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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be sick to death of the 'staff fridge police' at work?

39 replies

RebelFromTheWaistDown · 12/09/2011 13:31

I'm sick of some people at work who think they have the right to throw away out of date items in the staff fridge that don't belong to them!

These wasteful people think they are so much better than those of us who are trying to save money by buying reduced items on their last legs and eating it before it really does go off!

They piss me off! AIBU?

OP posts:
TheSkiingGardener · 12/09/2011 13:35

Just because it's out of date doesn't stop it being your property. I could understand if hints were being left to fester, but that doesn't sound like the case here.

horsemadgal · 12/09/2011 13:35

Do you have your name on them?

Bloodymary · 12/09/2011 13:36

YANBU, I have had this happen at work, what the stupid bint did not realise was that I had taken the offending item out of the freezer the night before.

musicmadness · 12/09/2011 13:38

Depends, If out of date means by a day or two and is still edible YANBU, if something smells and is growing mould then YABU!

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 12/09/2011 13:38

YANBU... with the proviso that everybody takes responsibility for cleaning out their own stuff. I used to work in an office with many people and the fridge was left full of stuff that stank sometimes. Milk turned to yoghurt, the last rancid bit of butter, really smelly... Confused

SoftKittyWarmKitty · 12/09/2011 13:39

At our work they send an email round saying they're cleaning the fridge out and if anyone has anything in that's out of date, it will be thrown away. So at least we get some notice to take stuff out until it's been cleaned if need be.

Original poster
RebelFromTheWaistDown · 12/09/2011 13:41

Most of us don't have our names on our own items. But I know when something is NOT mine to leave it alone!

Some people are just interfering busybodies poking their nose in!

OP posts:
mousymouse · 12/09/2011 13:42

YABU our work fridge would start walking if the fridge police wouldn't through out things.
the fridge is cleared of all out of date food on friday afternoon. would that compromise work at your office?

Honeydragon · 12/09/2011 13:42

Aaaargh! We had one of these a work, for no reason. Company polict was that anything left in the fridge at the close of business would be binned. We did have lovely cleaning staff, though who wouldn't bin tupperware, but leave it in the sink to be cleaner.

We had a self appointed fridge monitor who would bin stuff or hand it back to its owner when she left a 4pm.

Our close of business was 9pm. A lot of peoples lunch breaks were at 5pm. She failed to grasp this vital point for the entire time she was with it.

I used to have fantasy's about sticking my yoghurt spoon in her forehead every time I found my lunch going warm on my desk after a meeting with a post it note on it reminding me not to leave a mess in the fridge.

Honeydragon · 12/09/2011 13:44

aaaargh ignore terrible typos Blush

Lizbertnobacon · 12/09/2011 14:00

YANBU
This happened to me last week and it made me so Angry
I had left a cucumber in there to have with houmous and crackers. Cucumber was bought on a Saturday and taken into work on Monday and put straight into the fridge.
When I went to get it on Tuesday lunch time it had gone. When I asked why I was informed that it had gone 'minging' so had been put in the bin Hmm.

A1980 · 12/09/2011 14:02

YABU

People at my office were leaving items in there and forgetting about them to the extent that they were mouldy and it was a health hazard.

Now we have a very simple policy. The fridge is emptied of all food items at the end of the week. So either you remove it or it's binned.

NoMoreWasabi · 12/09/2011 14:03

Same here as with A1980

MissyMoo321 · 12/09/2011 14:05

I don't have a work frigde Envy

NettoSuperstar · 12/09/2011 14:09

In my last job I refused to clean the staff room at all (I was the cleaner) because it was the most disgusting room in there and the fridge stank, and that was in a care home.

zukiecat · 12/09/2011 14:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

EricNorthmansMistress · 12/09/2011 14:35

YABU
I wouldn't chuck something if it was a few days out of date but you have to draw the line. Colleagues in my work just stick things in there and forget them, I am weird and enjoy sort out the fridge and cupboards every now and again. The things I find! A bag of potatoes that had grown a whole tree was nice.

DoMeDon · 12/09/2011 14:38

YABU - it is a communal fridge and other peoples things don;t want to be infected with your cheapskate bacteria :-P

SnowWhiteGoodman · 12/09/2011 14:43

Eric, OP obviously doesn't mean that and you would tell everyone to keep an eye on their own stuff, I used to work somewhere similar to OP problems. She wasn't just fridge police though, she was, 'I'll chuck everything away that you own' police, she was an interfering little croach who needed a fat lip!

SnowWhiteGoodman · 12/09/2011 14:44

Sorry just read your post properly Eric

CharlotteBronteSaurus · 12/09/2011 14:50

oh LORDY don't get me started on work fridges.
either every fucker is drinking my milk
or it's been binned for being "out of date" despite the fact that I repeatedly remind people that I decant it into old plastic bottles, as we have rather cumbersome and leaky glass bottles delivered to the house.

oh, and people saying "was your name on it?"
WHY? It's a workplace, not a primary school. If you know you've no milk, why would you drink someone else's, just because it's got no label on.

OP, YANBU.

ivykaty44 · 12/09/2011 14:52

thank goodness I work with people who see it as below them to touch other peoples food in the fridge and would rather it filled with mold than empty any out of date products Grin

takethisonehereforastart · 12/09/2011 14:52

YANBU.

But can you store any of it in a tupperware box with your name on it, that might help deter the busybodies helpful people from touching it.

MangoMonster · 12/09/2011 14:52

Can't believe someone did that! Yanbu

NoMoreWasabi · 12/09/2011 15:35

OP your best bet would be to lobby for the fridge to be regularly cleaned and emptied at a scheduled time which is communicated to staff. Then no one gets stuff thrown away in the interim but the fridge doesn't get rammed full of badly out of date stuff people have forgotten about.l