Called “greedy” at work

How petty and greedy of THEM.

I'm not sure I'd notice. If I did I might think 4 times was a lot. It's not so much the taking food that was there to be eaten, as how you could eat so much in an afternoon, but I wouldn't say anything unless it was someone I was very close to and knew the "banter" would be well received. E.g. I have one friend who is proud of his enormous appetite. I wouldn't define it as "greedy" though, even in my head, I'd just be surprised at the healthy appetite.

I do love leftovers to take home so I don't have to do dinner, or if there are some treats to surprise DC with, but I wouldn't dream of complaining that there were none, if it all got eaten during the day.

So between 12 and 5 you ate: Lunch and then:

Three more sandwich triangles after lunch

An hour later, more sandwiches (assuming three triangles) two bit sized flapjacks and a muffin.

At 4pm, more bits, assume as above.

I think that is greedy, yes and represents gratuitous eating. However, I don't think you should have been called out and I don't get the food being divied up amongst those with children u less they are families who are dependent on food banks.

4 visits to a buffet just because its there and not because you're hungry is greedy.

to say so is rude.

‘Why, do their children work here?’

I have a young family on a tight budget but I absolutely don’t see why people with kids should be a priority in this situation. In fact, it’s often more of a pain and more expensive to sort meals the whole time when you’re single.

In our office we do buffets quite often, make an occasion of it, we team up with the office next to us and everyone brings in food, and we take an hour to have a social and eat the food. Nobody takes the piss and everyone brings in something and the left overs are put into the communal kitchen so we can have more if we want. Its a mix of men and women probably 70/30 more women.

Another team have asked to join us when we do them but to be honest we dont want to as its mainly all men and we have observed that when its a full office meeting (as in retirement/maternity etc) we all bring food in except the men from that office but they are all first in the queue eating loads of food, piling their plates high. We do a list so we know who is bringing what to save on duplicates and they never contribute. They have access to the list and their contribution is blank next to their name.

I would never keep score of how many times someone went up to the buffet or make a comment, and as for "taking it home for the kids" who decided that? Not very fair on the people who dont have kids.

No its not. Mention of a couple sandwiches (usually cut into 1/4), a few flapjack bites and bits

Not greedy by any means

Lemme guess, the person who called you out had kids (and had earmarked the leftovers for themselves?)

the person getting personal calling you greedy I'd have reminded them that personal insults are not nice and had they never been told as a child that if they don't have anything nice to say then stfu?

& came up with a similar personal insults to them to hammer home the point.

So you went up FOUR different times and helped yourself to food? Yes it’s really greedy.

Sorry but ai wouldnt be taking old sandwiches and sausage rolls that have been out all day, pokes then stuffed in a bag home yo my kids 😂
I would however have gone up for seconds if there was some left and I was hungry

Thing is, not everyone loads their plate.

I’m wary of wasting food so I’ll often just take one or two small triangles of sandwiches. Where as others will fill a plate.

And then go back if I’m still hungry.

It doesn’t mean that I’m necessarily eating more than others, just that 8mm taking smaller portions to avoid potential food waste.

My reply would have been " I assumed this was a work buffet not a kids tea party" and then picked up something else and ate it. But then i'm petty :)

Multiple sandwiches and cakes after lunch? Yes, that's greedy. Would I say it? No! They were rude.

So gross the way people can't help themselves when something is free. And so odd to say people with kids should take it home....why would you take food which had come from an unknown source and then sat around all afternoon home?!

There is a reason why hotels and cafes remove most buffet food after it has been out for a while, I think health and safety states that it can only be out of the fridge for two hours.

I would not want to take left out buffet food home with me, cakes maybe but not sandwiches or pork pies etc.

She only went up the last time because there was so much food left.

Yeah but it will been noticed about the three times before, rightly or wrongly. It does seem excessive to go up that many times.

She only went up the last time because there was so much food left.

If I saw that I would be glad the food was being eaten, not begrudge a colleague food.

As irrational as it sounds I too would raise an eyebrow. It’s like those all you can eat buffets or the AI places, people just take and take and take.

<clutches pearls> a smidge unseemly.

They were extremely rude & unkind. However yes, you were also greedy in my opinion. 4 visits to the buffet?? I wouldn’t even do 4 visits at one of those all you can eat buffets and I’ve a healthy appetite.
Besides, buffets at work usually involve uncovered, non-chilled food 🤢 Who would then give it to their kids several room temperature hours later? Yuck

Personally I think it’s far more greedy and grabby to expect colleagues to have less so people can take it home for their kids!

The idea of a shared buffet isn’t that you eat a dainty, token amount so other people can take the treats home (unless everyone agreed you could all take leftovers home).

It’s not you, it’s definitely them

Unfortunately people seem to be very interested in what other people eat (and also assume other people are interested in what they eat).

I LOVE food and I couldn't care less who thought I was greedy. Also how could they call anyone greedy based on your food consumption over one afternoon? Surely in order to decide if someone was greed you'd need to know 1. what else they had eaten that day 2. how much exercise they have done?

I used to work in an office and people regularly used to comment on my very large lunches but I often did 2 hours of exercise before work. I was neither worryingly thin, nor overweight so there was no possible concern manifesting in the comments.

Tell them to piss off next time and that you'll eat as much of the team buffet as you like.

Op what was your contribution? This is key information. 😂

What was your contribution to the buffet? This is critical.We have a couple of people at work who never bring anything in but are at the front of the queue to take stuff. (Not a hardship issue, one is pretty senior).

People quickly spot that behaviour and call the CF out. Some respond, others don't.

We had this once in our office. Someone brought cakes in on their birthday and over ordered massively. They would keep for a few days though so many of us were looking forward to having a doughnut for breakfast the next day.

When we got in it had been stripped and there was barely anything left! Turns out the guy that was in last just decided that as it wasn't eaten, he'd take it home for his kids!

I assume one of the bosses had a word with him about it as it never happened again!

You clearly weren't greedy and were more entitled than kids to the food.

However if three different people (it wasn't entirely clearly who all the different "somebody's" were but sounds like they were all separate people) commented, either you work in an unpleasant place (perhaps I'm lucky but I can't imagine 1 person being bitchy enough to make a comment in my workplace) or you were eating significantly more than anyone else.

The greedy ones are the people who don't bring anything, but still tuck in.

That's not greedy, that's cheeky.