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Colleagues keep using my milk!

438 replies

Immo8 · 16/01/2025 11:34

I don't want to sound petty as in the grand scheme of things, milk isn't an expensive item and maybe I should leave this be, but it's really starting to grate on me...

Work in an office with around 30-ish staff, the majority are on shift work including weekends so people are in & out a lot. I work standard hours 4 days a week. The company provides tea & coffee but staff bring in their own milk etc. I buy a large filtered milk every month as it lasts and I only have a few cups of tea a day so makes sense.

However, over the last 6 months or so, people will ask me if they can 'borrow' some milk. I would never say no to someone asking but they NEVER bring in their own milk or buy one to replace mine that they've used over the weeks...

Today, I brought in a brand new milk, name on it, placed it at the back of the fridge so hard to find, and I've just gone to make a cuppa and it's been opened without asking, and a 1/4 of it has gone!

How do I word an email to my colleagues (if people think I should) that is polite and doesn't sound too petty?

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cooldarkroom · 30/01/2025 08:37

@Immo8 How is the bottle lock working?
Have the entitled users bought milk now?
Personally I'd not bring milk every week & use theirs for a while....only fair🤣

Hufflemuff · 29/01/2025 21:10

Collective email to office:

"Hey, I've noticed my milk keeps going missing from the fridge. It's not communal so please leave it alone, im getting annoyed at going to get milk and its already gone... otherwise I'll assume the yoghurt and sandwiches are also up for grabs!!"

Maybe with a GIF? Depending on office humor.

joey doesnt share food GIF
PorkPieForStarters · 29/01/2025 20:10

@Immo8 I have some of these at home for my lactose-intolerant friend when she occasionally comes round for a cuppa. It tastes just like normal milk to me and you don't have to refrigerate it. Might be worth having a stash of these in your handbag:

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/267309503

EDIT: sorry, I missed your update - I hope your udder lock is working well!

rebus · 29/01/2025 19:31

Immo8 · 16/01/2025 16:01

Well I won't be making a fuss...I'll be putting a lock on it so entitled people like yourself can't use it 🙂

Hey @Immo8 ! Did the Udder Lock work?

Cuffi · 28/01/2025 20:15

Keep an old bottle with an out of date label top up with fresh milk. Change the bottle every week just in case someone throws the milk out.

The milk thieves may not want to take milk which looks out of date

Treaclewell · 27/01/2025 09:24

Write GOATS MILK on it.

Chuchoter · 27/01/2025 08:35

Stuck one of these on your milk carton.

amzn.eu/d/d3Pf5sl

'Trick your friends and family with these realistic box of 10 cockroaches.'

Chuchoter · 27/01/2025 08:30

Label with -

'I have swigged straight from the bottle and you don't want to know where my mouth has been ....'

PeskyPotato · 27/01/2025 08:28

I'm wondering how your colleagues reacted to the udderlok, I wouldn't be surprised at their level of CF if they took a knife to it

Welshmonster · 25/01/2025 19:04

you need to put get a smaller bottle and then leave it past it best before date but just decant new milk into it 😜

get a smaller bottle and write breast milk on it.

write ‘not your fucking milk’ on the bottle and deny it was you.

there’s no good outcome for this but maybe management need to look at providing milk.

get management to bring it up. It’s theft at the end of day.

you can get thermos that will keep liquids cold for 12 hours. It’s just a pain to bring it in every day.

next time someone asks hold out a card reader machine and ask for a donation. Or just say no as you’re fed up of having no milk for yourself.

Harassedevictee · 25/01/2025 11:58

@Immo8 did the lock work?

DalzielOrNoDalzielAndDontPascoe · 25/01/2025 11:18

Wow, thanks very much for satisfying our curiosity, @TreacleTarcleSparkle !!

She sounds very, very strange indeed. But not in a particularly nice way...

TreacleTarcleSparkle · 25/01/2025 05:38

@SauvignonBlanche and @DalzielOrNoDalzielAndDontPascoe

so I kid you not .. queen bee .. crumbs all over her normally perfect red Chanel lip 👄.. completely ‘breezed’ it out .. like no sheepish looks or bright pink cheeks like I would be ! i said ‘oh .. were the croissants nice? They were for my nephews and nieces who are coming for breakfast (I hadn’t yet had my own dc!) she said ‘ohhh bless you I’m going to get the biggest bag of goodies for them!!’

Of course she never did and didn’t even bat an eyelid or speak of it again .. utterly bizarre .. she fascinating in a kind of way .. like a ‘legend’ in her own mind .. she would describe her current BF as ‘an english george clooney’ or a ‘taller Tom Cruise’ but whenever anything came up they’d go on the ‘missing list’ ..

Elboob · 23/01/2025 18:35

SnoopyPajamas · 16/01/2025 19:53

I never understand people who help themselves to other people's food and drink. Maybe it's because I grew up poor, but it just wouldn't occur to me to do this. As far as I'm concerned, that's their food and it's nothing to do with me. I could be starving and I wouldn't think it was okay to touch what someone else spent money on for themselves.

This makes it even harder when my boss helps herself to my food. She likes to eat about half of something (without asking) and then leave it sitting open and exposed to the elements for a day or two, until I get back. Sometimes I don't discover she's done this until I'm sitting down on my break and it's too late to go out and buy replacement food. I'm not going to eat something that has been open to the flies and left to go stale, so I go hungry.

I don't understand the mindset. Lately I've been thinking I might start pouring small amounts of her milk down the sink when she's not around, so she runs out faster. I'm lactose intolerant, so she'll know I'm not drinking it, and would have no idea what's happening. But the thought of her going to pour milk in her tea and not having enough feels like it might be a satisfying petty revenge 😁

@SnoopyPajamas This is your boss?/!!! Just wow at the cheek.
Have you thought of pouring away some of her milk and topping it back up with water 🕶so her water gets weaker and weaker.
Or just asking her to pay for your food! Just such a cheek!

category12 · 23/01/2025 05:38

MysticCatLady · 22/01/2025 23:55

I couldn't be bothered to read 400 posts about milk

Well, can't really blame you. But like the 3rd reply on the first page says pretend it's breastmilk. 😂

MysticCatLady · 22/01/2025 23:55

InMySpareTime · 22/01/2025 17:56

@MysticCatLady RTFT. Did you really think that in 400 posts nobody would have suggested that already? Join the other 30 or so people who dropped in that "unique" insight on this thread without reading.

I couldn't be bothered to read 400 posts about milk

Rhinohides · 22/01/2025 22:52

I know someone this happened too. Bit more extreme than your case as the other person was coming in and swinging back the milk straight from the bottle in front of him, after he had asked her not to.
Eventually, he filled the whole thing with salt.
She never did that again.

InMySpareTime · 22/01/2025 17:56

@MysticCatLady RTFT. Did you really think that in 400 posts nobody would have suggested that already? Join the other 30 or so people who dropped in that "unique" insight on this thread without reading.

category12 · 22/01/2025 17:55

HipToTheHopDontStop · 22/01/2025 11:25

Yes, they have

I think it was sarcasm.

A zillion people have suggested the hysterically funny ploy of labelling it breastmilk, which is of course bound to work like a charm. 😑

MysticCatLady · 22/01/2025 17:49

Label it 'breast milk'

KimberleyClark · 22/01/2025 12:05

Julimia · 22/01/2025 11:20

How negative !

I speak from experience.

PigletJohn · 22/01/2025 11:40

I sometimes get the UHT mini pots. Rather surprisingly, my milkman sold them if I left him a note (probably supplied to offices) but in trays of a hundred or some such number. The shelf life is not as long as the full size cartons, I think the seal is not as good.

I don't really like UHT but it's tolerable in hot drinks or for cooking.

HipToTheHopDontStop · 22/01/2025 11:25

WorriedRelative · 21/01/2025 17:56

Bloody hell, label it breast milk? Nobody has suggested that yet!

Yes, they have

Julimia · 22/01/2025 11:20

How negative !

KimberleyClark · 22/01/2025 11:17

Julimia · 21/01/2025 16:15

Sorry but you do sound petty. Why not start a milk kitty or rota instead.

Because they’re a pain in the arse to administer. I speak from experience. Every single rota I have known at work for domestic rather than work stuff has fallen apart eventually because people don’t stick to it. Person whose turn it is rings in sick, books leave and arranges to swap but the swappee forgets etc etc or people just don’t honour the rota. And anything that involves asking people for money - oh I haven’t got it on me today can I give it to you tomorrow - is pretty well doomed.

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