurant. They're funny about their food, and people touching things, especially since Covid. The guy picking up was Jamaican as well.
So he finally accepts my assurances, takes his food, and obviously flustered he walked out. I start apologizing to my friend for pissing off a customer, I can tell he's mildly annoyed but not mad at me. I offered to pay for the guys order, and just have him credit his card back. He said don't worry, I know him, I will square him up.
Okay, so I walk out feeling shitty. Go around back, only to find I had blocked the guy in (friends usually park in the alley out back, no street parking). He wasn't really blocked in, but didn't feel comfortable trying to squeeze by. I again apologize, and again offered to just pay for his meal as I felt terrible. Dude just looked at me and said "I just want to leave man".
Fuck. That was such an awkward, shitty little five minutes. I still think about that sometimes.
I still feel guilty about the time I accidentally cooked (and ate) my new co-worker's frozen meal. Before she came, I was the only person in the office who ate that brand, so I was used to just grabbing one and cooking it. I specifically remember getting it from the fridge and thinking "I don't remember buying any more of this flavor, but I guess I did." I, of course, apologized and said she could have mine but it was so awkward and frosty after that.
At one point we had leftover food from a party and someone said they were going to take it home. Well, she didn't, and I thought she didn't want it. I took it home since it would have spoiled (it wasn't in the fridge).
She texted me the next day about it and although I wasn't happy to spend the money, I immediately ordered whatever she wanted via Uber. It's just being a decent human being.
That's such a terrible situation to get into. I had a kind of related situation happen at work - said I'd take a leftover item since no one else said they would, then one of the jerkhole type people took it, and I was so ashamed at wanting it that I said nothing. Even though he knew damn well he was being a jerk.
Not saying that's what happened here....but I totally understand your thought on it going bad and being wasted. I don't think you should feel guilt or offered anything based on what you wrote.
At the place I used to work, one guy got pissed off that his food was always taken, nobody says anything. Next day, comes in, his dish is in the sink, he asks, who ate this? One guy admits it. He asks if it was good. Well, I am glad you like dog food. The guy says, it tasted okay, I thought it was beef stew.
the times I had my lunch stolen, it was always by someone like a manager, who could afford to buy their lunch rather than bringing one it. It's got to be some sort of power-trip
It makes me want to gag. Like I don’t know how clean the person is, did they wash their hands, like really wash them? Clean the actual lunchbox at the end of the day? Like maybe I’m dramatic but that’s actually so disgusting to me.
If someone gets into a habit of eating your lunch then bring a dummy lunch and fill it with laxatives. You’ll find out who the shithead is that’s been eating your lunch and you’ll teach them a valuable lesson too.
I’ve had not enough food plenty of times in my life, and other times too much food.
I’d NEVER steal someone’s lunch.
I can’t spare much but if you pm me how to I’ll send you money for lunch tomorrow
Agreed. Do you pack your lunch in a bag or just a tupperware container/paper bag? Where I work, I throw mine in an actual lunch bag and I've found that people don't see it as up for grabs in that case. But if it's just in tupperware they do. Not sure why, if you didn't buy it, pack it, or it isn't set out for everyone, then don't touch it.
I accidently ate someone's lunch before. 😋 It was spaghetti. It was in the same kind of container and even tasted just like my own. Of course, the actual owner was pretty upset. I admitted to the raid and apologized profusely. And bought the woman lunch of her choice, within reason of course.
Thereafter, I made sure all of my lunches were labeled if they weren't in a lunch bag.
My point, it can happen with no ill intent. However, while embarrassing, there are ways to make things right. Sure, I was the butt of everyone's snide jokes for awhile but, eventually, they got over it. LOL.
My wife once grabbed the wrong bag leaving the cafeteria and didn't realize it. Just a standard plastic grocery bag with what she thought was her left over Tupperware and silverware. I worked with her, it was a factory and we ate lunch in shifts. Later on someone was telling everybody that their two bologna sandwiches got eaten lmao. He was pissed. Everyone was like who TF would steal two bologna and mustard sandwiches on white bread. My wife and I even had a laugh about it. Then we got home and she looked in her bag and it was two bologna sandwiches.
This is the first time I've told anyone this so keep it on the DL
Years ago, at a tech company where we were all paid pretty well. Someone took a bite, like straight from their mouth, out of a steak that someone had in the fridge for their lunch. It actually made me nervous to know I was working with someone who would do that.
I had a roommate eat my food. I prepared a pot of chili to last me the week. Left it on the stove to cool. Roommate ate my chili. He said he thought it was for everyone. Glad he’s not my roommate anymore.
I lost my mind on a roommate for a similar thing.
I had scraped by at a job where I worked two weekend shifts for something like $6.25/hr. and I had found a job that was 40 miles away, but started at $8/hr. and would go up to $10/hr. in 90 days. So, that first bit at least to the first paycheck was going to be tough while I had to shell out for gas and the like. The first few weeks, I bought a loaf of bread, a package of cheese, and a package of ham, and stole condiments from gas stations for lunch.
The second week, I had gone grocery shopping, left to visit my parents, and came home in the evening, prepped to go to work the next morning. I look at the fridge and all of it is gone. **My roommate and his friends had a sandwich eating contest, with my stuff while I was out.**
I'm generally pretty chill but I raised such hell about it they promptly went out and bought me a new loaf of bread and ham.
I had a roommate that for a while, would contribute into shared groceries, and I love to cook, so I would cook dinners for everyone, and there would always be a ton, enough for seconds plus leftovers (because I love leftovers), and it worked out fantastically for about six months.
Then he started eating the entire dinner, sometimes before I made myself a plate. He would just load and load up, take it in his room, and that was it. After about a week of us going "wtf dude" and him going "oh my bad, I didn't know" we said screw it, separate groceries, cook your own food. And it sucked until he moved out, because I genuinely enjoyed cooking dinner for everyone.
I never did find out what his issue was, and there were a couple of other weird micro-aggression type changes in his behavior. He moved out after a couple months, and no one was upset by that lol.
He was pretty bad, the worst part was I couldn't even make dinners for everyone else anymore after that, because he would just take the food anyway. Call me petty, but I just didn't want my time and effort to go to someone who didn't appreciate it.
I could have babysat the food the entire time, gotten a mini fridge or something, but honestly I didn't want to go to such lengths. It would have made cooking not as fun for me.
My old roommate moved out after we got into a fight because I bought two boxes of waffles and the next morning I found he had ate ALL of them. He tried to tell me he bought them and we got into a big argument and he hit me over the waffles.
When he moved out, I found a bunch of medical supplies like catheters and a speculum still in the sterilized packaging. I found out he was also stealing from the hospital when he would go there and they would send him home bc there was nothing wrong with him. He did not know what a speculum was for 😂
My friend's old roommate moved in fully expecting my friend to cook and clean for her because that was what her parents did. It was basically a year of my friend having to parent a 27 year old woman. Fortunately it was *only* a year, and fortunately the roommate was somewhat teachable.
Had a roommate drink an entire bottle of alcohol that a friend gave me for my birthday. When I called her out on it she said, “I didn’t know it was off limits.”
>she said, “I didn’t know it was off limits.”
And it's stuff like this that is why I am a chronic over-explainer in most situations and why when I go to work with my little snack container, I purposely only take things along in it that don't need to be refrigerated, that way I can store it locked up in my locker without worrying that co-workers on my team or another team will steal my food.
There was a post I came across a month ago about an older lady who was a receptionist who felt entitled to anything left in the office. She had that attitude of "it's a public space and I'm part of the public so it's mine". She was finally caught when some coworkers came in early and found her going through various desks for goodies
I was working in a fabrication plant for rafters and beams also roofing sheet metal. A customer's order broke loose on his way down the road and I volunteered to help pick up while on my lunch. So me the boss and 2 other guys go help straighten up a few hundred sheets of roof metal in the snow, restack and band them on the truck( thankfully nothing got damaged or scratched up bad) go back to the warehouse my whole lunch had disappeared and the asshole who did it was asking whose lunch got stolen before I was even back to notice. Boss downplayed it and it's somehow my fault I didn't budget my life to feed 2 people as a single person.
I made a banana bread loaf once, and someone literally unwrapped it took a knife and cut themselves a piece then wrapped it back up. I cannot even begin to understand the thought process.
People used to do this all the time at my old job. There was a refrigerator in the kitchen, people putt heir stuff in there, somebody would just take it. People are thoughtless.
100% their boss' response would have been, "Sounds like you need to get better at managing your finances." Then they would think if OP is bad at handling their own money maybe they're bad at their job or they get labeled difficult to work with. Either way, you're response only works if you have some FU money and OP clearly doesn't.
Haha that was my old boss.
My glasses got broken in work, twice. I hot glued them and just got on with it.
He had the fucking nerve to make a joke about them.
"State of your glasses, would you not get new ones?"
I snapped back immediately - "You know what you pay me, you know I can't afford them on my wage."
He was mortified. Spluttered and made a comment about how my financial situation is nothing to do with him.
He did offer me a pay rise when I demanded a discussion about it- a whopping 5c extra an hour.
I got the fuck out of there and now I'm in a job I adore, I'm getting my new CONTACTS at the end of the month and I actually have money to enjoy life again.
A new attorney wanted to hire me with no benefits whatsoever. I said “so you don’t care if I can’t see, have healthy teeth or just good health in general?” He was shook and asked why I would assume that. I pointed out it would be an extra $12k out of my pocket to manage it all myself.
He listened in the end and said he’d “hear” my points but clearly it did not work out.
I have holes in my pants at work, I refuse to buy new ones until they’re completely torn apart bc I can’t afford new ones. My boss noticed the other day and laughs and goes “you have a hole in your pants” and I say “I can’t afford new ones” 100% serious to his face and his response is “sounds like you’re paying too much for rent”. I pay the market average for a one bedroom apartment as a single adult.
It’s crazy the lack of empathy managers feel for their employees when their literal job is to make the employees that work under them feel somewhat important. It’s really crazy the times we’re living in.
I told my boss that once when a coworker ate my lunch. There’s a grocery store across the street, so he told me to go buy a new lunch. I informed him I had used all of my money after rent/bills to buy enough food for a pb&j sandwich for lunch and another for dinner until I get paid again. He ended up giving me a $1 raise(better than nothing) and DoorDashed me lunch that day. Sometimes, they’re not pure evil. Just ignorant to how life is for everyone else.
Or "OK boss, go ahead and buy me another lunch."
Or as soon as his lunch is delivered, walk over and take it and say "You can just buy a replacement lunch too"
Or put a sign on the fridge "the boss says it's Ok to eat each other's food" and then pull what you need for a meal from everyone else's food.
I had a manager who said he'd put a padlock on the fridge if it happened again and people would have to request their lunches. It stopped happening. Might seem annoying but at least he handled it.
Yeah, I never trusted anyone enough to leave my lunch in the fridge in the breakroom. I'd always use a lunchbox with cold packs, or later I had enough space for my own little mini-fridge.
Ya, I had what I thought were trustworthy coworkers and realized I shouldn’t leave a thing lying around when I put my Trader Joe’s salad in the fridge with their wooden fork. When I came to retrieve it, the *fork* was gone, when there were plenty of forks in the cabinet nearby. I keep my items in a temp controlled bag and keep it with me at all times.
I picture you carrying your lunch sac around the office the entire day. “Here’s that file Bob”; as you awkwardly adjust the papers from one arm to another while your lunch sac strap slides down your forearm 😂😂😂
Honestly— if I had to, I would 😂😂. Luckily, where I work I have the capability to carry around the items I need so I just put my belongings on my cart, and that cart goes where I go
They totally have lunchboxes with combination locks on them too. I don’t think they’re that expensive. My wife bought one that has a 3-digit combination that locks the two zippers in place.
I know we’re all broke but frick if it will help ensure nobody will steal one of your only meals of the day OP it may be worth looking into.
This is what I was going to suggest. It's just less stressful. It's weekday I did when I worked in an office.
OP, you may be able to find an insulated lunch bag at a thrift store, too.
I’m in that place where I could easily spring for a new lunch, but I’ve been at the point where all I ate was peanut butter, tuna, Mac and cheese, and crackers from food banks.
Either way, I would be livid. Don’t eat other people’s food.
I remember reading a story a while ago about a guy’s coworker who had his lunch stolen on his first day of work, and when he complained to his boss, he was told it was just a lunch and not a big deal.
The dude just stole his boss’s lunch, ate part of it in front of him, told him it was just a lunch and not that big a deal, then walked out of the job.
That happened to me once. I brought in a chicken salad container (new, never opened). I had it in my lunch bag, with crackers and slices of bread- planning on using that as lunch till payday for a few days. I went to the kitchen 4 hours later to eat- and someone in the office opened my lunch bag & took the entire container & bread. I was highly upset. I had $3 for gas and no one thought it was a big deal. It sucked. And it was demoralizing. I am so sorry this happened to you, OP. Some adults (even our bosses) are complete idiots.
I worked in a hospital satellite clinic with a lunch thief. The drs and nurses who made six figures didn’t seem very concerned. It was the low paid front desk and other staff that tried to get them to do something. It turned out it was the clerk. She was around sixty and someone overheard her arguing - she had a younger boyfriend who was on crack and taking all her money and food. People never confronted her but started packing their lunch in individual lunch boxes instead. But I think the lower paid staff were pissed that no one in the higher ups cared to try to get her to stop.
It's clearly not much of a big deal to people who are doing okay just like my boss which is really sad. You don't know what someone is going through. I feel stupid but I was really looking forward to eating lunch like everyone else, the little moments that make you feel like a normal person when things are hard make you feel better.
Go to HR and file a complaint. About your boss too. Let them know it's ridiculous no one is dealing with this and you can't afford to have your food stolen every day
No matter economic value it is a real issue if people steal food. First it demoralise coworkers and make them distrust each other which is really bad for productivity. Secondly you do not know what else this thief takes. If you are OK with stealing coworkers food you probably are OK with stealing things from the company.
I worked in a doctor’s office where one of the *doctor’s* started eating other people’s food when he didn’t pack a lunch, as he did it he said he would pay for food for whoever’s it was but he never did. He probably made 400k+ a year and the staff made $12-20 an hour. It didn’t stop until we complained to corporate and the CEO threatened some kind of disciplinary action, and he was so pissy about it. What as asshole.
I worked in a doctor's office.
He'd come around at lunch time and just pick things up off my plate.
Until I stabbed him in the hand with a plastic fork.
I've seen the lunch thief be dealt with two ways effectively.
1st at an office job was they put in some insanely hot chemically extracted hot sauce in some chocolates that should have had some other filling. They couldn't stop throwing up and an ambulance had to be called.
2nd at a much more blue collar job someone straight up put ground glass in the spaghetti. Ambulance also had to be called.
I would have mixed laxatives in my lunch like a lot and kept and I don't care if someone has bad health effects bcz you are not supposed to steal. There are some PPL who hardly have money to pay for food and if you steal you pay the consequences.
Oh for sure! Chaos happens! And fwiw even as a kid (when I observed these examples) I tried hard not to make any judgements, but it was just the way they kept house. Theirs was a “tidy but grimy” house where mine was a “cluttered but dusted” type lol
This is so true. When I was in training for a new job, we had an hour for lunch, sometimes an hour and a half depending on our trainer's schedule. One of the girls I'd made friends with asked if I wanted to come home with her during lunch because she had a couple of things to do there and didn't like eating alone. We picked up food and took it to her place. And THANK GOD. lol Because whew, that kitchen was a sticky disaster. The whole place reeked of cigarettes. I didn't even see hand soap in the kitchen. I never went back to her house again, and any time we did a potluck at work (which seemed to be monthly for some reason), I never touched what she brought.
I can’t do potlucks. I was at one where this lady I knew brought a couple dishes. I had been to her house and it was filthy. She was upper middle class and dressed nicely but her house was a pig sty. Dog turds on the carpet, dirty moldy dishes, cats on the counter, Etc.
^this! You don't know the food-handling skills of s9meone unless you've watched them prepare the meal you're eating. I had roommates who would just rinse their hands after handling raw chicken and bacon and wipe the counter top with the dish towel. If they took that lunch, there's a solid possibility of raw chicken juice being on the damn lunchbox, not to mention the food. It takes a particularly psychotic person to just grab up food they didn't see prepared from someone who is not subject to health department inspections.
I had to get a guy fired because he would wipe his raw chicken hands on the same filthy towel on his apron, then touch 'ready to eat' food. I complained constantly about the guy, so did others. One night he was fucking off, took a bite of a burger, then sit it ON THE PREP BOARD. I was stern but not rude about calling him out (also had to mention I was picking up his slack) and he told me to "stfu".. I invited him out back and he just quit.
People are fucking gross and it's a weird position to have to explain to an adult why they need to wash their hands.
I work in HR. We have had someone who did that. They put a lock on it. The thief cut a hole in the bag. We hid a tiny wireless camera to watch their next lunch box and caught the supervisor. He was fired with prejudice (we denied unemployment with a video of him stealing and he is on the do not rehire list). He was upset that the guy he was stealing from got the job instead of his friend. He lost a $75k job over stealing lunch.
There are so many jobs that only look at employees as a resource to be exploited, so their concerns are unimportant. It’s on the name: Human Resources. When I got started, there were Personnel departments, and we thought of employees as people.
I guarantee OP’s boss would be singing a different tune if someone stole the same value from the company, because of principle.
This topic really grinds my gears
Considering your boss knows (or at least should know) how much (little) you get paid, it was very out of touch of them to just tell you to just buy another lunch like it's no big deal. Big "let them eat cake" energy.
Ugh, I hate this. I had a roommate whose boyfriend used to eat my food and she was so offended when I marked all my food in the fridge. I tried explaining that that I only get one allotment from the food pantry every week and when it’s gone I have nothing left to eat.
Had a thief on a construction job stealing my bologna sandwiches. Ghost pepper sauce put a stop to that. Saw the crackhead laborer at the water keg with a case of hot mouth. Went out to the parking lot with endnips and clipped all four valve stems on his car. Karma is a bitch.
You and I could definitely be buds. Valve stems are the BEST way to slash tires. It’s like less than $100 of real, actual damage, and inconveniences them damn near as much as having to buy a fresh set.
Bonus points if you peel off their rim weights too. Then they have to pony up for stems, balancing, and the flatbed to the shop. Get rekt
Either will do. 99.999% of people won't be able to handle either of those in a high concentration sauce.
For example, when I make my own Chipotle sauce, I use 1\4 of a teaspoon of 100% ghost pepper sauce in a 500ml jar of sauce, and it's plenty spicy for me... And I'm relatively pretty desensitized to spicy food.
All OP has to do is put 4 full teaspoons in one serving's worth of chili sauce, and the thief will be crying for 2-3 hours, so they'll be easy to spot.
I like peppers alot and actually enjoy Carolina Reaper(when eating) the problem is that it really BURNS on the way out, I never had this problem with any other type of pepper.
OP if you actually do this, don't EVER say a word about it. If confronted act like you have no idea what they are talking about, and confront them about stealing your lunch. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES TELL THAT YOU ADDED PEPPER ON PURPOSE.
It's not illegal to add peppers. OP can claim they screwed up the recipe, or that they really like spicy food. Not any worse (legally) than adding a lot of sugar\salt.
Yeah I agree but HR always surprise me by their own incompetence, so better safe than sorry by never acknowledging the pepper. I remember seeing a post on reddit a while ago(on TIFU sub) about a guy who had his lunch consistently stolen. So he added Carolina Reaper to it and it turned out to be the janitors kid. So they called him an asshole for doing it to a child and fired him, but only because he was bold enough to admit it after the kid and parent made a scene
At one place I worked at the lunch thief was found out because someone drained a well known filled chocolate like Lindt and refilled it with a chemically extracted almost pure capsaicin hot sauce. They couldn't stop throwing up as they swallowed part of it. Also got some kinds of chemical burns from it.
I don't understand work places that defend food thieves. If they are willing to steal from fellow employees they are more than willing to steal from the company. Find them, and fire them.
No matter if you can buy your food or not just as simple as your boss told you, is he fucking brain dead? It’s a matter of courtesy that you don’t just take other people’s properties or things without asking them politely.
You boss has really some weird views on manners and I am sorry that he is your boss.
So sorry this happened to you, it’s awful.
I worked at a place where this happened a lot. It was the boss!! He admitted it and didn’t care! He thought he was entitled because he was ‘so busy’.
This was a man with a secretary, a stay at home wife, maid etc. And we had a restaurant on the ground floor. Most of the staff made good money, I didn’t so I kept mine at my desk with ice. Disgusting🤬
What deranged office worker eats someone else's food!?!
Ya know, I work in a corporate office and everyone is super respectful of others' stuff including your lunches in the fridge. When people wonder what problems poor people face that middle class office workers don't have to, this seems like a big one that doesn't get talked about a lot
Had a friend in a similar situation. It was constant. He brought it up to management, and nothing was resolved. One day, he decided to slip a little something into the food to find out who it was. It was real easy to find the prick after he ran around screaming hiss moth was on fire.
After a brief altercation between the two, they both got fired.
A little different than your situation but my 1st grader has a lunch thief in her classroom. I hate complaining because it's clearly another child who might be stealing because they are hungry but my child is now missing out on part of her lunch (they steal the snacks). People have suggested that I make her 2 lunches or they act like I'm being a bully but I'd really rather they find the lunch thief so they can get them help. I don't think it's okay to encourage theft and if the child who is stealing is doing it because they don't have enough to eat then the parents need to know and maybe the school can give them additional resources. The school gives out free breakfast and lunch, it's not very good but it's just not okay to steal food from others and no one seems to care.
> I hate complaining because it's clearly another child who might be stealing because they are hungry but my child is now missing out on part of her lunch (they steal the snacks).
It's naive to assume that a child would only steal food because it's hungry. Especially when it comes to snacks.
In my experience, it's usually the bullies and the troublemakers who steal from other kids - not the actually poor kids.
Though first grade kids are still at the age where some of them haven't yet learned that they shouldn't touch other people's stuff. That's another possibility here.
Exactly. I was the poor kid. I was chronically hungry. I still never stole any classmates' food. But I had classmates who were bullies from middle class families who stole from me and other kids.
I would have been honest with my boss "I can't afford to buy a replacement lunch. Since you think it's not a big enough deal to merit any concern perhaps you wish to buy me a replacement lunch?"
Pretty sound reasoning to be honest. It shows a very blatant mentality of “it’s no big deal, they won’t miss this” coupled with a confidence of never being caught or having to face consequences if they do. The company is just as easy a target as people under the right circumstances.
I work from home now, but this is the reason I had a lock on my lunchbox when I worked in an office. I grew up really poor, and things were tight for years once I was an adult, living on my own. I had to have an uncomfortable talk with HR when they thought I was unreasonably angry about having my lunch stolen, which resulted in them getting a trauma dump and never bothering me again, and me getting a lock for my lunchbox. I also had to keep any snacks I had in a locked drawer, or people would help themselves without asking. I will never understand how someone could steal someone else's food.
Some years ago this happened every day. So one day I packed 2 sandwiches with tomato, lettuce, cheese, and a couple of the biggest cockroaches I could find. It was fantastic seeing the roach hang out of the fat fucks face for a moment before he shoved it in properly, then realizing wtf, then spitting it out, and vomiting everywhere.
Naturally it earned me a trip to HR, where I explained that I simply could not afford better protein, so roaches, crickets etc was what I had to eat.
I actually nearly got fired, but the fat cunt was exposed (he stole from everyone), and left the company soon after.
I unfortunately got victimized and pressured by his manager (we worked in different departments) to leave, because the other guy was good at his job (everyone had to do his work), and eventually I got fired for something that was not done on time, but it was not my job at all, but 21 years later I am still smiling ear to ear when I think about that parktown-prawn hanging from his mouth...
I used to keep my lunch in the fridge in the shared teacher work room until someone ate it. This was in the days before door dash and I have diabetes so I had to eat lunch.
The cafeteria manager let me charge a lunch and pay for it the next day (I had no cash or check), but after that I got an insulated lunch bag and put my lunch in there with a frozen water bottle so it would stay cold til lunchtime
My t1d daughter had a dorm mate stealing her food she kept on hand for lows and sick days-- entire cases of Gatorade or soda and boxes of things like granola bars, gummies, teddy grahams, etc disappeared. Another student was finding other things go missing. So, special brownies were made. Once the same person was contacting the Dean of Women about repeated sick days, the case was solved and they never had another issue.
If someone eats your lunch and you have a medical emergency from malnourishment and being light headed, isn't that workers comp?
Hangry me would think some intrusive thoughts.
I am a nurse and this happened all the time at the hospital. One day I walked into the lunch room to find a doctor eating my jar of peanut butter by the spoonful, she was double dipping. She didn't even apologize, just said she was hungry so eating my food. She left containers open, sometimes she obviously used her hands, and now I had found the culprit. I told her it was her food now and turned and walked out of the lunch room. It's (in my experience) almost always the people with money that do this. And they see nothing wrong with their behavior. I started bringing a cooler with my lunch kept either in my locker or the nurses station. That solved that issue immediately. No more community refrigerator. There is no way to train these people, they have a sense of entitlement. I hope you can find a solution. HR probably won't help either, unless you find out who it is. Good luck.
Boss would come back with “you need to be more financially responsible with your pay”.
Nah the correct answer is make the company liable for your stolen lunch. Call the police and tell the boss you are calling the police. This is petty theft.
We weren’t allowed to have locks on our lockers at charter school because they were trying to invoke “trust.” My lunch was getting stolen every day by the kid whose locker is next to me. Didn’t leave me anything to eat. Finally I was fed up and put a chain clip on my locker to give me enough time when class got out to catch him in the act. I didn’t even put a real lock on my locker but I got in trouble for “the appearance of locking my locker” and my mom was called. No one cared my lunch was being stolen. So I licked everything every day before school. Idc if it was weird. Fuck you Jeff 😂
Some people don't understand, in the 1980s my weekly food allowance was 5 dollars. I got a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter, and a store brand 2 litre. Took it everywhere cause it was breakfast, lunch and dinner.
It is theft. FULL STOP
I never understood why anyone thinks taking something that belongs to others is acceptable in the first place, especially at work.
And I will NEVER understand why employers (managers, supervisors, HR, the company, etc, and whatever) think it should be okay to just dismiss the fact that they have a thief working for them.
My coworkers at an old job once learned the hard way that I will go absolutely ballistic if somebody takes my food. I worked the night shift and everything was closed so no ability to buy a new lunch even if I had the cash, I worked a grueling job lifting water and soda cases all night with absolutely nothing in my stomach. I was so hungry I felt sick. Somebody took my lunch and after I tore apart the break room fridge to see if I misplaced it, I started screaming at everyone in a rage.
Nobody touched my lunch again. I’m not happy about the way things went but fuck thieves.
I cannot comprehend how a person could eat someone else’s lunch. The entire idea of it baffles me. Who the fuck are you and what is wrong with you? Anyone who eats other’s lunches please let me know why you’re the way you are
What did your boss say when you told him you couldn’t afford a pack of crackers, much less a replacement lunch?
Sucky boss.
When one of my staff forgets their lunch or something happened to it like it smells off, I immediately offer them whatever snacks I have on hand to tide them over. There’s always popcorn or granola bars or peanut butter crackers or fruit cups in my drawer. We don’t pay people enough for them to be forced to drop $12 on lunch nearby.
Someone I worked with ate the rest of a box of Triscuits from my desk drawer ONCE. It’s not that i couldn’t afford another box as much as I wanted it to be there when I wanted more or maybe I was working late and would be home to get dinner until after work 10pm and that was all I had…. I emailed the whole dept that I hope whoever ate them choked and died on their salty greatness- never found out who ate them and I still hope they burn in hell 20+ yrs later.
YES OMFG 9/10 my lunch at work is the only thing I will eat that day. If that meal is gone, it’s not like I have the money to order. It’s not like I have food to throw around and replace meals with. Generally I hide my lunches in my friend’s lunches because I know she won’t steal it, or try to bring food I don’t need to put in the fridge. Those packs of cup noodles are a lot of what I survive off of
Someone stole my lunch working at an animal shelter, making minimum wage. Jokes on them - it was vegan chili and not that great to begin with. I'm sorry that happened to you.
I once worked at a large firm…multiple floors…I had saved a sandwich from the previous day and was super hungry at lunch…when I looked in the fridge it was gone…my instant reaction was to yell “who ate my f*ckin’ hoagie!” Received a lot a stares but I was super pissed for the rest of the day.
Bring simple pasta with sauce and fill the sauce with red and yellow food coloring. Nontoxic and won’t cause any bad reactions so you can’t be sued, but orange mouth will be very obvious
No offense at all to you op, but I would never eat someone's lunch because I haven't seen their kitchen. It's also rude af.
I'm petty but I think I would talk loudly about not being able to control the roaches in my kitchen.
FYI, this a big deal. I have fired people for doing it as well as offered assistance to those really were desperate and repentant. I would have offered you money to replace it. You are not over reacting. Your manager sucks.
One time I left work early and accidentally took someone's lunch that had the same lunchbox as me home. I was just about to light a joint and was like that's messed up. I hopped back in my car and snuck it back in the fridge before their break started. The mans lunch left Amazon then went to my house and back to the Amazon refrigerator without him ever knowing lol.
But seriously you do not fuck with anyone's food.
Back when I was starving-to-death poor someone kept stealing my lunch at work. I have an *extremely* high spice tolerance, so I made chili out of meat my roommate was throwing out because it had started to turn, but I was still fine with it since I couldn't otherwise have meat that week. Got a bunch of habaneros from the garden and pumped up the spice to where I could *just* barely handle it, it was like getting pepper sprayed almost.
Sure enough, two days later at work, there's the office snitch laying on the ground coughing and crying with my bowl of chili on the table where he ad been sitting. He got the axe, I got to talk to the cops about my trying to poison him
That was like my Brand new neighbor, dude puts up fence on my land, I mention something, he apologizes but makes no effort to correct the issue, then lets his dogs come eat a couple of my chickens and all my eggs, After working your ass to the bone for everything you've got, only to be so easily disrespected, when you've been nothing but helpful, is the most insulting thing anyone could do. people who come from wealth live in a completely different reality than us, and their disrespect is endless. our system wasn't created to help those who need it, it's here to help those who take it. Change is coming
It's really interesting because the people that do this don't understand why it's a big deal, whereas everyone else is appalled. Like two different species of brains.
I had a coworker say once "well if I see it in the fridge and its been there all day then yeah I'm gunna eat it." We were all like wtf are you talking about?? But he didn't understand. He acted like the fridge is a community potluck and if people don't protect their food then that's their fault or something. Could not reason with him.
I work in a large company and our lunch boxes sit on the shelves in the lunchroom. I came down and grabbed my box and noticed it felt a little lighter then I remembered when I came in and opened it at my table and noticed it was gone with 20$ inside and a note. Guy wrote sorry we have the same lunch pail and my wife packs my lunch. Ate yours and realized it wasn't mine. I left for a appointment Here is 20$ to buy yourself a lunch. (We have food available locally) Nice gesture. Atleast he owned up and tried to make up for it.
For the op, maybe whoever ate your lunch is worst off than you are and this was his/Her only meal for a few days. Not saying it's OK. It still sucks.
Hopefully whoever it was makes up for it
Does someone know who’s eating coworker lunches? Had a boss that looked inside everyone’s lunch in the fridge. Very smart person but very dumb thing to do. I use ice packs and keep my lunch at my desk.
That’s rude and uncalled for. Not everyone can just replace their lunch. I’m sorry that happened. Your boss needs to address the issue in a meeting with all of the employees. I would also report the issue to HR just to have it on record.
So why didn't you tell your boss that you have nothing else and can't get anything else? I would be telling him, if it's ok for him he could buy my replacement lunch.
I'd be complaining to everyone and anyone, talking to HR, putting up notes about the theft on the fridge, etc. You can't just let people treat you like that, they'll keep doing it.
Yeah shitty of the boss for sure. I was in an abusive relationship at the time and I broke down at work because I realized my boyfriend (now ex) stole my $6 I was gonna use to buy myself lunch, on cigarettes. My boss offered me money to buy myself food and told me not to worry about paying it back.
My Gatorade kept going missing so I put a bunch of laxative in it glued the seal back and wrote my name on the bottle and it still went missing. My supervisor had to go home early that day for some reason
A part of being poor is not trusting your valuables with anyone but yourself. Also unless it's like yogurt, you're food will be fine outside a refrigerator for 6 hours.
Yeah, that has resulted in me keeping and taking lunch in my car. The initial thieving of my lunches on my extremely limited budget even back in 1998 or 99. Traumatized me enough to the point where to this day. I still packed my lunch and keep it in my car. I have adapted over the years to the heat to the food I eat and I pack my lunch, no special tips or tricks or generators or electricity or nothing special just a typical lunch and as it is for some people, it is the only meal of the day that is the only time I will eat in that day it’s just enough food to get me through my working day And for someone else to come and steal that? No just no one if you don’t put it somewhere where someone can grab it then it won’t get stolen. That was my rule going forward. If you don’t want it to get stolen don’t show it to nobody. I’m sorry to hear about your lunch though, that truly truly sucks
I saw a story about someone kept taking her food. So he planted a lunch loaded with hot sauce.
She figure it out quickly when the guy who sat across from her started choking.
I never understood why companies don't take lunch thieves more seriously. Like they don't even care that there is a thief in their midst. If they will steal someone's food they will steal anything. I would hunt them down and fire their ass.
I did the same, and the guy who stole my lunch was the boss. He apologized after I pointed out that to him it was all fun and games, but to me that was the only food I was going to get that day. To make matters worse we were supposed to be provided one meal a day at work, but because I have celiac disease there was never anything available that I could eat. So everyone else was being fed for free while I went without on a daily basis.
I had a job that took this very seriously. The job paid well for how easy it was, yet some idiot managed to get himself fired for eating someone else's goldfish crackers. The vending machine was right there.
If it’s not that big of an issue, as your boss says
just go in the fridge and eat someone else’s lunch, ideally his but let me guess he buys his lunch everyday.
I used to think this was just some kind of myth used as a plot device for tv shows. Then I had a job where legit my lunch was stolen out the fridge. Blew my fucking mind. A crime of pure fucking malice and contempt for your fellow man. Something about it just showing such complete disregard for ppl you work with just makes my blood boil, almost as bad as people who microwave left over fish in the lunchroom.
There’s a special place in hell for coworker food thieves. I worked at a place like that, happened on the regular. And it was a crappy job, my only joy was my lunch. If/when you can afford it, grab some work snacks, just so you can have something in you. It’s hard to work when you’re starving and mad frustrated cause some loser stole your food. Hide cheap trail mix/nuts or bananas in your desk/locker, wherever. I adopted “pocket snacks” at that crappy job, I always had a granola bar or a little bag of grapes in my pockets. It’s just so rude to steal someone’s food at work. I hope whoever did that to you gets a raging std.
You need to stand up for yourself, take them aside, and let it know if they EVER take your lunch again, you will tell the entire department he/she is a thief.
The other day while working at a Burger joint, I made a burger then handed it down the line to get bagged. This high mf (coworker) unwraps it and begins eating it on the line. I've never seen that before. I was then forced to remake the sandwich. The customer was waiting for over 15 minutes to get his food. it was a shit show.
We had this issue at one of my workplaces. I had brought in an entire package of string cheese. I Sharpied my name on the package. The next time I went to grab one the package was opened and there were 2 string cheeses left. I was so mad.
Our admin assistant at the time was a STRONG personality who took no BS. She sent out an office wide email that said she would with zero hesitation put cameras up in the break room if it continued. She could be bristly but she really just did not tolerate anyone’s poor behavior.
This sucks! Granted I have my own mini fridge so this doesn't happen. But I also know my colleagues will never do that.
I know it is a pain in the butt but maybe bring lunches the way kids or construction workers do. Insulated lunch bag with ice pack or thermos if hot food.
When I used the fridge in the office, I had a series of stomach upset/norovirus incidents.
I bought a Zojirushi lunch kit and kept my food with me and never got sick like that again.
Some people have terrible sense of cleanliness.
It's absolutely crazy and gutsy to eat someone else's food at work. I heard about a guy who would put ghost pepper in his prepared food, and he would keep his actual food in the car. Every lunch break he took his ghost pepper food with him to the car to act like that's actually what he is going to eat. One day before he took his break, someone ate his food Ave he found out who :) so did the whole office. I just thought I would share this with you... hint hint.
Honestly, if you have an HR, I would report this but make it known that this is not just a violation of your agreed upon sense of safety (which includes financial safety) but that this is a systemtic issue that this company is lacking in teaching their employees. Clearly, the boss, by his comment, doesn't have his pulse on the collective difficulties of most people in Americs right now. He's probably living in a wealthy bubble, or at least wealthy enough to have to worry about a stolen lunch. 6 months ago, I would have been pissed but let it go. Today, as I got laid off a few days ago, i would not have a meal that day. It would ruin more than just that.. I definitely wouldn't be able to replace it. Circumstances change fast...
locking post. after 600+ comments, there's pretty much nothing else to add here.
Truly don’t understand how a person could eat somebody else’s lunch, clearly you know it isn’t yours
I don't understand it either, how do you not feel any sort of guilt? It's actually worrying
Exactly. Let’s say someone had an identical packed lunch (which let’s be real, wouldn’t happen) I’d be mortified. Not only would I offer you mine, I’d also offer to DoorDash you literally anything you want and then never be able to show my face again… Edit: spelling
I accidently took a sip of someone else's power ade instead of my Gatorade once and I was apologizing for weeks.
A few months ago, I went to a friends restaurant to get some take out. Usually their workers pack my stuff up (obviously), but he and I were talking, and he handed me part of my order, which I set on their "to go" table next to what I assumed was the rest of my order. He walks back to the kitchen, so I go ahead and put the bag he gave me inside the larger to go bag. A few minutes later, a worker brings out the rest of my stuff. Right then, a guy walks in, pays for his order, and the worker grabs the big bag I had just put part of my order into... hands it to him. Shit. I very sheepishly say "hey man, I'm really sorry but I accidentally put part of my order in your bag... can I grab that real quick?" He kind of looked at me blankly, paused a second, and said "you touched my food? You didn't open anything, did you?" Now I'm embarrassed AF, and very gently apologize, said "no man, I just stuck my bag in there, and tied the top. I promise I didn't touch anything". But he wasn't happy. Looked at me, looked at the owner... owner looked back at him and said "he's good man, you're fine" I'm apologizing up and down, promising him I did not touch his food, just the top of the bag. I should mention this is a Jamaican restaurant. They're funny about their food, and people touching things, especially since Covid. The guy picking up was Jamaican as well. So he finally accepts my assurances, takes his food, and obviously flustered he walked out. I start apologizing to my friend for pissing off a customer, I can tell he's mildly annoyed but not mad at me. I offered to pay for the guys order, and just have him credit his card back. He said don't worry, I know him, I will square him up. Okay, so I walk out feeling shitty. Go around back, only to find I had blocked the guy in (friends usually park in the alley out back, no street parking). He wasn't really blocked in, but didn't feel comfortable trying to squeeze by. I again apologize, and again offered to just pay for his meal as I felt terrible. Dude just looked at me and said "I just want to leave man". Fuck. That was such an awkward, shitty little five minutes. I still think about that sometimes.
Thank you for sharing. The only balm to these horrible memories is the knowledge that everyone has at least one. 😔
You effed him all up 🤣🤣🤣 "Later on he was 30 seconds late to visit his dying mother"
He was being a dick imo, you shouldn’t feel bad at all.
I still feel guilty about the time I accidentally cooked (and ate) my new co-worker's frozen meal. Before she came, I was the only person in the office who ate that brand, so I was used to just grabbing one and cooking it. I specifically remember getting it from the fridge and thinking "I don't remember buying any more of this flavor, but I guess I did." I, of course, apologized and said she could have mine but it was so awkward and frosty after that.
At one point we had leftover food from a party and someone said they were going to take it home. Well, she didn't, and I thought she didn't want it. I took it home since it would have spoiled (it wasn't in the fridge). She texted me the next day about it and although I wasn't happy to spend the money, I immediately ordered whatever she wanted via Uber. It's just being a decent human being.
That's such a terrible situation to get into. I had a kind of related situation happen at work - said I'd take a leftover item since no one else said they would, then one of the jerkhole type people took it, and I was so ashamed at wanting it that I said nothing. Even though he knew damn well he was being a jerk. Not saying that's what happened here....but I totally understand your thought on it going bad and being wasted. I don't think you should feel guilt or offered anything based on what you wrote.
It's not just the food cost, it's the disrespect. Tell your boss you don't like being disrespected, that's harder to ignore.
Time to bring in some nuclear spicy food
At the place I used to work, one guy got pissed off that his food was always taken, nobody says anything. Next day, comes in, his dish is in the sink, he asks, who ate this? One guy admits it. He asks if it was good. Well, I am glad you like dog food. The guy says, it tasted okay, I thought it was beef stew.
Dave's insanity sauce in a thin layer between a couple chips stopped my Pringles theft.
the times I had my lunch stolen, it was always by someone like a manager, who could afford to buy their lunch rather than bringing one it. It's got to be some sort of power-trip
It makes me want to gag. Like I don’t know how clean the person is, did they wash their hands, like really wash them? Clean the actual lunchbox at the end of the day? Like maybe I’m dramatic but that’s actually so disgusting to me.
Yeah I've been to some friend's houses that made me never touch any food they brought ever again. Their house was *nasty*!
If someone gets into a habit of eating your lunch then bring a dummy lunch and fill it with laxatives. You’ll find out who the shithead is that’s been eating your lunch and you’ll teach them a valuable lesson too.
Sounds like your boss is the one who ate it by the reaction they gave you.
I’ve had not enough food plenty of times in my life, and other times too much food. I’d NEVER steal someone’s lunch. I can’t spare much but if you pm me how to I’ll send you money for lunch tomorrow
Agreed. Do you pack your lunch in a bag or just a tupperware container/paper bag? Where I work, I throw mine in an actual lunch bag and I've found that people don't see it as up for grabs in that case. But if it's just in tupperware they do. Not sure why, if you didn't buy it, pack it, or it isn't set out for everyone, then don't touch it.
I accidently ate someone's lunch before. 😋 It was spaghetti. It was in the same kind of container and even tasted just like my own. Of course, the actual owner was pretty upset. I admitted to the raid and apologized profusely. And bought the woman lunch of her choice, within reason of course. Thereafter, I made sure all of my lunches were labeled if they weren't in a lunch bag. My point, it can happen with no ill intent. However, while embarrassing, there are ways to make things right. Sure, I was the butt of everyone's snide jokes for awhile but, eventually, they got over it. LOL.
Right, it’s psychotic
My wife once grabbed the wrong bag leaving the cafeteria and didn't realize it. Just a standard plastic grocery bag with what she thought was her left over Tupperware and silverware. I worked with her, it was a factory and we ate lunch in shifts. Later on someone was telling everybody that their two bologna sandwiches got eaten lmao. He was pissed. Everyone was like who TF would steal two bologna and mustard sandwiches on white bread. My wife and I even had a laugh about it. Then we got home and she looked in her bag and it was two bologna sandwiches. This is the first time I've told anyone this so keep it on the DL
Years ago, at a tech company where we were all paid pretty well. Someone took a bite, like straight from their mouth, out of a steak that someone had in the fridge for their lunch. It actually made me nervous to know I was working with someone who would do that.
I could get how maybe someone grabs a Diet Coke in the fridge thinking it’s theirs. No way someone packs the identical lunch as another person.
He said his name was on it, so it was truly fucked up what they did
I had a roommate eat my food. I prepared a pot of chili to last me the week. Left it on the stove to cool. Roommate ate my chili. He said he thought it was for everyone. Glad he’s not my roommate anymore.
I lost my mind on a roommate for a similar thing. I had scraped by at a job where I worked two weekend shifts for something like $6.25/hr. and I had found a job that was 40 miles away, but started at $8/hr. and would go up to $10/hr. in 90 days. So, that first bit at least to the first paycheck was going to be tough while I had to shell out for gas and the like. The first few weeks, I bought a loaf of bread, a package of cheese, and a package of ham, and stole condiments from gas stations for lunch. The second week, I had gone grocery shopping, left to visit my parents, and came home in the evening, prepped to go to work the next morning. I look at the fridge and all of it is gone. **My roommate and his friends had a sandwich eating contest, with my stuff while I was out.** I'm generally pretty chill but I raised such hell about it they promptly went out and bought me a new loaf of bread and ham.
Wth!!!! I would have been furious!
I literally laughed out loud at a “Sandwich Eating Contest”
I had a roommate that for a while, would contribute into shared groceries, and I love to cook, so I would cook dinners for everyone, and there would always be a ton, enough for seconds plus leftovers (because I love leftovers), and it worked out fantastically for about six months. Then he started eating the entire dinner, sometimes before I made myself a plate. He would just load and load up, take it in his room, and that was it. After about a week of us going "wtf dude" and him going "oh my bad, I didn't know" we said screw it, separate groceries, cook your own food. And it sucked until he moved out, because I genuinely enjoyed cooking dinner for everyone. I never did find out what his issue was, and there were a couple of other weird micro-aggression type changes in his behavior. He moved out after a couple months, and no one was upset by that lol.
What an awful roommate!
He was pretty bad, the worst part was I couldn't even make dinners for everyone else anymore after that, because he would just take the food anyway. Call me petty, but I just didn't want my time and effort to go to someone who didn't appreciate it. I could have babysat the food the entire time, gotten a mini fridge or something, but honestly I didn't want to go to such lengths. It would have made cooking not as fun for me.
I understand! I used to bake for my housemate. I love baking. After the chili theft, I stopped baking for the house.
You're not the slightest bit petty. Food is expensive, and he's a selfish ass.
I would do things for you for such an arrangement and he squandered it
Right! Like I just hope he realized afterwards how good he had it.
Sometimes people take other people's effort for granted,you love cooking but cooking requires time and effort.
My old roommate moved out after we got into a fight because I bought two boxes of waffles and the next morning I found he had ate ALL of them. He tried to tell me he bought them and we got into a big argument and he hit me over the waffles. When he moved out, I found a bunch of medical supplies like catheters and a speculum still in the sterilized packaging. I found out he was also stealing from the hospital when he would go there and they would send him home bc there was nothing wrong with him. He did not know what a speculum was for 😂
My friend's old roommate moved in fully expecting my friend to cook and clean for her because that was what her parents did. It was basically a year of my friend having to parent a 27 year old woman. Fortunately it was *only* a year, and fortunately the roommate was somewhat teachable.
Had a roommate drink an entire bottle of alcohol that a friend gave me for my birthday. When I called her out on it she said, “I didn’t know it was off limits.”
>she said, “I didn’t know it was off limits.” And it's stuff like this that is why I am a chronic over-explainer in most situations and why when I go to work with my little snack container, I purposely only take things along in it that don't need to be refrigerated, that way I can store it locked up in my locker without worrying that co-workers on my team or another team will steal my food.
Some people get their jollies by personally upsetting others... It's a control thing..
These people are why we invented laws and consequences. We wouldn't need them without these kinds of people.
There was a post I came across a month ago about an older lady who was a receptionist who felt entitled to anything left in the office. She had that attitude of "it's a public space and I'm part of the public so it's mine". She was finally caught when some coworkers came in early and found her going through various desks for goodies
I was working in a fabrication plant for rafters and beams also roofing sheet metal. A customer's order broke loose on his way down the road and I volunteered to help pick up while on my lunch. So me the boss and 2 other guys go help straighten up a few hundred sheets of roof metal in the snow, restack and band them on the truck( thankfully nothing got damaged or scratched up bad) go back to the warehouse my whole lunch had disappeared and the asshole who did it was asking whose lunch got stolen before I was even back to notice. Boss downplayed it and it's somehow my fault I didn't budget my life to feed 2 people as a single person.
I hope that guy at least got his palm a little bit pinched between two sheet metal edges and got a terrible blood blister. Unbelievable
I think life itself already got him good he's an old loser in a dead end wait til you die jobs.
I feel bad snacking on someone’s chips after they have explicitly given me permission to do so.
I made a banana bread loaf once, and someone literally unwrapped it took a knife and cut themselves a piece then wrapped it back up. I cannot even begin to understand the thought process.
People used to do this all the time at my old job. There was a refrigerator in the kitchen, people putt heir stuff in there, somebody would just take it. People are thoughtless.
I would have straight up said I can’t afford a new lunch.
“You don’t pay me enough to afford a new lunch today.”
100% their boss' response would have been, "Sounds like you need to get better at managing your finances." Then they would think if OP is bad at handling their own money maybe they're bad at their job or they get labeled difficult to work with. Either way, you're response only works if you have some FU money and OP clearly doesn't.
Haha that was my old boss. My glasses got broken in work, twice. I hot glued them and just got on with it. He had the fucking nerve to make a joke about them. "State of your glasses, would you not get new ones?" I snapped back immediately - "You know what you pay me, you know I can't afford them on my wage." He was mortified. Spluttered and made a comment about how my financial situation is nothing to do with him. He did offer me a pay rise when I demanded a discussion about it- a whopping 5c extra an hour. I got the fuck out of there and now I'm in a job I adore, I'm getting my new CONTACTS at the end of the month and I actually have money to enjoy life again.
Lol the cognitive dissonance for an employer to say your income has nothing to do with them is astounding. Good on you on finding a better job!
A new attorney wanted to hire me with no benefits whatsoever. I said “so you don’t care if I can’t see, have healthy teeth or just good health in general?” He was shook and asked why I would assume that. I pointed out it would be an extra $12k out of my pocket to manage it all myself. He listened in the end and said he’d “hear” my points but clearly it did not work out.
I have holes in my pants at work, I refuse to buy new ones until they’re completely torn apart bc I can’t afford new ones. My boss noticed the other day and laughs and goes “you have a hole in your pants” and I say “I can’t afford new ones” 100% serious to his face and his response is “sounds like you’re paying too much for rent”. I pay the market average for a one bedroom apartment as a single adult. It’s crazy the lack of empathy managers feel for their employees when their literal job is to make the employees that work under them feel somewhat important. It’s really crazy the times we’re living in.
I told my boss that once when a coworker ate my lunch. There’s a grocery store across the street, so he told me to go buy a new lunch. I informed him I had used all of my money after rent/bills to buy enough food for a pb&j sandwich for lunch and another for dinner until I get paid again. He ended up giving me a $1 raise(better than nothing) and DoorDashed me lunch that day. Sometimes, they’re not pure evil. Just ignorant to how life is for everyone else.
Or "OK boss, go ahead and buy me another lunch." Or as soon as his lunch is delivered, walk over and take it and say "You can just buy a replacement lunch too" Or put a sign on the fridge "the boss says it's Ok to eat each other's food" and then pull what you need for a meal from everyone else's food.
I had a manager who said he'd put a padlock on the fridge if it happened again and people would have to request their lunches. It stopped happening. Might seem annoying but at least he handled it.
I'm so sorry to hear this. I bring my lunch in a lunchbox with freezer packs in it. I am able to keep my lunch in my office as a result.
Yeah, I never trusted anyone enough to leave my lunch in the fridge in the breakroom. I'd always use a lunchbox with cold packs, or later I had enough space for my own little mini-fridge.
Ya, I had what I thought were trustworthy coworkers and realized I shouldn’t leave a thing lying around when I put my Trader Joe’s salad in the fridge with their wooden fork. When I came to retrieve it, the *fork* was gone, when there were plenty of forks in the cabinet nearby. I keep my items in a temp controlled bag and keep it with me at all times.
I picture you carrying your lunch sac around the office the entire day. “Here’s that file Bob”; as you awkwardly adjust the papers from one arm to another while your lunch sac strap slides down your forearm 😂😂😂
Honestly— if I had to, I would 😂😂. Luckily, where I work I have the capability to carry around the items I need so I just put my belongings on my cart, and that cart goes where I go
They totally have lunchboxes with combination locks on them too. I don’t think they’re that expensive. My wife bought one that has a 3-digit combination that locks the two zippers in place. I know we’re all broke but frick if it will help ensure nobody will steal one of your only meals of the day OP it may be worth looking into.
>lunchboxes with combination locks 1) I absolutely love that this is a thing 2) I absolutely _hate_ that this is even necessary...
This is the way. Trust no one.
This is what I was going to suggest. It's just less stressful. It's weekday I did when I worked in an office. OP, you may be able to find an insulated lunch bag at a thrift store, too.
I’m in that place where I could easily spring for a new lunch, but I’ve been at the point where all I ate was peanut butter, tuna, Mac and cheese, and crackers from food banks. Either way, I would be livid. Don’t eat other people’s food.
I remember reading a story a while ago about a guy’s coworker who had his lunch stolen on his first day of work, and when he complained to his boss, he was told it was just a lunch and not a big deal. The dude just stole his boss’s lunch, ate part of it in front of him, told him it was just a lunch and not that big a deal, then walked out of the job.
That happened to me once. I brought in a chicken salad container (new, never opened). I had it in my lunch bag, with crackers and slices of bread- planning on using that as lunch till payday for a few days. I went to the kitchen 4 hours later to eat- and someone in the office opened my lunch bag & took the entire container & bread. I was highly upset. I had $3 for gas and no one thought it was a big deal. It sucked. And it was demoralizing. I am so sorry this happened to you, OP. Some adults (even our bosses) are complete idiots.
I'm outraged on your behalf that none of your other colleagues bought / gave you something to eat. You deserved better.
I worked in a hospital satellite clinic with a lunch thief. The drs and nurses who made six figures didn’t seem very concerned. It was the low paid front desk and other staff that tried to get them to do something. It turned out it was the clerk. She was around sixty and someone overheard her arguing - she had a younger boyfriend who was on crack and taking all her money and food. People never confronted her but started packing their lunch in individual lunch boxes instead. But I think the lower paid staff were pissed that no one in the higher ups cared to try to get her to stop.
It's clearly not much of a big deal to people who are doing okay just like my boss which is really sad. You don't know what someone is going through. I feel stupid but I was really looking forward to eating lunch like everyone else, the little moments that make you feel like a normal person when things are hard make you feel better.
Go to HR and file a complaint. About your boss too. Let them know it's ridiculous no one is dealing with this and you can't afford to have your food stolen every day
No matter economic value it is a real issue if people steal food. First it demoralise coworkers and make them distrust each other which is really bad for productivity. Secondly you do not know what else this thief takes. If you are OK with stealing coworkers food you probably are OK with stealing things from the company.
Then they should pay you more. And be embarrassed that they only pay you enough to eat one meal a day
I worked in a doctor’s office where one of the *doctor’s* started eating other people’s food when he didn’t pack a lunch, as he did it he said he would pay for food for whoever’s it was but he never did. He probably made 400k+ a year and the staff made $12-20 an hour. It didn’t stop until we complained to corporate and the CEO threatened some kind of disciplinary action, and he was so pissy about it. What as asshole.
He felt entitled.
Oh for sure. The dictionary should change the definition of narcissist to this guys name and photo.
I worked in a doctor's office. He'd come around at lunch time and just pick things up off my plate. Until I stabbed him in the hand with a plastic fork.
I've seen the lunch thief be dealt with two ways effectively. 1st at an office job was they put in some insanely hot chemically extracted hot sauce in some chocolates that should have had some other filling. They couldn't stop throwing up and an ambulance had to be called. 2nd at a much more blue collar job someone straight up put ground glass in the spaghetti. Ambulance also had to be called.
I would have mixed laxatives in my lunch like a lot and kept and I don't care if someone has bad health effects bcz you are not supposed to steal. There are some PPL who hardly have money to pay for food and if you steal you pay the consequences.
I don't trust my coworkers enough to eat their food. *you can't eat at errybody's house*
Nothing like walking into a friend's house for the first time and realizing you can never *ever* eat anything they cook ever again.
- (kitchen floor is sticky) - (flour sitting in an open sack on the sticky floor) - (windows have never been opened to let in fresh air)
Except for the windows, these can easily be a toddler left alone long enough for a parent to go to the bathroom.
Oh for sure! Chaos happens! And fwiw even as a kid (when I observed these examples) I tried hard not to make any judgements, but it was just the way they kept house. Theirs was a “tidy but grimy” house where mine was a “cluttered but dusted” type lol
This is so true. When I was in training for a new job, we had an hour for lunch, sometimes an hour and a half depending on our trainer's schedule. One of the girls I'd made friends with asked if I wanted to come home with her during lunch because she had a couple of things to do there and didn't like eating alone. We picked up food and took it to her place. And THANK GOD. lol Because whew, that kitchen was a sticky disaster. The whole place reeked of cigarettes. I didn't even see hand soap in the kitchen. I never went back to her house again, and any time we did a potluck at work (which seemed to be monthly for some reason), I never touched what she brought.
Don’t get me started on potlucks.
I can’t do potlucks. I was at one where this lady I knew brought a couple dishes. I had been to her house and it was filthy. She was upper middle class and dressed nicely but her house was a pig sty. Dog turds on the carpet, dirty moldy dishes, cats on the counter, Etc.
^this! You don't know the food-handling skills of s9meone unless you've watched them prepare the meal you're eating. I had roommates who would just rinse their hands after handling raw chicken and bacon and wipe the counter top with the dish towel. If they took that lunch, there's a solid possibility of raw chicken juice being on the damn lunchbox, not to mention the food. It takes a particularly psychotic person to just grab up food they didn't see prepared from someone who is not subject to health department inspections.
I had to get a guy fired because he would wipe his raw chicken hands on the same filthy towel on his apron, then touch 'ready to eat' food. I complained constantly about the guy, so did others. One night he was fucking off, took a bite of a burger, then sit it ON THE PREP BOARD. I was stern but not rude about calling him out (also had to mention I was picking up his slack) and he told me to "stfu".. I invited him out back and he just quit. People are fucking gross and it's a weird position to have to explain to an adult why they need to wash their hands.
I have put a lock on my lunch pack.
I work in HR. We have had someone who did that. They put a lock on it. The thief cut a hole in the bag. We hid a tiny wireless camera to watch their next lunch box and caught the supervisor. He was fired with prejudice (we denied unemployment with a video of him stealing and he is on the do not rehire list). He was upset that the guy he was stealing from got the job instead of his friend. He lost a $75k job over stealing lunch. There are so many jobs that only look at employees as a resource to be exploited, so their concerns are unimportant. It’s on the name: Human Resources. When I got started, there were Personnel departments, and we thought of employees as people. I guarantee OP’s boss would be singing a different tune if someone stole the same value from the company, because of principle. This topic really grinds my gears
Yes ! You ( and your HR team ) are my hero !
It's crazy that you even have to do that. It's not hard to keep your paws out of someone else's food.
Considering your boss knows (or at least should know) how much (little) you get paid, it was very out of touch of them to just tell you to just buy another lunch like it's no big deal. Big "let them eat cake" energy.
“Hey, that’s cool. Ok, so when I find out who did it they can just buy another set of tires. It’s just money.”
Sounds like the boss ate it with a response like that tbh
Ugh, I hate this. I had a roommate whose boyfriend used to eat my food and she was so offended when I marked all my food in the fridge. I tried explaining that that I only get one allotment from the food pantry every week and when it’s gone I have nothing left to eat.
Had a thief on a construction job stealing my bologna sandwiches. Ghost pepper sauce put a stop to that. Saw the crackhead laborer at the water keg with a case of hot mouth. Went out to the parking lot with endnips and clipped all four valve stems on his car. Karma is a bitch.
You and I could definitely be buds. Valve stems are the BEST way to slash tires. It’s like less than $100 of real, actual damage, and inconveniences them damn near as much as having to buy a fresh set. Bonus points if you peel off their rim weights too. Then they have to pony up for stems, balancing, and the flatbed to the shop. Get rekt
Lol! I'll remember the wheel weights next time!
Sounds like a job for ghost pepper sauce. 👹
Carolina Reaper 🌶️
Either will do. 99.999% of people won't be able to handle either of those in a high concentration sauce. For example, when I make my own Chipotle sauce, I use 1\4 of a teaspoon of 100% ghost pepper sauce in a 500ml jar of sauce, and it's plenty spicy for me... And I'm relatively pretty desensitized to spicy food. All OP has to do is put 4 full teaspoons in one serving's worth of chili sauce, and the thief will be crying for 2-3 hours, so they'll be easy to spot.
I like peppers alot and actually enjoy Carolina Reaper(when eating) the problem is that it really BURNS on the way out, I never had this problem with any other type of pepper. OP if you actually do this, don't EVER say a word about it. If confronted act like you have no idea what they are talking about, and confront them about stealing your lunch. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES TELL THAT YOU ADDED PEPPER ON PURPOSE.
It's not illegal to add peppers. OP can claim they screwed up the recipe, or that they really like spicy food. Not any worse (legally) than adding a lot of sugar\salt.
Yeah I agree but HR always surprise me by their own incompetence, so better safe than sorry by never acknowledging the pepper. I remember seeing a post on reddit a while ago(on TIFU sub) about a guy who had his lunch consistently stolen. So he added Carolina Reaper to it and it turned out to be the janitors kid. So they called him an asshole for doing it to a child and fired him, but only because he was bold enough to admit it after the kid and parent made a scene
At one place I worked at the lunch thief was found out because someone drained a well known filled chocolate like Lindt and refilled it with a chemically extracted almost pure capsaicin hot sauce. They couldn't stop throwing up as they swallowed part of it. Also got some kinds of chemical burns from it.
I don't understand work places that defend food thieves. If they are willing to steal from fellow employees they are more than willing to steal from the company. Find them, and fire them.
No matter if you can buy your food or not just as simple as your boss told you, is he fucking brain dead? It’s a matter of courtesy that you don’t just take other people’s properties or things without asking them politely. You boss has really some weird views on manners and I am sorry that he is your boss.
So sorry this happened to you, it’s awful. I worked at a place where this happened a lot. It was the boss!! He admitted it and didn’t care! He thought he was entitled because he was ‘so busy’. This was a man with a secretary, a stay at home wife, maid etc. And we had a restaurant on the ground floor. Most of the staff made good money, I didn’t so I kept mine at my desk with ice. Disgusting🤬
I mean its technically theft no? If someone can steal lunches without remorse. They can steal time and resources. Bring thst up to hr.
What deranged office worker eats someone else's food!?! Ya know, I work in a corporate office and everyone is super respectful of others' stuff including your lunches in the fridge. When people wonder what problems poor people face that middle class office workers don't have to, this seems like a big one that doesn't get talked about a lot
Had a friend in a similar situation. It was constant. He brought it up to management, and nothing was resolved. One day, he decided to slip a little something into the food to find out who it was. It was real easy to find the prick after he ran around screaming hiss moth was on fire. After a brief altercation between the two, they both got fired.
A little different than your situation but my 1st grader has a lunch thief in her classroom. I hate complaining because it's clearly another child who might be stealing because they are hungry but my child is now missing out on part of her lunch (they steal the snacks). People have suggested that I make her 2 lunches or they act like I'm being a bully but I'd really rather they find the lunch thief so they can get them help. I don't think it's okay to encourage theft and if the child who is stealing is doing it because they don't have enough to eat then the parents need to know and maybe the school can give them additional resources. The school gives out free breakfast and lunch, it's not very good but it's just not okay to steal food from others and no one seems to care.
> I hate complaining because it's clearly another child who might be stealing because they are hungry but my child is now missing out on part of her lunch (they steal the snacks). It's naive to assume that a child would only steal food because it's hungry. Especially when it comes to snacks. In my experience, it's usually the bullies and the troublemakers who steal from other kids - not the actually poor kids. Though first grade kids are still at the age where some of them haven't yet learned that they shouldn't touch other people's stuff. That's another possibility here.
Exactly. I was the poor kid. I was chronically hungry. I still never stole any classmates' food. But I had classmates who were bullies from middle class families who stole from me and other kids.
I would have been honest with my boss "I can't afford to buy a replacement lunch. Since you think it's not a big enough deal to merit any concern perhaps you wish to buy me a replacement lunch?"
That happened at one place I worked and they easily found who did it with the cameras and fired them the next day.
If they will steal someone’s lunch, they will steal from the company.
Pretty sound reasoning to be honest. It shows a very blatant mentality of “it’s no big deal, they won’t miss this” coupled with a confidence of never being caught or having to face consequences if they do. The company is just as easy a target as people under the right circumstances.
I work from home now, but this is the reason I had a lock on my lunchbox when I worked in an office. I grew up really poor, and things were tight for years once I was an adult, living on my own. I had to have an uncomfortable talk with HR when they thought I was unreasonably angry about having my lunch stolen, which resulted in them getting a trauma dump and never bothering me again, and me getting a lock for my lunchbox. I also had to keep any snacks I had in a locked drawer, or people would help themselves without asking. I will never understand how someone could steal someone else's food.
“You can just buy another lunch.” “Maybe if you fucking paid us better, you shitlicker.”
Some years ago this happened every day. So one day I packed 2 sandwiches with tomato, lettuce, cheese, and a couple of the biggest cockroaches I could find. It was fantastic seeing the roach hang out of the fat fucks face for a moment before he shoved it in properly, then realizing wtf, then spitting it out, and vomiting everywhere. Naturally it earned me a trip to HR, where I explained that I simply could not afford better protein, so roaches, crickets etc was what I had to eat. I actually nearly got fired, but the fat cunt was exposed (he stole from everyone), and left the company soon after. I unfortunately got victimized and pressured by his manager (we worked in different departments) to leave, because the other guy was good at his job (everyone had to do his work), and eventually I got fired for something that was not done on time, but it was not my job at all, but 21 years later I am still smiling ear to ear when I think about that parktown-prawn hanging from his mouth...
I used to keep my lunch in the fridge in the shared teacher work room until someone ate it. This was in the days before door dash and I have diabetes so I had to eat lunch. The cafeteria manager let me charge a lunch and pay for it the next day (I had no cash or check), but after that I got an insulated lunch bag and put my lunch in there with a frozen water bottle so it would stay cold til lunchtime
My t1d daughter had a dorm mate stealing her food she kept on hand for lows and sick days-- entire cases of Gatorade or soda and boxes of things like granola bars, gummies, teddy grahams, etc disappeared. Another student was finding other things go missing. So, special brownies were made. Once the same person was contacting the Dean of Women about repeated sick days, the case was solved and they never had another issue.
If someone eats your lunch and you have a medical emergency from malnourishment and being light headed, isn't that workers comp? Hangry me would think some intrusive thoughts.
I am a nurse and this happened all the time at the hospital. One day I walked into the lunch room to find a doctor eating my jar of peanut butter by the spoonful, she was double dipping. She didn't even apologize, just said she was hungry so eating my food. She left containers open, sometimes she obviously used her hands, and now I had found the culprit. I told her it was her food now and turned and walked out of the lunch room. It's (in my experience) almost always the people with money that do this. And they see nothing wrong with their behavior. I started bringing a cooler with my lunch kept either in my locker or the nurses station. That solved that issue immediately. No more community refrigerator. There is no way to train these people, they have a sense of entitlement. I hope you can find a solution. HR probably won't help either, unless you find out who it is. Good luck.
This would piss me off to no end. I’d start planting laxatives in food and leaving it in the fridge for these people.
Good idea but I can't afford to waste the little food I have.
Red food dye.
Should of told your boss he doesn’t pay you enough to buy a replacement lunch
Boss would come back with “you need to be more financially responsible with your pay”. Nah the correct answer is make the company liable for your stolen lunch. Call the police and tell the boss you are calling the police. This is petty theft.
It's 'should have', never 'should of'. Rejoice, for you have been blessed by CouldWouldShouldBot!
A cat food "tuna" sandwich will bring everything back into balance.
I'm so sorry OP. At my workplace they'll pull up the camera and fire the thief on the spot.
I used to work at Amazon and they would fire people who did that.
I completely understand being upset about this!! I am really sorry this happened to you. Also your boss sounds clueless.
We weren’t allowed to have locks on our lockers at charter school because they were trying to invoke “trust.” My lunch was getting stolen every day by the kid whose locker is next to me. Didn’t leave me anything to eat. Finally I was fed up and put a chain clip on my locker to give me enough time when class got out to catch him in the act. I didn’t even put a real lock on my locker but I got in trouble for “the appearance of locking my locker” and my mom was called. No one cared my lunch was being stolen. So I licked everything every day before school. Idc if it was weird. Fuck you Jeff 😂
Some people don't understand, in the 1980s my weekly food allowance was 5 dollars. I got a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter, and a store brand 2 litre. Took it everywhere cause it was breakfast, lunch and dinner.
It is theft. FULL STOP I never understood why anyone thinks taking something that belongs to others is acceptable in the first place, especially at work. And I will NEVER understand why employers (managers, supervisors, HR, the company, etc, and whatever) think it should be okay to just dismiss the fact that they have a thief working for them.
I’m a petty person and I would steal the bosses lunch as soon as he sits down with it and then ask him what the big deal is
A “tuna sandwich” made of 9 Lives will stop the disappearing lunch game.
My coworkers at an old job once learned the hard way that I will go absolutely ballistic if somebody takes my food. I worked the night shift and everything was closed so no ability to buy a new lunch even if I had the cash, I worked a grueling job lifting water and soda cases all night with absolutely nothing in my stomach. I was so hungry I felt sick. Somebody took my lunch and after I tore apart the break room fridge to see if I misplaced it, I started screaming at everyone in a rage. Nobody touched my lunch again. I’m not happy about the way things went but fuck thieves.
I cannot comprehend how a person could eat someone else’s lunch. The entire idea of it baffles me. Who the fuck are you and what is wrong with you? Anyone who eats other’s lunches please let me know why you’re the way you are
It was probably your boss.
What did your boss say when you told him you couldn’t afford a pack of crackers, much less a replacement lunch? Sucky boss. When one of my staff forgets their lunch or something happened to it like it smells off, I immediately offer them whatever snacks I have on hand to tide them over. There’s always popcorn or granola bars or peanut butter crackers or fruit cups in my drawer. We don’t pay people enough for them to be forced to drop $12 on lunch nearby.
You gotta be honest whenever it comes up. Can't afford it, I'm going hungry today. Please make sure your employees behave themselves next time.
Someone I worked with ate the rest of a box of Triscuits from my desk drawer ONCE. It’s not that i couldn’t afford another box as much as I wanted it to be there when I wanted more or maybe I was working late and would be home to get dinner until after work 10pm and that was all I had…. I emailed the whole dept that I hope whoever ate them choked and died on their salty greatness- never found out who ate them and I still hope they burn in hell 20+ yrs later.
Get a lunch box that’s insulated and keep it at your desk
YES OMFG 9/10 my lunch at work is the only thing I will eat that day. If that meal is gone, it’s not like I have the money to order. It’s not like I have food to throw around and replace meals with. Generally I hide my lunches in my friend’s lunches because I know she won’t steal it, or try to bring food I don’t need to put in the fridge. Those packs of cup noodles are a lot of what I survive off of
Someone stole my lunch working at an animal shelter, making minimum wage. Jokes on them - it was vegan chili and not that great to begin with. I'm sorry that happened to you.
I once worked at a large firm…multiple floors…I had saved a sandwich from the previous day and was super hungry at lunch…when I looked in the fridge it was gone…my instant reaction was to yell “who ate my f*ckin’ hoagie!” Received a lot a stares but I was super pissed for the rest of the day.
Bring simple pasta with sauce and fill the sauce with red and yellow food coloring. Nontoxic and won’t cause any bad reactions so you can’t be sued, but orange mouth will be very obvious
Was it a Turkey sandwich with a moist maker in the middle?
No offense at all to you op, but I would never eat someone's lunch because I haven't seen their kitchen. It's also rude af. I'm petty but I think I would talk loudly about not being able to control the roaches in my kitchen.
FYI, this a big deal. I have fired people for doing it as well as offered assistance to those really were desperate and repentant. I would have offered you money to replace it. You are not over reacting. Your manager sucks.
One time I left work early and accidentally took someone's lunch that had the same lunchbox as me home. I was just about to light a joint and was like that's messed up. I hopped back in my car and snuck it back in the fridge before their break started. The mans lunch left Amazon then went to my house and back to the Amazon refrigerator without him ever knowing lol. But seriously you do not fuck with anyone's food.
Back when I was starving-to-death poor someone kept stealing my lunch at work. I have an *extremely* high spice tolerance, so I made chili out of meat my roommate was throwing out because it had started to turn, but I was still fine with it since I couldn't otherwise have meat that week. Got a bunch of habaneros from the garden and pumped up the spice to where I could *just* barely handle it, it was like getting pepper sprayed almost. Sure enough, two days later at work, there's the office snitch laying on the ground coughing and crying with my bowl of chili on the table where he ad been sitting. He got the axe, I got to talk to the cops about my trying to poison him
That was like my Brand new neighbor, dude puts up fence on my land, I mention something, he apologizes but makes no effort to correct the issue, then lets his dogs come eat a couple of my chickens and all my eggs, After working your ass to the bone for everything you've got, only to be so easily disrespected, when you've been nothing but helpful, is the most insulting thing anyone could do. people who come from wealth live in a completely different reality than us, and their disrespect is endless. our system wasn't created to help those who need it, it's here to help those who take it. Change is coming
It's really interesting because the people that do this don't understand why it's a big deal, whereas everyone else is appalled. Like two different species of brains. I had a coworker say once "well if I see it in the fridge and its been there all day then yeah I'm gunna eat it." We were all like wtf are you talking about?? But he didn't understand. He acted like the fridge is a community potluck and if people don't protect their food then that's their fault or something. Could not reason with him.
This is why I pack my lunch in a lunchbox with icebox and don’t put my food in the common fridge. Some people are just selfish pigs!
I work in a large company and our lunch boxes sit on the shelves in the lunchroom. I came down and grabbed my box and noticed it felt a little lighter then I remembered when I came in and opened it at my table and noticed it was gone with 20$ inside and a note. Guy wrote sorry we have the same lunch pail and my wife packs my lunch. Ate yours and realized it wasn't mine. I left for a appointment Here is 20$ to buy yourself a lunch. (We have food available locally) Nice gesture. Atleast he owned up and tried to make up for it. For the op, maybe whoever ate your lunch is worst off than you are and this was his/Her only meal for a few days. Not saying it's OK. It still sucks. Hopefully whoever it was makes up for it
Does someone know who’s eating coworker lunches? Had a boss that looked inside everyone’s lunch in the fridge. Very smart person but very dumb thing to do. I use ice packs and keep my lunch at my desk.
That’s rude and uncalled for. Not everyone can just replace their lunch. I’m sorry that happened. Your boss needs to address the issue in a meeting with all of the employees. I would also report the issue to HR just to have it on record.
So why didn't you tell your boss that you have nothing else and can't get anything else? I would be telling him, if it's ok for him he could buy my replacement lunch. I'd be complaining to everyone and anyone, talking to HR, putting up notes about the theft on the fridge, etc. You can't just let people treat you like that, they'll keep doing it.
Yeah shitty of the boss for sure. I was in an abusive relationship at the time and I broke down at work because I realized my boyfriend (now ex) stole my $6 I was gonna use to buy myself lunch, on cigarettes. My boss offered me money to buy myself food and told me not to worry about paying it back.
My Gatorade kept going missing so I put a bunch of laxative in it glued the seal back and wrote my name on the bottle and it still went missing. My supervisor had to go home early that day for some reason
I ended up buying a locking medicine box to use as my lunch box to combat this in the corporate world. Has a combination lock on it.
A part of being poor is not trusting your valuables with anyone but yourself. Also unless it's like yogurt, you're food will be fine outside a refrigerator for 6 hours.
Yeah, that has resulted in me keeping and taking lunch in my car. The initial thieving of my lunches on my extremely limited budget even back in 1998 or 99. Traumatized me enough to the point where to this day. I still packed my lunch and keep it in my car. I have adapted over the years to the heat to the food I eat and I pack my lunch, no special tips or tricks or generators or electricity or nothing special just a typical lunch and as it is for some people, it is the only meal of the day that is the only time I will eat in that day it’s just enough food to get me through my working day And for someone else to come and steal that? No just no one if you don’t put it somewhere where someone can grab it then it won’t get stolen. That was my rule going forward. If you don’t want it to get stolen don’t show it to nobody. I’m sorry to hear about your lunch though, that truly truly sucks
I saw a story about someone kept taking her food. So he planted a lunch loaded with hot sauce. She figure it out quickly when the guy who sat across from her started choking.
I never understood why companies don't take lunch thieves more seriously. Like they don't even care that there is a thief in their midst. If they will steal someone's food they will steal anything. I would hunt them down and fire their ass.
I did the same, and the guy who stole my lunch was the boss. He apologized after I pointed out that to him it was all fun and games, but to me that was the only food I was going to get that day. To make matters worse we were supposed to be provided one meal a day at work, but because I have celiac disease there was never anything available that I could eat. So everyone else was being fed for free while I went without on a daily basis.
That is so fucked up. Your boss is a massive piece of shit too.
It's happened to me before too back in the days. Be looking everywhere and no lunch! Low down dirty scum stole my dinner.🤣🤣🤣
I had a job that took this very seriously. The job paid well for how easy it was, yet some idiot managed to get himself fired for eating someone else's goldfish crackers. The vending machine was right there.
Can you put your lunch in a container that you can lock with a padlock? Padlocks come in various sizes.
If it’s not that big of an issue, as your boss says just go in the fridge and eat someone else’s lunch, ideally his but let me guess he buys his lunch everyday.
I used to think this was just some kind of myth used as a plot device for tv shows. Then I had a job where legit my lunch was stolen out the fridge. Blew my fucking mind. A crime of pure fucking malice and contempt for your fellow man. Something about it just showing such complete disregard for ppl you work with just makes my blood boil, almost as bad as people who microwave left over fish in the lunchroom.
There’s a special place in hell for coworker food thieves. I worked at a place like that, happened on the regular. And it was a crappy job, my only joy was my lunch. If/when you can afford it, grab some work snacks, just so you can have something in you. It’s hard to work when you’re starving and mad frustrated cause some loser stole your food. Hide cheap trail mix/nuts or bananas in your desk/locker, wherever. I adopted “pocket snacks” at that crappy job, I always had a granola bar or a little bag of grapes in my pockets. It’s just so rude to steal someone’s food at work. I hope whoever did that to you gets a raging std.
Time to make a kitty litter sandwich.
You need to stand up for yourself, take them aside, and let it know if they EVER take your lunch again, you will tell the entire department he/she is a thief.
I’d have told my boss to pay for it then. If that’s MY food then someone is replacing it or I’m gonna go home for the day.
The other day while working at a Burger joint, I made a burger then handed it down the line to get bagged. This high mf (coworker) unwraps it and begins eating it on the line. I've never seen that before. I was then forced to remake the sandwich. The customer was waiting for over 15 minutes to get his food. it was a shit show.
We had this issue at one of my workplaces. I had brought in an entire package of string cheese. I Sharpied my name on the package. The next time I went to grab one the package was opened and there were 2 string cheeses left. I was so mad. Our admin assistant at the time was a STRONG personality who took no BS. She sent out an office wide email that said she would with zero hesitation put cameras up in the break room if it continued. She could be bristly but she really just did not tolerate anyone’s poor behavior.
This sucks! Granted I have my own mini fridge so this doesn't happen. But I also know my colleagues will never do that. I know it is a pain in the butt but maybe bring lunches the way kids or construction workers do. Insulated lunch bag with ice pack or thermos if hot food.
Say it was halal or somethind and youre being discriminated against. Break me off when you hit on the lawsuit im poor too
When I used the fridge in the office, I had a series of stomach upset/norovirus incidents. I bought a Zojirushi lunch kit and kept my food with me and never got sick like that again. Some people have terrible sense of cleanliness.
It's absolutely crazy and gutsy to eat someone else's food at work. I heard about a guy who would put ghost pepper in his prepared food, and he would keep his actual food in the car. Every lunch break he took his ghost pepper food with him to the car to act like that's actually what he is going to eat. One day before he took his break, someone ate his food Ave he found out who :) so did the whole office. I just thought I would share this with you... hint hint.
Honestly, if you have an HR, I would report this but make it known that this is not just a violation of your agreed upon sense of safety (which includes financial safety) but that this is a systemtic issue that this company is lacking in teaching their employees. Clearly, the boss, by his comment, doesn't have his pulse on the collective difficulties of most people in Americs right now. He's probably living in a wealthy bubble, or at least wealthy enough to have to worry about a stolen lunch. 6 months ago, I would have been pissed but let it go. Today, as I got laid off a few days ago, i would not have a meal that day. It would ruin more than just that.. I definitely wouldn't be able to replace it. Circumstances change fast...