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!

I do agree that I sympathise but agree you are being a bit unreasonable.

I also agree that as soon as it becomes an obligation I’d be uncomfortable with it - I will bring in stuff when I can afford but I work part time, have a SAHP as a partner and have 2 young children. I would not be able to afford the week before payday for example to be able to afford to bring in cheese and biscuits for 10 people. It would be very embarrassing to have to divulge that too.

Tbh if I were you I would do absolutely nothing. If it does grate on you I’d just stop bringing stuff in to share and have your own stash of biscuits etc.

(Also I do agree that constant supply of high calorie snack food for sedentary office workers is unhealthy )

runs away

Could you put a notice on the treats table:

Please DON'T take more than your fair share!

He's not mortified, he's a CF. It's not an illness.

If you can't do it, OP, then bring it up to your manager.

I've had to manage people like this and have no problem with telling them their behaviour is negative and affecting the rest of the team and please refrain from gobbling more than their fair share of shared food/fridge thieving/poaching personal items from someone else's space/coming in smelly, etc.

I was feeling generous on my birthday weekend and stopped and bought two dozen Dunkin Donuts on my way into work one dozen for night shift and one dozen for day shift and this man on nights ate six alone and I snapped at him that I had brought them in for everyone not one person and he got pissed at me but another coworker called him a fucking pig to his face so I felt better later. The other guy had been nice and brewed coffee for everyone to go with them. Sometimes even confronted they don't give a damn

Why should everyone else miss out SilverDee because of one persons selfishness?

I would not be bringing in so much food, just a few packets of buscuits, or pack of buns for the week.

This man is very selfish. I would say something

Ideally it should be raised direct with the CF, but if you or your manager can't do that then maybe put a light-hearted sign on the table:

Rules of the Food Sharing Table

1. Respect that items are contributed free by team members, not a Snack Fairy
2. Moderate your consumption so that the whole team can enjoy the treats
3. Keep the table tidy and food covered up
4. If you consume regularly, please be prepared to contribute regularly too

I’m worried about his health, eating 4 mince pies in a morning.
Is he procrastinating by any chance?

The solution is people just provide their own food and stop with the constant snacking.

We have constant snacks at work, although no greedy sods thankfully. Only very occasionally will I have something (can count on 1 hand how much I've had in over a year), I don't get this need for constantly eating. I take my lunch and that's pretty much it.

If you all stop providing, it solves the problem. If he mentions it, say it was getting out of hand with people taking more than their fair share and not contributing.

hysterical

I'd be about 2 stone heavier working in your office

I wouldn't bother bringing things in/takings things as that would annoy me too much.

Many years ago, I was going away for the weekend and bought a couple of sausage rolls for me and my friend to eat on the car journey. I accidentally left them on a side cabinet in the office. When I came back to them a few hours later my greedy colleague had eaten one. Didn't realise that two sausage rolls in a white paper bakery bag belonged to anyone apparently. Greedy fucker. Was so shocked I couldn't say anything.

As a child I bet he was one of those twatty kids who pile their plate high then leave half :(

YANBU

I'm glad I'm not paying his wages! When does he have time to work?

And people wonder why this country has an obesity problem. Cheese and biscuits every Friday and a daily snack table is an unhealthy amount of food for an office environment. Particularly when you always get the CFs who take much more than everyone else.

I would stop the snack table and just bring snacks in for yourself that you can choose to offer before putting in a drawer. If you leave free food for everyone you can't complain when someone takes more than their fare share. And where do you draw the line? Only 1 item per person allowed? 2 items? What if someone doesn't partake in the chocolate biscuits but wants 3 bananas or 2 packets of crisps?

Plus if hes eating all teh stuff on the table,that means hes not doing his work either.

Honestly I think this is a bit of a daft idea. A snack table? Agree with the others that it's not exactly a healthy situation in the workplace.

well, I would put up a sign, but I wouldn't be as polite as some of the others on here.

It would say - don't be a greedy pig, 10 of us in the office, so take 1/10 of the snack.
And bring in some yourself!

To all those needed smelling salts at the idea of the snack table, did you notice it was fruit that was being scoffed today?

A girl I work with bought her mum's birthday cake in, she'd collected it on her way to work, put it on the side to take home after work.

It was just an empty foil tray and a mass of crumbs by 4pm.

My colleague is a greedy pig (and infuriatingly, wafer thin) and will plough through any sweets or cakes brought into the office. The rest of us just say to him, oi, leave some for us. He fully admits he eats mindlessly and would work his way through a box of biscuits without even really tasting them. We tend not to have stuff in unless it's Christmas or brought in by students as a present, but it's become a bit of a joke now (quick, have one before XX horses them all down!) which thankfully everyone joins in with.

Why don’t you yell “oi Dave. Hungry are you?” “Wow Dave, did you forget your lunch” etc He’ll soon get the message

Heartofglass, that is dreadful. I would be furious if that was me!

"To all those needed smelling salts at the idea of the snack table, did you notice it was fruit that was being scoffed today?"
Yes, I'd say we noticed that, along with the biscuits, cakes, cheese...

I honestly thought it was just our office that has a table filing cabinet to host our daily buffet. We have a guy who is constantly up and down eating but we all take the piss out of him so I think he reins it in more than he would if we weren't there!

And Deffo (I think?) a fair few people in our office have put on quite a bit of weight since they've worked here...

At my work someone would probably make a jokey remark about it in a meeting, such as 'this client won't leave me alone, they've called me almost as many times as [greedy bastard]'s raided the snack table. Or they'd get a jokey 'award' for hungriest colleague at a night out. Probably quite a passive aggressive way of dealing with it though if it's something that genuinely annoys people.

Does he have any good friends in the office that could have a word as in trying through give him a heads up before it becomes a big problem?