I’ve worked in a variety of different workplaces and I have never feared for the safety of my lunch in the fridge. I guess I find it surprising as I assume USA and UK have quite a similar shared set of morals?
Just the idea of eating mystery food gives me the ick. How do you know that they washed their hands? That the food wasn’t out of date? That the container was clean? That it doesn’t contain ingredients you don’t like?
Don’t you have places where people can buy lunch if they’ve forgotten or chosen not to bring it? Or is this a poverty thing? These thieves are at least in employment so can’t be destitute. Do they not eat all day if they’ve can’t find an opportunity to steal some? How can they eat knowing they might get caught?
TIA 🙏🏻
Comments
I’ve never stolen anyone’s lunch because it’s a dickhead thing to do. That said, a lot of Americans are dickheads so, yeah. There you go.
Nobody has ever stolen my food at work.
Sometimes people try to force me to accept zucchini from their garden, in an act of reverse workplace food theft.
Workplace lunch theft varies from business to business. fortunately, I’ve never encountered it personally. what usually happens is your lunch gets moved to elsewhere in the fridge to make room for someone else’s lunch.
Not all workplaces provide break rooms or refrigerators for employee lunches. Most that don’t, expect you to either only work half shifts (no lunch break) or go out for lunch.
Many businesses are on corporate campuses where there are no food places nearby (or at least that you can get to and from in a half-hour, which is New Jersey’s standard for meal breaks – it varies from state to state). Some of these businesses have corporate cafeterias that you’re pretty much locked into; others are just BYO. Also, policies on whether or not you can order in food to be delivered vary.
I mean most people who steal lunches are just dicks, but lol @ the idea that in America you won’t be destitute if you’re employed
I’ve only heard of this happening online, have never seen it or heard about it happening to anyone in real life. I would also be curious to know what the heck’s going through their heads cause for the reasons you mentioned it’s just an insane thing to do.
Occasionally happens. Some people suck. Also can happen accidentally; I had a certain variety of yogurt I was really looking forward to eating. Someone else took it while I was in a meeting; it’s from a very common brand that everyone buys, so someone must have taken mine accidentally since the tubs look similar.
Never happened to me once or any of my coworkers that I know of. Usually it’s the opposite where the boss will buy people food sometimes or the on site manager would order takeout for everyone
I’ve worked where employees have had their lunch stolen but it never happened to me. I’m guessing people who steal food are short of money. They certainly are risking their employment, reputation and possibly their health.
“Don’t you have places people can buy lunch if they have forgotten it”.
You cant seriously be asking if America has restaurants.
This makes me feel you entire comment isnt serious.
I guess it happens. I’ve never seen it at all, but that’s just one person’s experience.
I’m a 100% sure the majority of these online contents are bait to go viral and have followers. They are always the same: “i am filling toothpaste in a muffin for the lunch thief”
I had never heard about it from any country before instagram and tiktok, since those platform thrive suddenly every othet company has a lunch thief
It definitely is, ask my coworkers, I’m having a great salad today for lunch with someone’s cookies for dessert.
Never had my lunch stolen. I did mix up my lunch with someone else’s once and we got each others lunch. I did not eat the food because it wasn’t mine, and I didn’t know where it came from/how it was handled, if a kid sneezed on it, etc.
In a country of 340 million people, you can find examples of anything happening somewhere. People from smaller countries tend to make this mental framing mistake. You can have a 100k examples of something and it’s still only 0.03% of the population.
So, no, it’s not common. I’ve only ever heard about it online, never in real life.
Happened to my wife once. She was more pissed about them taking our nice pyrex bowl.
Only time I ever worked with a lunch theif was at a call center job. Hundreds of people crammed in a small building with no cafeteria, incredibly strict time limits on break and lunch, that paid like shit. Two jam packed fridges in the lunch space next to the 4 microwaves. All the theif had to do was steal lunch from someone who’s assigned time was later than theirs in a container that wasn’t memorable and noone would be the wiser.
Pretty sure it was desperation.
This has never happened in my 30 years of working in an office.
I have never met anyone who claims this happened to them in real life either.
I haven’t known anyone with a stolen lunch at my current job, but it happened at a couple of previous places.
My student teacher had his stolen a couple times (likely students) before I convinced him to use ice packs and keep the bag with him. It happened when I worked retail a lot, and constantly from my dorm fridge in college.
Lunch theft was only a problem in one place I ever worked. Mine was stolen early on when I left food in the fridge overnight; it was gone the next day. So I didn’t do that again and always took my food home with me if I didn’t finish it.
I heard that it became blatantly apparent who the culprit was when one particular employee went out on leave of absence and the problem stopped. He often worked the overnight shifts. He left the company eventually, but I don’t think he was fired; it was probably related to whatever made him take the LOA.
Everywhere else I’ve worked has not been a problem at all. There are cameras everywhere these days.
It happens constantly at my office, which is full of people making 6 figures (or close to it). Clearly more an asshole thing then a need thing.
I’ve seen it happen exactly one time in my 15+ years of employment at various jobs. The person had just started working there, hadn’t got his first paycheck yet, and simply couldn’t afford to buy lunch. They promptly took him into HR and fired him. I felt bad for the guy. If he would’ve just explained his situation I’m sure most people would’ve been more than happy to buy his lunch until he got his first paycheck. I know I would have and have done that for other people on many occasions.
You only steal from the people you know. Come on, we aren’t heathens!
I think this is just a case of how the internet’s biased towards complaints since happy people don’t post about how good their life is. No one’s going to talk about how their lunch didn’t get stolen, so no matter how rare it is, you’re only ever going to see discussions of lunch theft by people who it did happen to.
Nobody ever posts about how somebody didn’t steal their lunch.
The building I work in had cameras added to the break rooms because workers kept reporting this happening. Now we deal with locker theft.
I worked from home now but worked in an office with a shared fridge for like 5 or so years. Never heard of this happening, never even seen so much as a note on a lunch box claiming ownership.
I had someone steal my soda once, thinking it was theirs (they opened the wrong fridge and grabbed mine), but no, unless you work with a sociopath your lunch is safe.
Never heard of full meals being stolen but I’ve heard of people taking cans/bottled drinks.
Yeah I’ve had it happen to me before. Some workplaces it never happens and other places it happens quite frequently
Had a coworker accidentally eat my lunch once because it was leftover pizza that was still in the box. He thought it was from a communal order because our boss did sometimes buy us a meal. When he found out it was mine he apologized profusely and insisted on paying me more than the value of the two slices he ate. This was a retail job but all the employees there really looked out for each other, so I had assumed it was a misunderstanding and not intentional or malicious.
Ive been working for nearly 20 years. Ive never seen anyone’s lunch get stolen. Ive seen people bring in food or things they grew to give to coworkers.
Usually it’s Brenda from accounts
Happened to me a few times at my last job so I stopped putting food in the fridge and kept it in my lunchbox with ice packs at my desk.
It’s happened at my job and they sent an email around reminding people not to take food that’s not theirs. But that was years ago and I haven’t heard of it happening in a long while. Our problem now is people taking more than their share of communal snacks.
Yes.
I did retail for the first nine years of my adult life, but it wasn’t until I started working in an office that lunches started getting stolen. My first office job was so bad, not only people’s lunch got stolen, but entire boxes of office coffee, creamer, paper plates, etc. RAM and sound cards were stolen from computers, too. Turned out to be a the security company we hired.
But everywhere I have worked, there has been at least a handful of incidents where an HR memo went out about some recent incidents. Most have been along the lines of, “please don’t do that, but if it happens, it’s ultimately on the victim.”
My wife worked for a high end insurance company, and not only were people’s lunch getting stolen once in a while, but people’s insulin.
Its not that common. Most people do respect other peoples property including lunches, but there’s always going to be some outlier asshole who does steal somebody elses food. Personally, never had an issue with it at any place I worked
In my years of shared fridge workplaces, I’d say it’s been almost always a single object theft than a lunch one. Like, a yogurt, a soda, that sort of thing. I can’t remember a single time when someone’s entire salad/sandwich/takeout was stolen and reported.
I’ve had my lunch stolen. It’s not considered culturally acceptable, it’s more just that person being a dick. It’s not common and not seen as okay, hence why people find it worth it to make a post about it.
In my case, it was when I worked as a lifeguard and my coworkers were a bunch of teenagers. So, one of them didn’t even stop to think that the food in the fridge might belong to someone else, because teens are dumb.
I’ve heard stories of grown adults doing it when they are assholes or I guess just have poor impulse control. I will say that most workplaces don’t have food on site and you have to go someplace else to buy something.
Is it a thing that very occasionally happens, yes.
Probably more than “lunch”, it would be leaving out sweets in a semi-public place, or in the fridge for a day or two, until someone assumes it’s been forgotten.
Nobody wants your leftover spaghetti that much.
Never had my lunch stolen and never heard of a lunch theft where I’ve worked
I’ve been tempted sometimes with some of the fancy lunches folks bring in and me eating just a cheap frozen meal or instant noodles because of finances, but that’s always stayed an intrusive thought I’ve never acted on because that’s just wrong and you don’t do that
I could see someone a bit more callous and entitled stooping to something like that, or someone in a desperate situation
It has happened at every office I’ve worked in.
And every office I’ve worked in is also close to restaurants and other places to get food.
It definitely does exist
You threw away my sandwich?!? The moistmaker??
The last 19 years of my working life I worked in an office at a university. The whole floor was offices, most of them professors who were only there a few hours a week. The office manager had an office at the end of the hall and her desk was positioned where she could look right down the hall. The refrigerator was in a small room off the hallway. We never had trouble with theft.
Then the office manager retired. I was planning to retire in five months and the university (in its wisdom) was going to combine our positions, so she was not replaced.
Suddenly things started going missing from the refrigerator. Sandwiches, bowls of soup, and so on. Things brought from home. It happened nearly every day. Usually only one thing was taken, but that was one person a day missing lunch. We started keeping the refrigerator room door locked. We never figured out who was doing it, but it could have been anyone wandering through.
Why is it a big deal? Yes, you can go out and buy a sandwich, or get food delivered, but you have to plan ahead for that. When you discover your planned meal missing right at lunchtime, you have to scramble to make arrangements. If you call a restaurant for delivery right at lunchtime they’ll deliver but your break will be over by the time your food comes. Same if you hike off to a nearby place. You’ll get there just in time to stand in a long line. And you didn’t budget for that, either time or money. Do you have extra money to buy lunch? Do you have it with you? You had a stressful morning, and you were looking forward to relaxing with your book for an hour, now you’re spending your break walking around and standing in line.
25 years working in a warehouse, has never happened to me. I do remember one time they reminded people not to do this, so it probably happened at some point (or accidently?). I cant see it likely happening unless its a compulsion thing, or a brand new hire that hasn’t received his first paycheck yet.
Of course the weekly ‘clean everything out of the fridge’ likely trips people up. They clean everything out weekly to prevent build up of food that has been left/forgotten so there isnt spoiled/rotten food in it. People dont know about it think their food was stolen and/or go hungry with no lunch. (While you might not have sympathy for a 1st shifter leaving their food at work overnight, some places have shifts going on 24/7, so there isnt an ‘off’ time for cleaning out fridges.) If there are multiple fridges, can clearly mark which fridges are getting cleaned out and when. And/or put little stickers on the containers that were left in fridge with a date on it. If that container still there 3 days or whatever, it gets tossed.
Never happened to me but I have witnessed 2 incidents at work with other people’s food.
While my own lunch has never been stolen, I’ve seen it happen a handful of times to others. This has resulted in a few firings.
I’ve never worked at a place where people steal lunches. The only place I’ve heard of it is people bitches on Reddit.
I’m sure it does happen, but really not as often as you would think.
Remember, this place tends to be a vocal minority. Or karma farmers who just make shit up.
It does happen but I never bring food into the work. The most common is that some people buy pack of sodas or mini-bottles of juices and they are taken away.
It happened to me over the course of several years. I would regularly bring a specific amount of food into the office to heat up throughout the week. I would eat the exact same amount every day to make sure I would have enough portions for the entire week.
Soon, I would realize that somehow I didn’t have enough to finish out the week. At first I just thought I was bad at math or wasn’t paying attention, but after keeping track on paper, I soon realized that some of my food was going missing every week. This was happening at a time in my life when I was financially unstable, so any loss of food was significant for me.
I tried to catch the thief. I tried to ask around the office to see if anyone else was seen eating the same food as I was bringing, but concluded that whoever was doing it was likely on a different shift than me (I left the week’s worth of portions in one of the freezers in the breakroom. This was not an uncommon thing for people to do in our office.)
Management wouldn’t and couldn’t do anything despite other people also complaining of missing meals. We asked for a camera to be installed in the breakroom but nothing came of it.
Eventually I resorted to writing a note and placing it inside the box I kept my food, explaining my financial situation and asking that whoever was taking food to either stop, or just ask permission. They ignored the request and continued taking food off and on for months and months until finally I just kept the food at home and brought it each day (if I remembered, which I didn’t always so I would go hungry those days).
Long story long, it 100% does happen because it happened to me. It was infuriating, and at times felt violating. Eventually my situation stabilized and I no longer had to resort to bulk lunches, and could just go out to eat if any meals went missing. Then, over the course of Covid, there was a large amount of churn in the company and the issue seemed to disappear.
I’ve had drinks or frozen meals taken before, but not my full lunch. I marked my initial on the bottom of a soda can once and asked the guy across the table from me if he was enjoying my soda. He got indignant and tipped it up for a long drink, exposing my initial on the bottom. The rest of the table laughed and public humiliation did the rest.
A bunch of my coworkers bring food from home and I’ve had to do so recently because of health changes. I haven’t heard anybody say anything and so far, I haven’t had problems
I’ve had food stolen but usually it was a frozen meal that I brought that was in the freezer. I was low on money one time and brought a cheap little $1 pizza to eat and it was stolen too.
Yes it happens, but it only happened to me when there was a workplace thief in general. Desserts and sodas were most commonly stolen.
It is not at all common in real life. But it is a popular trope on Reddit and pretty easy to make up a story about for post karma. Ask your favorite AI to write you one and you’ll see how easy it is and how it sounds exactly like the posts you have seen.
Office food culture is much more about leaving left over food from catered meetings out in the break room for everyone to consume than it is about protecting the lunch you brought in.
The bigger problem is the 7 1/2 gallon (2 liter) bottles of milk various people brought in for their coffee sitting in the fridge going bad and taking up all the space.
Yes, probably not as big as it’s made out to be, but I have definitely been in workplaces where people were taking someone else’s lunch
It sure is
I work in a lab so I can’t have any food at my desk. I refuse to not be able to snack so I have granola bars in the break room. One day like 2 months into my employment, my granola bars disappeared. The next day I brought a bucket and labeled it with my name so no one thought they were communal or something. After like 3 instances of them just disappearing, I looked up lock boxes on Amazon. I found one that fits them perfectly and they’ve never been stolen again. I don’t even need to actually lock the box, just the presence of a locked box was enough I guess
Only Dave has stolen my lunch. I scolded that 70 year old man. He never stole from me again. Dave snacks on everything asks for a bite of everything. Dave is like 4 ft tall and too adorable to deny. Dave always had pretty young girls at his desk. I hope he’s doing okay.
I used to work in the largest office complex in Arizona. I had a coworker that would have pizza stolen from the fridge nearly 100% of the time he left his leftovers in there overnight. And I’m talking about the personal size ones from MOD, Blaze, etc.
We always thought it was the cleaning staff.
I cater lunch every day for my employees so almost nobody but me ever brings food but we did have an incident where an employee kept bringing in a 12 pack of Diet Coke cans, labeled it as hers, and would come back to an empty box the next day. She came to me after the third or fourth time and I had a quick meeting where I pointed out the labeled drinks in the fridge or not for everyone and anyone caught taking someone else’s drink would be fired. I’m not sure if I actually would have fired someone over that but it stopped.
Yes. And I have to deal with people who get their lunches stolen. It sucks.
Yes, it happens sometimes. I’ve had my lunch stolen at work. It was a frozen dinner. I can’t remember if i had written my name on it or not. Never could figure out the culprit but suspect it was an older man who worked late and long hours. This was an industrial setting where people worked different shifts and you couldn’t leave the property during your shift.
My friend had her lunch stolen as well. She brought a corn dog everyday and put it in the same spot on the fridge. One day it went missing.Turns out her boss ate it because he thought it was the same corn dog that had been in the fridge for a long time and had been abandoned. He apologized and offered to replace it.
We had an old man here. If there was good in the fridge, it was his. Everyday he wouldn’t bring anything in, but would did through the fridge n take what he wanted. Glad he’s gone
Not lunches in home-packed containers, but individual bags of chips, cans of soda, and other visible, prepackaged snacks tend to grow legs occasionally.
Absolutely is except in my case it was my breakfast sandwiches. I keep a box of them in the freezer with my name on them and they kept disappearing. Even taping the box shut didn’t stop them. I told coworkers if they knew who it was to tell them if they can’t afford something for breakfast talk to me and I’d give them some of them. One person came up to me later and asked if I was serious and I bought them their own box. I doubt they were the thief because it happened even after that.
I only had one job where my food was repeatedly stolen. It was an office at a large bank.
One coworker actually caught the thief eating her food. The thief’s reason? “I’m pregnant”.
Yes. We had a guy in the chemical lab I worked at that did it on a regular basis.
Did you notice I said ‘chemical lab’. A little phenolphthalein in a frozen entree and that issue resolved itself.
I haven’t had my food stolen, but two of my mugs have been taken. One I got back after putting up a missing poster, lol. This second one went missing recently, but I learned my lesson and used a mug I didn’t care about so it can stay gone.
And I used to leave my silverware in my mug in the break room, but one day my knife was missing. The next day it was back, and wet like someone used it and washed it. I no longer leave my silverware in the break room.
I’ve never seen it happen or heard about it happening to someone else in my life besides online and in movies/tv. I don’t doubt it happens though.
I’ve never experienced it personally but I’ve heard people complain about it at work. I kind of suspect it was either someone grabbing the wrong thing by accident or the lunch getting thrown out on accident than actual maliciousness.
It is a thing. In my case I’m pretty sure it was a poverty issue. The cleaning staff was stealing food out of the fridge/freezer in the breakroom overnight. Frozen meals that people had stashed kept going missing. I know what I was making as a professional, so I’m sure the cleaning staff were paid very little.
Sometimes it’s just some entitled jerk, but that’s not been my personal experience.
Very much so, but it depends on your workplace. In my office building (over 500 employees) it was not routine but not rare. I’ve had lunches stolen several times. There was a period of time when I was bringing White Castle burgers to work in a plastic bag and placed in the fridge. They were stolen 3 days in a row. I’ve also had my DoorDash order swiped from the lobby. I caught one person at the fridge going through my lunchbag and when confronted he said that he thought was leftovers for everyone.
It happened all the time at one of my old jobs where just about anyone off the street would be hired from the call center. Every time there would be a new training class there would be multiple lunches stolen every day. Once training ended and people got let go who couldn’t cut it, the thefts would stop. Now, I can’t prove that the people who were showing up and doing nothing to get an easy 4 weeks of pay were the same ones stealing food, but it happened too often to be a coincidence.
Not really lunch stealing. But there was a girl in my office who was vegan. We had giant creamer bottles in the office, but she bought herself oat milk because dairy free. People kept drinking it. Obviously she got pissed and our manager sent around an email. But individual lunches? No.
Given my penchant for exotic foods from other places, weird combinations and extremely spicy food, I have a rough time getting my coworkers to even try a freely offered sample, nevermind worry about anybody stealing my food, lol.
After watching me eat a pulled pork sandwich made with honeybuns for bread, with marmite and pickled habaneros my coworkers tend to just observe in fascinated horror, and anyone dumb enough to steal some of the spicier stuff I bring in is liable to learn a very valuable lesson from it.
Super prevalent. Happened to me many times. Yeah, mystery food is sketch, but god help you if you bring a frozen, or prepackaged meal. I once worked in a place where the prevailing thought process was “No Name? Free Game!” If there wasn’t a lable with your name on food it was up for grabs. It’s ridiculous.
Unfortunately it really is. I’ve only had it happen to me once back when I worked at Target. I was trying to get in the habit of bringing lunch to work. It was in a brown paper bag with my name and last initial on it. Had put it in one of the fridges in the break room. I remember being quite peeved.
Never happened to me but I just always assumed it was either 1. A passive aggressive coworker throwing it away to be a jerk or 2. A young guy in a warehouse type environment where they do physical work and he’s just eating everything in sight
I accidentally ate a coworker’s lunch once decades ago. It was a frozen dinner exactly like the ones I brought everyday. I just brought a different meal from the same brand that day. I gave her the one I brought, and I’ve written my name on my lunch ever since.
I have worked in lots of settings in the 30+ years I’ve worked outside the home and at only 1 place had to deal with an lunch thief. I saw her take my leftovers out of the fridge and walk past me. I told her they were mine (name on the lid) and oops, thought it was hers. “No problem, I’ll help you find yours” and she immediately said she forgot hers at home.
She would boldly go in and take people’s food in front of them and eat it in front of them/around them. I made sure it wasn’t due to food insecurity – nope, she just does it, has for years. I was the only person in the office to even address it directly to her. People are weird.
You just reminded me of a workplace story from 25 years ago.
I was in my first job out of college and working the night shift for a sports-news website. Almost everyone on the night shift was like 25 or under and there was no management present, it was anarchy. I ended up being kind of the night manager and I was basically a kid.
So one day we all come into the office at 4 p.m. to see an email from one of our day-shift co-workers who’s furious about a cake she left in the refrigerator being eaten. The email just goes on and on about how important the cake was and what a reprehensible act it was, and then challenges the cake thief to come forward, promising no retribution.
So at like 11 p.m., we’re all sitting there in the office shooting the shit as we often did, and somebody is like, “Did you see that cake email?” We start gossiping about the tone of the email and the subject turns to who might have eaten the cake. Then one of the more soft-spoken night-shift people who usually just kept his head down and did his work suddenly says, “I ate the cake.” The rest of are like, “What? Why?” He says, “I was hungry and it looked good.” Then we say, “So are you going to turn yourself in?” and he’s like, “Fuck no!”
I don’t believe anyone snitched.
We had a lunch thief. Eventually a camera was installed and he was caught. He was canned immediately.
It depends on where you work. Some people are really just that disrespectful.
I brown bag my lunch everyday except for Fridays and in my 20 year career in accounting and finance my lunch has been stolen exactly ZERO times. It’s not a thing. The only time I’ve seen anything similar is when someone sees a coke in there or something and maybe it’s been in the fridge for a week or more and they just snag it or something like that. Nobody is getting their actual lunch stolen. Where are you even getting this?
I haven’t had any issues at my current job but it’s a small office and everyone knows each other. It’s be very hard to get away with theft.
At an old job, there was a thief until they installed cameras in the breakroom and they ended up getting fired.
We shared a refrigerator at work and I have had someone steal my food numerous times.
Dude i will share if you ask
I’ve never personally heard firsthand about lunch theft, but I have heard about people bringing their own coffee creamer from home and all their coworkers assuming it was communal even when it was labeled.
Until a few weeks ago, nobody had ever stolen my food. But strangely, somebody ate 3 out of a 4-pack of yogurt.
I’ve had a manager and even the company president once eat my lunch and then tell me after the fact. So they were honest thieves? But they gave me money for it. It was usually if they didn’t have time to go out. It only happened 2 times though so it wasn’t a regular thing. But if it happened to just me twice who knows how often it happened total. When the company president did it I had brought a turkey sandwich and carrot sticks and he gave me $50 for it so it was kind of a win but he still took it without asking.
It’s happened to me. I think it was just one person, who later got fired after being caught stealing money from the company.
Believe it or not it is. At my old place we had a CFO that would take your sandwich out of the fridge and eat it. He did it to the same guy a few too many times so he went to the owner to complain about it. Later that day the guy found 10 bucks laying on his keyboard.
Whenever a lunch thief has actually been caught and interviewed/ studied, they have found the motivation is usually control/ anger. Someone in the office hates their job but feels powerless to do anything about it, thinks they are underpaid, or secretly hates their coworkers, so this is the behavior that develops.
Retired now. In all my years of working, there’s only one time when food was pilfered from the office fridge.it was the owner’s entitled kid. People started planting hot peppers in their sandwiches and bringing unappetizing lunches. Problem stopped.
Yes and people really get fired for it.
I have been working from home for almost 15 years now but at my previous job one of the secretaries was caught stealing other people’s food and was let go that day.
The reasoning can be varied, but for some people it’s just the thrill of doing something they shouldn’t.
It has happened to me but not often.
Of 10 years of sharing a fridge at work, I remember it happening at least twice. I’m guessing it’s mostly someone grabbing the wrong thing by mistake. Mistakes happen.
If two people bring pizza, it’s easy to grab the wrong pizza.
We had one on our team of 40. I threatened to leave something in the fridge with laxatives or ipecac. Someone objected immediately saying I couldn’t do that. I said it was my food and I could do what I wanted. The thefts stopped after that.
Pretty much every office cleans out the fridge and kitchen about weekly to prevent rotting clutter. I assume these people just are blindspotted about that practice even though it’s usually announced.
Yes, it really does happen. It even happens in small offices where everyone knows who did it.
Yes, I used to work in a department that had a food thief. Many people, myself included, started leaving our lunch bags (insulated with ice packs) at our desks instead of the department fridge.
It’s so annoying and I will never understand how someone can just go eat food they know doesn’t belong to them.
Edit to add I work in an office location with a couple thousand people, there’s a cafeteria on site with multiple food options and a restaurant next door plus food delivery. It’s not like there aren’t options.
From my personal experience, if the job doesn’t pay well then you’re more likely to experience it. My current office no one ever steals food, but back when I worked low wage jobs food got stolen all the time.
Yes, and I had to put a combination lock on my lunchbox to deter wandering hands.
The social contract stipulates that you do NOT eat someone else’s lunch. However there will always be people who violate the social contract.
You hear about it because it IS very rare. It’s so egregious that when it happens to you, you feel the need to report it – on Reddit if nowhere else.
Maybe like an energy drink in the fridge or a bag of chips lying around but a full lunch? Hell no
I have never heard of it happening at any workplace I’ve been at. I would be out for blood if anyone touched my lunch.
Yes. I had a container with my name on it in Sharpie, and someone stole the container and the contents in the container. And I’ve seen others searching all over for their food in the fridges, only to find that someone has taken their lunch… same thing, her name was on it with her tupperware in a plastic bag.
It happens sometimes at the office where I work. As the boss I have to then gently remind people that food in the fridge likely belongs to someone and if they are hungry I would be happy to provide them snacks.
I had a coworker who would steal food off your plate rather than eat his own lunch. He was awful, everyone hated it; he thought he was being cute and cheeky.
He stopped though when one day he ate a piece of gristle off my plate that I had chewed and spit out. He learned that lesson the hard way.
Maybe? Probably very rare though. I’ve even gone grocery shopping and put all of that in the mostly empty fridge while on lunch. No one stole even a single item.
It can vary, but in places where refrigerator space is shared, yes, some folks will take food that isn’t theirs.
Some workplaces with large numbers of employees may also have a cafeteria on site, but generally, one is expected to bring a lunch, or leave the workplace at lunchtime and go eat at a nearby restaurant.
Food swipers are just being impulsive, immoral and greedy – they see something they want and take it. If they thought they’d be caught in the act they’d be ashamed but assured of anonymity have no shame. It’s sad.
This happened all the time at my last job but it was only beverages. Specifically coca cola. Old dudes would bring a coke for lunch and another guy would drink it and claim he also brought a coke from home. Everyone knew who was lying and would talk shit. I didnt use that break room bc it was so nasty and old dudes would always be trying to give me advice about my marriage. And let me tell you it was the worst advice in the world. You could just tell they hated their wives and women in general. Horrific job and job culture.
It’s such an uncommon social faux pas that it’s notable when it happens. It is not a regular occurrence, thus why it’s an even posted about. Nobody posts when their lunch wasn’t stolen.
Hasn’t happened to me in years but, yes. I worked at tire manufacturer in my early 20’s. It’s a hot environment. The type of work that makes you super hungry just from burning calories. I’m not gonna say how I dealt with the problem but, I don’t think the person considered lunch theft very much after.
One of my coworkers used another coworker’s frozen Hot Pocket as an ice pack for a sore calf a few weeks ago.
It was very nearly a bad situation.
It has never happened to me or anyone that I know. But I read stories about it all the time so I guess it happens. I work in a professional environment and perhaps less likely to happen but who knows?
In thirty years of office work, I’ve never had my lunch stolen nor stolen someone else’s. However, I have eaten a yogurt that I was pretty sure was mine, but might not have been. I have also drunk a soda that I was pretty sure was available to all but may not have been. I’ve also used a bit of someone’s coffee creamer that was in the fridge.
I’ve never worked anywhere that even had rumors of this being a real problem.
Had a drink thief at work once; I had somebody drink from my orange Pellegrino bottle in a work fridge, so I made a fake one by filling an empty bottle with some magnesium citrate liquid (a.k.a. “colon blow”) and mixed it with orange juice. Put it in the fridge and waited.
Strangely, a co-worker had to leave because of an upset stomach shortly after lunch. Hope he made it home……
I’ve never had my food stolen at a workplace.But then again, I never bring in anything to eat that anybody else would want to eat🤣🤣
It hasn’t happened to me, but it has happened to others in my workplaces.
Usually it has been a mistake – someone brought a sandwich and an apple in a brown bag, and someone else who also brought a sandwich and an apple grabbed the wrong brown bag and didn’t realize it until they bit into the wrong sandwich. The couple of times where it didn’t seem accidental were almost certainly related to finances, not malice.
My workplaces are not necessarily a good comparative sample for all US workplaces, however. I certainly could see it becoming more of a problem in workplaces that are more impersonal, more dysfunctional, and/or have more people dealing with food insecurity.
In my building, the lunches that get stolen are the ones ordered and delivered via UberEats, Doordash, etc. Bagged orders are left on a rack at the first floor lobby.
The building is huge with a lot of traffic. Everyone has access to that rack.
I’ve accidentally taken the wrong meal once when someone else brought the same brand of frozen meal, but basically left a note that said oops, sorry, please have the one I brought instead. Nothing ever came of it.
Never worked at a place with that problem. Usually it’s the opposite. People leave stuff in the fridge/kitchen for eons and never throw it out.
I think 99% of the stories are made up since workplace antics are funny/relatable. OR the people thought it was stolen when it wasn’t. OR someone took it because it was abandoned/up for the taking OR it was thrown out for being old.
I can’t think of anybody who would just take someone’s homemade food or individual snack. If it’s a soda in a pack, a bunch of cookies on a tray or candy in a jar, that might get stolen though.
It depends on the workplace if there is food to buy. Many places don’t have somewhere close by or only give like 15-20 minutes so there isn’t time.
My wife worked at Wal-Mart. One day she walks into the break room and one of her coworkers and her coworkers children were in the break room. The children were eating my wife’s lunch. When called out on it, the coworker said, “What was I supposed to do, they were hungry!”
Yes, food theft is a thing. There are at least 10 places to buy food within 5 minutes of my office and there were multiple delivery services, in case you forgot your food. If you had a few dollars you did not have an excuse to be hungry. Also, just about everyone in the building would have shared their food if asked.
One time a lady brought in a bowl of mixed pineapple and cantaloupe. The thief ate all of the pineapple and left the cantaloupe. Another lady would bring in all the ingredients for sandwiches for the week. Sometimes the thief would take the meat, sometimes the pickles. We had one huge glass door display type fridge. Everyone who brought their lunch would put their lunch bags in there. The thief would take whole lunch bags – not just some of the contents. We never found the thief, so I don’t know their circumstances. You had to use your name badge to get into the lunch room, so it had to be a co-worker.
I bought a small refrigerator to put under my desk, so I didn’t have to worry about the thievery.
I don’t know if it was the same thief or a different one, but office plants started disappearing. Some of the plants were in huge pots – probably over 100 pounds, so the thief must have had help. We had a service that supplied plants to decorate the building. Those plants started disappearing from the common areas. Security installed cameras, but since the thief was probably a co-worker, they knew about the cameras and stopped stealing plants.
I’ve never had my lunch stolen, but someone has had something stolen from every larger office I’ve worked at. Lunches, condiments, coffee creamer, sodas, etc.
It used to happen to me all the time at one place I worked, until I stopped putting my name on my lunch bag and replaced it with the name of a boss everyone was terrified of.
Most of my coworkers doordash/uber eats lunch everyday day. I bring leftovers but they’re kept in a mini fridge about 10 feet from my desk
At my last workplace, it was never a problem (that I’m aware of). What was a problem was people forgetting about their lunches and leaving them in the fridge until they started to stink and grow fur.
Sadly theft exists everywhere, and so do jerks. It’s usually rare, but it happens. I’ve only had it happen to me once.
I’ve seen it a few times, but each one was accident. They had the same containers and that was it.
Depends on the place. I worked construction on a massive construction site (several thousand daily workers) back when I was 18. Everyone took their lunch in Little Playmate coolers (this was 50 years ago) but you had to leave them in a common area, no lockers were available. So one day I went to get my lunch and my sandwiches were gone. That night my dad helped me put a hasp on the cooler and the next day it was padlocked LOL. Of course that’s not high security but it was enough of a deterrent I never lost anymore lunch items!
The only things ever stolen from my workplace fridge were never-opened juices and flavored waters, salad dressings (used on food, bottle returned.) Home-packaged stuff was safe.
One time someone ate some of my pizza leftovers, which was gross because I’d clearly chomped a ton of it, I leave the crusts for last lol
I just figured they really really must have been hungry to eat my already-bitten pizza
I never experienced it, however, while I was stationed in the UK, my supervisor shared a story of a sergeant stealing another sergeant’s lunch from the fridge. It got so bad that the sergeant that was getting his food stolen installed a camera to monitor. Sure enough, he caught the criminal red handed. Thinking he had all the evidence he needed, he reported the incident to the higher ups. Unfortunately, Base Legal stepped in and informed the squadron that the charges have to be drop as there was no warning sign mentioning of a surveillance monitoring camera in the lunch area. To prevent any further theft, the fridge was moved out. It only returned when the thieving sergeant left the base.
I’ve had a couple of my lunches stolen, lean cuisine type meals as well as leftovers in Tupperware style containers. I would’ve liked my container back. This was 2016 and 2017. I personally felt it was pathetic to take the lean cuisines but maybe they were desperately hungry. Losing your homemade scalloped potatoes was a huge bummer.
It is a thing. And it has nothing to do with poverty. Some people just do not care about anybody but themselves. Where I work pays really well for my area. I’ve had food stolen. My coworkers’ food gets stolen. I work 2nd shift and whenever the company buys food for the employees when I come into work you can see large numbers of people leaving 1st shift with multiple Tupperware full of food and there’s nothing left for 2nd shift. People will go into my office and rip paper out of the notebook that I bought myself instead of grabbing the company supplied paper that they literally have to walk past in order to get to my office. People steal from their coworkers because they are selfish.
we had a lunch thief at our office, they added a camera to the breakroom facing the fridge, culprit got caught and fired.
I can think of it happening twice in my career. The first time was at a huge office with about 1,000 employees. A co-worker bought a deli sandwich which got stolen. This was at least 16 years ago.
The other time, a co-worker stole a lunch. It was caught on camera and he was fired. This guy seemed to have always been trying to save a buck, and I think he stole the lunch to save a money. He was paid well at his job, so it wasn’t like he was living in poverty.
Yes. It happened to me. I had a coworker steal my lunch a few times. Nothing zany or interesting happened and there was no dramatic revenge.
We used the same type of food storage containers. His wife always packed his lunch, so he never knew what was supposed to be in his. He just grabbed the containers that he thought he had brought. I spoke to him about it after I caught him eating one of mine. He realized his mistake and we both started labeling our stuff. He’s a pretty good guy and I don’t believe he had any malicious intent.
Yup. Someone stole my lunch. Weird but true.
We had an office fruit thief. No berry or cherry was safe. It stopped after a while and it’s still a mystery.
Yes, I left my desk to wash my hands. When I came back, someone had stolen a tuna sushi.
One time I had a protein shake in the fridge and not only did someone drink it, but they only drank half of it and put it back!
Mines different……
In early covid I had to go into my office few days a week. I coukd not do a few things at home.
In the company freezer I had brought in some frozen meals. I brought in multiple ones ar a time.
M a custodial person went in yo clean out the fridge if left behind lunch bags but notice w a ny given before thus happened. Yhd person took my lunches.
She knew I was regularly coming in along eith a few others * there was probably 3-5 on the floor any given day
I got paid back gor this.
I don’t think it’s a big concern.
I have worked at several places over the years. Only 2 had food stealing. If people can’t steal something they are buying food from a nearby eatery. I believe most people aren’t stealing out of necessity but cheapness.
At one job we never knew who it was but when the one department moved to another floor the thefts ceased. At my current job I had my name on a sticky on a frozen meal. When I went to make it I found the box in the trash.
My favorite was I brought in the end of a large bottle of juice. Someone helped themselves to some. Jokes on them, I had drank straight from the bottle when I was packing it that morning.
I also had someone open a brand new milk. I was pissed.
I have typed so much that I don’t even remember if I answered the question. 😆
At places its happened to me there seemed a correlation between overwork and general resentment/unhappiness. Not necessarily low pay etc-although that was often also the case. Ironic that you might take out your problems on coworkers when company culture was main problem
My relatives have all dealt with this. One of my brother’s co-workers got fired for it. My mother’s boss stopped buying thanksgiving food as gifts because an staff member stole multiple turkeys out of the fridge. At the same office, my mother had to deal with a mystery person taking her food. She believes it was also the “turkey bandit”. Both of these business are surrounded by restaurants, vending machines, and/or food carts.
There will always be that asshole that’s too lazy to buy food, but I also think it’s also due to poverty. The fridge is being shared by people with various wages and living situations.
I have never experienced it, but it does happen, because people complain about it.
Yes. It happens at a lot of places. I always keep my lunch with me in a refrigerated bag. Some people are nuts.
It’s never been a thing anyplace I’ve worked in the U.S.
I don’t fear for my lunch, but no beverages are safe.
It absolutely happens, but it is incredibly uncommon. The lower-paid and more miserable the work-place, the more likely it is to happen I would imagine.
People leaving their dirty dishes in the shared sink, on the other hand… That’s a far more common annoyance.
happened to me once, i was upset about not having a lunch to eat that day but honestly was more upset that they didn’t at least leave the glass tupperware
This happened to me once. I worked at Walgreens while I was in college and we had a lunch thief but they would choose a different person’s lunch each time and it was my turn once. People started doing gross decoy lunches, like spitting in it or putting miralax on it and the lunch thefts stopped.
I work in an office on a floor where everyone clears $100k easy. No lunch is safe. I’ve had drinks to meals go missing with nothing left. They even took the bag and didn’t return it.
It’s almost the opposite, people leave their shit in the work fridge forever and everyone is too afraid to throw away someone else’s six month old rotting sandwich even though it grosses everybody out.
Even I once left a Gatorade in for a month because I couldn’t remember if it was actually mine or not. Now I write my name on all my drinks, not so others don’t steal them, but so my dumb ass can remember what I put in the fridge.