Office ‘shared’ food. Would you say anything?

[KittyVonCatsworth]

We’re a really small team, 10 of us in the office. There’s a table where we all often bring treats in biscuits, fruit, cheese etc for us to help ourselves. However, there’s always the same guy that just trounces the food! He does occasionally bring in a packet of biscuits but e.g I bought in a packet of ginger cookies, teacakes and some chocolate bars. About 30 snacks/treats in total which could’ve easily lasted 2/3 days but he just demolished them! The same with the fruit today; instead of one satsuma he’s had 5! As well as grapes and bananas and 3 mince pies. All before lunchtime.

I know it seems a bit of a non issue but I just find it greedy and it really puts me off bringing in treats for the rest of the team. I’m normally very abrupt and direct but I don’t want to embarrass him or the rest of the team or come across as mean. It’s been mentioned by others in the team too.

Would you say anything and if so, how would you say ‘stop being a woofer’ in a nice way!

Good call, pam. Spot on.

I would hate to have a table like that at work, I would just constantly graze.

@LeeleeD88

I’m not saying I do take an unfair share, or even at all, because it is greedy and selfish. I just don’t want to be in a situation where it is ‘expected’ or the general office culture where everyone brings in junk food. I’d be dammned for not participating and I’d be criticised for not being a team player.

Things have changed since I was in an office. I took in an apple and a sarnie for myself. That was it. Did do a tea round though. Maybe you need to downscale the whole gig.

As Cheval says.

Quite depressed at being openly fat shamed on mumsnet. Bit harsh. Think I’ll go for digital suicide and delete my own profile...

Oh honey, you fat shamed yourself. I literally said no one cares if you're fat.

We had similar although in a large school. One guy just ate masses of stuff and was known to take stuff home too and he never contributed anything. Someone said something to him and then he told us his TA salary only paid for one room in a shared house and he had to pay bus fairs and could only afford to buy one meal a day so he thought any food put on table was up for grabs. He never brought in any lunch so was hungry. We let him off because we knew we were far better paid than he was. A few people even started bringing him in leftovers to take home and microwave.

When do you find time to work??

It's nice to get on with colleagues but it sounds as though it's less of a workplace with the odd bit of snacking and more of a gourmets' social circle where some work might get done if you're lucky. Weekly cheese clubs? Daily snack tables?

I appreciate I tend towards the bah-humbug end of the scale but workplaces where more thought, time and energy goes into organising the snack table or the tea kitty or the birthday cakes rota than actually doing the job people are paid to do drive me up the wall. And the fact that several people have suggested the OP gets her manager involved to sort this out, as if George from Accounts taking three cakes instead of one is an actual management issue that the company should be paying a manager to resolve...words fail me.

Apologies as I just skimmed through, but , really??
Why would you be watching and making mental notes as to how many they had taken in comparison to others, then being offered and not actually saying anything?
I mean, people (comments on here too) are so quick to slag others off behind their backs (and you've said others in the office have mentioned already), so WHY has nobody, in a light hearted jokey way, said oi greedy fucker stop nicking all the pies...and had a laugh about it?? Would've stopped the snide comments behind his back and maybe stopped him from taking so many in the first place?

Anyway...like I say, I skimmed...so apologies if I've missed this point already! And if not, then I think you abvu

This is why we have such an obesity problem! A snack table, really? We don't really have time for this at my work because we are all working.

You don’t know his life really do you ?

We never really know what other people are going through in their life. Sometimes it is best to just reflect on why someone behaves in a certain way, rather than judging them. Mumsnet should be a place, especially now, where we support rather than judge.

He’s being greedy and you all need to say something. Not one person because he’ll just think you’re being nasty. All of you need to speak to him.

On a related subject, I had to have a similar conversation with someone at my wedding reception. I had a sweet table with bags to help yourself and one person was filling bags and putting them in a carrier. I confronted her and she said she was taking them for her grandkids. Had to ask her not to be greedy because I’d provided them for my guests, not for her to take them all!

We have a similar problem. Our department is self contained - need to swipe to get in. A guy from another department comes in solely to raid our snacks table and then leave. Doesn't even stop to chat. Never contributing to it. Does it blatantly.

We had a 'health' week when the firm delivered free fresh fruit everyday. A different fruit each day. The idea is you just take a piece each. One person came and took eight bananas and put them straight into her bag to take home

This is a law firm. No-one is on the breadline.

One person came and took eight bananas and put them straight into her bag to take home

She’d henceforth be known as Bananawoman in our office

On the subject of office CFs I had a colleague once who would always order a lunchtime sandwich or an exceedingly large cake (so gigantic it was called a Bismark) whenever it was someone’s birthday instead of a donut or a cream slice.

For years whenever there was an opportunity to order anything (stationery in particular) some wag would pipe up “I’ll have a Bismark”.

Office food CFs are the stuff of legend

No excuse for greed and bad manners!

The opposite to the CF is the food pusher. My experience is every office has one of these as well.

Brings in food to share - rather than leave it on the snack table for people to help themselves they walk it round the office and try and force people to take some. If you decline once, you get 'oh go on, one won't kill you'. If you decline again, you get some passive aggressive remark.

Well, I think someone who eats thirty chocolate bars will be a very sick puppy soon. Bleeuch!
What a greedy man.
I think I would stop with the shared food thingy. It's not working after all.
Just have some treats that each occasionally shares round and if he grabs say ' no it's one each'.I help run a children's group and me and DP buy the children biscuits. Guess who pigs them? the Fathers! One actually complained there were never enough chocolate biscuits!It is meant to be an abstemious religion... erm not, then.
I actually think that well-heeled people come for free biscuits and a cup of tea.
I find it very childish. I am quite greedy but I would never be such a piggy except with my own food.

Sounds like a case of plain greed & gluttony - he has a job, obviously, so he ain't skint! He's either totally insensitive or he thinks the rest of the staff are mugs.

ps: just out of curiosity: how big is this guy?

Maybe put up a little sign saying 'Please take only one of each item so there is plenty for everyone'?

Greedy, rude bugger.
I wouldn't think twice about confronting him and coming across as rude. He's not concerned about how he's coming across, so why should anyone else be?

Maybe put up a little sign saying 'Please take only one of each item so there is plenty for everyone'?

Oh God. I am a mild mannered person but little signs would make me harbour resentful thoughts towards you Devora13

We are plagued by bossy notes plastered on fridges, microwaves, sinks and toilets and they are always anonymous.

When I go to the loo it is plastered with prissy notes about flushing and using the loo brush.

The company's wealth is in inverse proportion to the amount of money spent on staff welfare. Or is it the other way round? I can never work it out but basically, we're shat on.

Therefore their drainage system is quite literally shit. Things don't flush away. I will press the flush button a few times but have leapt away and run when the bowl looks like it's going to overflow on my shoes.

I don't want to use the loo brush because loo brushes are disgusting in the home, let alone in communal toilets used by around 50 people.

The three microwaves - which I don't use - are plastered in directives about smelly food and covering your food with paper towels.

A fridge - one of three - had a graphic image on the door of something mouldy with a self-righteous message. I think it might have once been a Pret bowl of porridge. I tore it down because the image and the tone were making me nauseous every time I passed.

Just chuck food away if it's bad and say nothing. The people who've left it there won't even notice.

My tightarse company doesn't heat the corridors which include the loos. It is so cold at this time of year that I am reluctant to wash my hands because the hand-driers are feeble and don't dry. There are no paper towels and the cheap loo paper is are poke-through thin.

Last night I wanted to go after doing a wee but someone else was in there so I felt obliged to wash my hands and spend a very long time at the inadequate hand drier so she didn't judge me as a dirty cow. Then I walked off into the cold with wet hands.

^^ First World problems

there could be more to it. A colleague of mine was being abused financially and had no food at home. As soon as free food was out at work she was straight on it. You don't know what people are going through so I wouldn't take some of these bitchy approaches. Just stop bringing food in if it bothers you.