What is wrong with these people?

[Holidayz]

I work in office and have clients that think it's acceptable to go into our kitchen and help themselves to the staff biscuits. These biscuits are purchased with money from a kitty all staff add to monthly.

We've now started to hide the biscuits, but really we shouldn't have to should we? Any human should know this is unreasonable.

Tell them there's been an outbreak of food poisoning.

They’re not clients. Your clients are the people being cared for. Yes lock them away. Managements should actually make places like the kitchen out of bounds.

If one person does it then yes they're a CF. But if a lot of people are doing it, it's more likely that they think the biscuits are complimentary.

You need to make it more obvious. They're not mind readers

I'm trying to imagine picking my kid up from daycare or afterschool, wandering into the staff kitchen and eating their biscuits! Hide them and put a big sign up saying "Staff only"

Pretty shitty organisation that doesn’t provide biscuits for clients.

This is so bizarre. Do people in the UK get biscuits when they see their solicitor or doctor or pick their children up from nursery or check in with their child's teacher?

Patti
They are clients in that they pay for the care we provide, they pay for the resources used but not the biscuits. We pay for the biscuits out of our salary.
The area they come into to pick up from is open plan with a kitchen on one side and an office on the other.

Vim
The kitchen is for food prep, dishwashing, food storage, tea/coffee for staff refreshments and biscuit storage. The tea/coffee/milk/sugar/biscuits are paid for by the staff from a kitty.
There is a locked office to store personal files and data which clients do not enter. Maybe we should keep our biscuits in the locked filing cabinet, in the locked office but that's not as easy to assess than the kitchen countertop.

Can't you put a note on wall saying refreshments for staff only and try to put biscuits up high or in a cupboard

If it’s something like a daycare centre and parents are waiting for their children then it should be obvious to them refreshments wouldn’t be provided.

A sign saying this area is for staff members to store their lunches, and is therefore for staff only. Our staff work very hard, please don’t eat their well deserved snacks!!

@pallisers, the OP described it as an office. It’s normal in a professional organisation to offer your clients biscuits with their tea and coffee, yes.

It’s normal in a professional organisation to offer your clients biscuits with their tea and coffee, yes.

But they weren't offered tea or coffee so why would they be offered biscuits.

I am also surprised that it is the norm to offer "clients' tea coffee and biscuits. I just met with our financial advisor for an hour- no tea coffee or biscuits. Met with our lawyer last week about wills - ditto. If I want a cup of coffee I'll go to a coffee shop. When clients came to us for a major meeting which could last for more than an hour, of course we'd have proper refreshments depending on the time of the meeting but for a drop off/quick meeting it would be really unusual. Fascinated that it is the norm in the UK.

also wondering who makes the tea and coffee in these situations? Does the office junior still exist and still make tea and coffee?

Strange that these 'clients' are hanging around without a member of staff present.
Very odd.

No matter what the layout, it's incredibly rude of anyone to help themselves. YANBU at all; it's wrong that you have to hide things away.

I used to work in a huge office and every day I would hear about food or drinks just taken from one of the fridges. I don't understand people who behave in that way and I certainly didn't want to work with them.

So it’s the escorts/parents/caters that is doing this?
It’s a pain but have a member of staff around the kitchen at those times of day to divert them elsewhere. If they are arriving early, create a holding area.