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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?

OP posts:
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Madre123 · 16/01/2025 13:22

I would fill it with salt....they would be far less inclined to just take it then hopefully... despise ill manners.

Immo8 · 16/01/2025 13:21

Hillarious · 16/01/2025 13:17

Either decant, or just give up milk in your tea and coffee.

Well I'm not giving up milk, I don't like black tea

OP posts:
ShodAndShadySenators · 16/01/2025 13:21

I've only worked in offices where the milk was paid for by the company, same as tea and coffee, but in your situation I'd bring my milk in an insulated flask, then it won't need to go in the fridge.

I did once live in a bedsit in an HMO and the amount of thieving from the communal kitchen was horrendous. Everyone kept their supplies in their rooms in the end, even the baghead on the top floor. Some people are utterly shameless and will take what they want and not give the tiniest of shits that someone else paid for it. I think they must see it as a win for them. (It's rarely the poorest paid people also, more usually people who have decent earnings!)

Immo8 · 16/01/2025 13:20

herbaceous · 16/01/2025 13:13

Is there an outside possibility that people don't know the milk isn't provided by the firm?

If tea and coffee is, it's not illogical that milk would be too.

They may well all be utter bastards though. Equally likely.

My name is written about 4 times all over the bottle, it's in a bright colour and glaringly obvious! And say's 'kindly please do not use'

OP posts:
Hillarious · 16/01/2025 13:17

Either decant, or just give up milk in your tea and coffee.

herbaceous · 16/01/2025 13:13

Is there an outside possibility that people don't know the milk isn't provided by the firm?

If tea and coffee is, it's not illogical that milk would be too.

They may well all be utter bastards though. Equally likely.

denhaag · 16/01/2025 13:12

Florencelatsy · 16/01/2025 11:44

Like these

Those are not like having fresh milk.

Immo8 · 16/01/2025 13:08

Thanks everyone!

I can confirm I've just bought an udder lock which I will bring in proudly to work with me come Monday lol.

Just found out someone used my milk for cereal this morning, and it's now only a 1/3 full after being full this morning so enough is enough...

OP posts:
MadCattery · 16/01/2025 13:01

our work refrigerator is rarely cleaned and people protest when someone tries. So, I bring an insulated lunch bag every day with a reusable ice pack, and never need to use the stinky refrigerator.

Girasole02 · 16/01/2025 12:56

Had this so many times. I now take my own food and drinks daily in a lunch bag. I put an ice pack in it so I never have to use the communal fridge. I make my coffee in a flask each morning before leaving the house.

Flossflower · 16/01/2025 12:56

I think you do as people say and take a small vacuum flask of milk in every day.
Even if you can lock your milk in the fridge, people might still ask to borrow some of yours. If you only have enough for your day you can tell people this if they ask for some.

hulahooper2 · 16/01/2025 12:56

I’d decant into a food flask or soup mug , that’s not see through , then they won’t realise it contains milk

MeowCatPleaseMeowBack · 16/01/2025 12:53

Ask your ridiculous stingy company to provide £5 a month for milk.

StrawberrySquash · 16/01/2025 12:53

Put it in a different bottle, preferably opaque. The problem is it is obviously milk so multiple people just steal a little bit. But it adds up.

Lurkingandlearning · 16/01/2025 12:52

I think a flask is your best bet. Something else to lug back and forth but you’ll be able to keep it on your desk.

Much better than what I was going to suggest. Glue a note to it saying “X’s milk and I’ve spat in it”.

CuddlyDodoToy · 16/01/2025 12:51

If you like skimmed milk, I recommend Marvel powdered milk.

It tastes the same as normal milk in coffee and tea and you can keep it in your desk drawer or locker.

I use it at work and when we go camping.

Onejrmmrj · 16/01/2025 12:49

About 3 weeks into my first office job I concluded that there is no solution to this problem and switched to black coffee. That has worked for me for 35 years now :-)

Phthia · 16/01/2025 12:47

HelpMeGetThrough · 16/01/2025 12:23

Because that's not part of a managers job.

Buggered if I'm paying out for other peoples milk.

Why would the manager be paying individually? If the employers provide tea and coffee, presumably they provide a budget for it. All they need to do is expand it so that it covers milk.

ShinyPrettyThings87 · 16/01/2025 12:45

My friend puts hers into a sports bottle. It's a black one her son used to take to football practice. It'd take a particular kind of person to open a sports drink to see what's inside it, surely anyone would presume it's just dilute juice. Could always put green tea in for the first few days, just incase anyone did go for a snoop.

Phthia · 16/01/2025 12:45

minipie · 16/01/2025 11:44

Probably because there are so many different variations of “milk” that people want these days, it would be expensive and wasteful trying to have them all available.

Do they? I've never worked in an office where the firm didn't provide milk. Generally they just get semi-skimmed and work on the basis that, if anyone wants something different, they provide it themselves.

B0xes · 16/01/2025 12:42

The metal water bottle suggestion is good

ThejoyofNC · 16/01/2025 12:39

Pour it into a soya milk bottle.

Pickleton1992 · 16/01/2025 12:38

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SleepyHippy3 · 16/01/2025 12:34

RhathymicandMaenadic · 16/01/2025 12:00

Please don't! You'll look a complete a**e. This is a problem as old as time itself. Even when I parked my cow under my desk, colleagues would get out their three-legged stool and have a shifty milk of her while I was in the lavatory.
Seriously, though, the only way around the issue @Immo8 , is as others have suggested, bring a flask of milk and keep it on your desk!

But stealing other people’s things doesn’t make you look like the ultimate arse loser?

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