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agonyaunt2025-06-17 10:00 am
minoanmiss) wrote in agonyaunt2025-06-17 10:00 am
Entry tags:
Ask a Manager: The Great Muffin Caper
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.
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.
no subject
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.