He ate team lunch

[BertieBott]

I work in a large call centre type of place and instead of paying us properly, every now and then they give us treats . Eg. We met out target this month, a slice of pizza for Everyone and boxes will be delivered to the team leaders desks for distribution.

So, our team of 12 decided to do a ‘world food day’ for lunch. E.g someone from Spain brought paella, a Cornish pastie etc.

Obviously we only brought enough for ourselves. It was on one of our desks at lunch time. A lunchbox of Hungarian stew, some rice etc, obviously lunchboxes from home.

Normally when the company lays on a spread they make a big song and dance about it e.g. in celebration of out ten year anniversary doughnuts for all, and they hire someone to lay it out all fancy. This was lunchboxes on a desk.

We are in an open plan office of over 100. We all started helping ourselves buffet style. One cf manager of our department came over to help herself . And then two randoms also came over. No one knew who they were and thought maybe someone asked them over. No one said anything, there was plenty to go round and we had a lovely lunch.

Now one of the two randoms sent a group email to our team ‘It should have been made more clear that this was just for your team and not everyone was free to join. You made me embarrassed and I’m sure many others too.’

We’ve just ignored the message.

1. Whenever the company lays on a spread they make a big song and dance about it.

1. It was food on someone’s desk, not a communal area.

1. The only people taking food were people from that ‘island’ of 12 desks. No one else.

1. It was obviously mismatched home serving containers and homemade food.

5 there was Enough for 10 or so. Not 100 fucking people in the whole office?

Aibu to think this person was an idiot.

Were we unreasonable to not have a banner up saying ‘IT team only’ or whatever, instead of assuming it’s obviously to anyone with eyes and a brain?

Haha! I've done that before in the work kitchen - stuff left on the table was often for communal consumption- turns out someone had left their lunch unattended to go wash their hands, and came back to me stuffing my face. Nothing is safe around me lol.

YANBU

I’ve worked in the environment in question and you don’t go up to random desks and start eating their food 😂😂😂

I can understand that he was embarrassed, but the appropriate thing to write in an email is an apology not an attack. I guess he is one of those people who don't do apologies. I´d just ignore him.

diabolical

Is it not obvious that it’s someones lunch?

I can’t see myself helping myself to something when I’m not sure to whom it belongs...it just seems incredibly greedy.

‘Instead of paying us properly, they buy us treats’ wtf? A doughnut or a pizza slice won’t pay your bills. And if they have been going for over 10 years and have 100+ staff then can’t be doing that badly. All the while my company a reaping a profit, then I would want paying for the work I do. Does the CEO take a proportion of his/her salary in snacks?

No it wasn't obvious obviously else of course I wouldn't have eaten it. Give me strength. Fwiw it was someone I was fairly friendly with and I replaced it straight away.

I'm loving the fact he is blaming you for his embarrassment when it was all on him. What a piece of work. Ignore it.

Maybe the others thought it was a nice gesture available to other co workers and not a 'cliquey' type thing? I've never worked anywhere where one team has deliberately done something like this on their own, it seems very 'them and us'? Or have I just started been fortunate to work in places with a nicer culture?

Or just send him a photo of a pig at a trough and say "you were caught on CCTV"

For those saying it’s ‘cliquey’. How the hell do we cook for 100 people? Bring in buckets and commercial catering trays of food? Be reasonable.

The least cliquey way to do it is saying , ‘just team x’ then it doesn’t become a popularity contest with one or two from department a and b invited.

Literally NO ONE else in the company made a beeline for the food. Even if I am at a party I will not start digging into a buffet until invited to do so.

Some people just don’t have manners. I don’t know how he realised it was not for everyone. Maybe when he sat down and had finished eating he saw that ‘oh, there’s only enough food for about 10 people’. And that no one else was helping themselves.

You don't need to justify yourself, OP.

The guy is a porker, and should be ashamed of himself.

Dastardly it is a nice culture to have team lunches. We have them a lot at our place, with our team of 15. It’s good for morale and team bonding. I have no wish to bond with the other 200 in my company, plus such an event would be a nightmare to organise.

OP I think the most senior of you should email back to say you all thought it was pretty obvious that people had brought in their home-made food to share with their team-mates, but if there was any confusion at a later date they suggest that the CF asks someone.

YANBU. It's obvious in our open plan office what food is meant for which team. We wouldn't just take from another team.

Is there something missing here. You say everyone had a lovely lunch and no one said anything, but clearly someone did say something.

I agree it's a nice culture, I just think things like this in an open plan office sends a bit of a message to the other teams, intended or not.

We used to just email to all "hi. Were doing a bring a dish on Monday, feel free to join in and bring something to share. We'll be putting it out at 12 in x office (or wherever)" no hassle at all to organise.

A normal reaction to this would be an email saying 'OMG I thought it was an all staff thing, just found out that I took food from your team lunch - I'm mortified - so sorry!'.
They then could have got a reply along the lines of 'ah don't worry - there was more than enough to go round!'
This ^^ Who goes and helps themselves when it's obvious that no-one else in the general office is doing so?!

Great to have a team lunch but not so great to have it in the middle of an open plan office surrounded by other people who aren't included. Seems to me who was invited to share the food can't have been that clearly defined since random people thought it was ok for them to help themselves and, crucially, no one spoke up and politely told them otherwise. Is there not a break room or other side room you could have done this in?

I don’t get why he’s written a nasty email when he was at fault? What an idiot!

In essence, randomer is asking, "WHY DIDN'T YOU STOP ME BEING A GREEDY TWAT?" as if it's everyone else's responsibility to police his/her opportunistic troughing.

Alright, so maybe it wasn't clear. What do normal people do when something isn't clear? Barge through getting what they want and complain afterwards? Or just, I dunno, ASK?

Hard to believe that anyone thought they could help themselves to food from someone else's desk, without being invited or at least asking first!! Serves them right.

This isn't the prerogative of people higher up the food chain - it's just rude CFs.

It sounds like they made a mistake and you were rude and anti-social and lack an understanding of basic social norms.

I suspect you are paid 'properly'. Maybe not very much (and you mistakenly think you're worth more) but the going rate for what's likely a position which requires little experience and few qualifications.

I thought this was going to be a story about someone's dog (mine.)

nannyCrumb

and you mistakenly think you're worth more

What a nasty thing to say. If there's any justice in the world yoI'll fall flat in your arse into a job yo

DiabolicalMess

That's bogging. How could you confuse someone's lunch with communal treats?