Ask a Manager: The Great Muffin Caper

[minoanmiss]

1. Someone stole my muffin from the office freezer



I work in a small office and been here for nearly three years. We have less than 15 people at full staff in office and some are from other locations/departments. We have a shared common area with a basic fridge/freezer and until I came, not many people used it for longer term storage. I’ll bring in pre-packaged leftovers frozen from home, then eat these on my lunch breaks. I usually have at least a quarter of the freezer filled with my frozen soups.

I trust the freezer more than the fridge. I’ve had a leftover salad in the fridge, and my supervisor threw it out because it didn’t meet their standards to eat. While wilted, I had planned to eat it that day. And when I went to look for it, without an easy alternative for lunch, I ended up coming to an agreement with my supervisor: unless it’s moldy, do not throw it out unless you brought it.

About six months ago, a phone charger from my supervisor’s desk went missing. After searching high and low, they ended up asking the nightly cleaners, mentioning they can request camera footage. The next day it was returned with a note saying it was an accident. Since then, I’ve started locking my locker (never felt the need to before) and due to this prior occurrence, I’m not sure I should give them the benefit of the doubt.

I bought some muffins and threw the package in the freezer. I’ll take one out from time to time to have on break, but they’ve lasted in the freezer for more than a month. Yesterday, I went on my break and wanted a muffin, but it wasn’t there. I searched the freezer and then asked every single one of my coworkers, even if they had noticed it or saw a need for it to be thrown out. No one knew anything about it, and a couple coworkers confirmed it was there last Friday (two work days prior). I brought it up to my supervisor (who mentioned it wasn’t them as they no longer throw anything out) and they are refusing to go to the cleaners over such a small item.

I’m not sure what I should do. Do I drop it and just accept that my personal items are not safe at work? Or push the request to look into this further? It’s less about the food item, and more about respect for other’s property. But since I know I tend to overanalyze things, I was looking for a third party professional perspective.

It’s only happened to you one time so for now I’d drop it. If food starts going missing regularly, that’s worth bringing up again — but right now it’s a one-time, fairly minor incident.

For what it’s worth, I wouldn’t assume that all your coworkers denying taking the muffins points toward the cleaners. While some people do shamefacedly fess up when questioned about taking someone else’s food, others will blithely deny it.

But also … taking up at least a quarter of the freezer is a lot for one person to be using. You might figure it’s fine because no one else is using that space, and that could absolutely be true — but if more does go missing, it might make sense to try keeping less there and see if that makes any difference. It’s possible that if someone sees a bunch of food item X packed in there, they’ll think you’ll be less likely to miss one (not that it isn’t still stealing; it is), and it’s also possible that if you do need to escalate it, storing less there will be one of the things someone suggests.

Comments

[magid]

I will admit to using more than my share of a work freezer in a previous job for a week or two before Thanksgiving, because there was room in it for a turkey that I couldn’t fit in my home freezer. (It would come home to defrost and cook for the holiday, obv.)

This is rather different, as the commenters noted.

[topaz_eyes]

I bought some muffins and threw the package in the freezer. I’ll take one out from time to time to have on break, but they’ve lasted in the freezer for more than a month.

I agree with the advice; unless LW's food starts to disappear regularly, the muffin incident is (probably, hopefully) a one-time thing. How long does LW keep their leftovers in the office freezer though? After a month, people may start to think it's reasonable that the owner forgot about the food. Maybe LW might want to start keeping only a week's worth of food there.

[movingfinger]

LW writes of the office freezer "...not many people used it for longer term storage..." without apparently understanding that an office freezer is not for longer term storage. They have filled it a quarter-full with their own frozen soups! This is not home! They should not be leaving food in the communal storage over a weekend, let alone a package of muffins left in there for a month!

The "wilted" "leftover" salad was probably limp and browning. The LW claims not to have had an alternative for lunch with the office freezer holding all those soups. I think the office needs a new rule: fridge is totally emptied on Friday afternoon, every week.

[conuly]

The office needs a clear rule - everything in the fridge needs to be labelled with a name and a date, and the entire fridge gets dumped on Friday or Trash Night or, anyway, either once or twice a week on a schedule with no exceptions.

Filling 25% of the freezer at all times? Keeping food in there over a month, in a shared fridge for more than 4 people? Uncool.

[redbird]

I worked someplace where you could leave milk (for tea or coffee), jars of salad dressing, and I think some other condiments, labeled with your name and the date, and keep them for more than a week. They also tossed everything, including still-fresh cartons of milk, on a less frequent schedule.

[melannen]

I feel like a lot of people are concentrating on LW's freezer use (which might or might not be reasonable - some office freezers, one TV dinner takes up 1/4 of the space; some office freezers, there's nothing in there but evaporated ice trays and a forgotten tub of ice cream from an old work party and nobody will care if one person uses most of it for long-term storage) and overlooking the "the cleaners are stealing my stuff" paranoia??

Somebody mistakenly took home a charger that wasn't theirs, it got returned once it was pointed out, somebody else ate a single muffin out of the freezer that was unlabelled and had been there a month, and now "the cleaners" are all thieves and everything needs a lock? If this isn't racism it's at least really blatant classism.

[minoanmiss]

Yeah this was my takeaway. I want to protect people from this puffed up toxic gasbag of a LW

[gremdark]

That’s my read as well.

[lilysea]

LW: lockable cash boxes are small and cheap. If you're desperate for people not to steal your muffin, maybe put your muffin in a lockable cash box and then put that in the fridge?

[pauraque]

Maybe this is just a reflection of the places I've worked, but I've always seen putting food in the workplace fridge as a gamble akin to lending someone money. Don't do it unless you've accepted the possibility that you won't get it back again.

[frenzy]

Much ado about muffin

(sorry, couldnt resist)

[minoanmiss]

LOL