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!

Artofhappiness slight derail here, but I am also Type 1 and get upset at jokes about diabetes. It makes it harder for people like ourselves as people assume it's a self inflicted illness (I know not all Type 2's are self inflicted either, before anyone picks that up!) Sorry to hear about your kidneys x

I was something of a compulsive eater at work (where I was very unhappy) and struggled not to be that person. It was generally known that I would have another donut or two if there were any left at the end of the day - and any food left on desks at the end of the day would be thrown away by the cleaners on hygiene grounds.

I brought in a healthy and adequate lunch and would have hated for there to be a snack table every day. If you want to share lunch, agree between yourselves and portion up to that number.

There seems to be a theme with men doing this at work.

We had a staff canteen in my old workplace and we would all down tools for an hour at a specific time to go and eat. I swear, the majority of the men would be power walking like they'd shit themselves to get to the food first. They were greedy bastards too. They would hoover the fucking lot, leaving hardly anything for the rest of us. The cook even doubled the amount he was making at one point in a bid to make sure everybody was getting something to eat (could've fed a damn army), but the first dozen guys at the front of the queue simply doubled their portions! It would slop over the sides of their plates because they'd taken enough for 2-3 people, while the folk at the back of the queue got nothing.

The managers did NOTHING about it - very much a case of 'first come, first served' We all worked gruelling, labour intensive 12 hour night shifts. Not eating was NOT an option. By the time I left, every single one of the women and the three men who didn't act like greedy pigs were bringing in their own food to eat, which was annoying because the canteen food was provided for free. It was one of the small perks offered to the night shift team, but half of us never benefited from it. I love baking so I got into the habit of bringing in fresh scones, herb rolls, cupcakes, etc. a couple of times a week for the unfed gaggle to enjoy. I made a point of only ever bringing in 13 of whatever I'd made - one a piece for my nice, unfed colleagues - and I handed them out with a very satisfied smile! This kick-started a bit of a trend, so all 13 of us would take it in turns bringing in something to plonk in the middle of our table to be shared - packets of fruit, fresh hummus and veggie sticks, crackers, biscuits, etc. The cheeky fuckers on the other table would frequently ask if we had anything going spare for them. The answer was always a resounding NO!

What I've found at work as well as this is that a lot of men wont make drinks for people but will accept them, and wont ever wash up either.They put their dirty cups/ plates in the sink sometimes, otherwise they just leave them lying about the office.This is because they think its a womans job to do, they wont say this outright but its what they think.

I think your set up is destined for failure to be honest. It’s weird.

In all of my jobs, we bought our own food in, to eat at lunch. (Or breakfast before work started.) I have always worked near places like Pret, M&S, Costa etc so lunch options were always decent. I have never really experienced something like this all-day eating parade like at your workplace. Maybe a shared pack of biscuits or sweets in the office, or cake for celebrations but nothing akin to yours.

I agree that he probably wouldn’t be eating this much cake/biscuits etc if they weren’t freely available to him. If he had to buy the snacks to maintain his intake, he’d probably realise how much he’s actually eating and stop. Virtually eating an entire pack of biscuits everyday at work is strange.

Greedy chap!

But if you find it annoying, don't contribute anything any more and don't take anything. That way it's not your problem, and if anyone asks why you stopped - just explain that it's because the system was being abused by certain people. They won't criticise you either so long as you don't take anything yourself.

We have the same at our work. If anybody brings anything in we have a girl who practically runs up to see what it is and eats it. Not once (apart from her buying cake when it was her birthday - which we all do) has she ever brought anything additional in. It's sad and wrong I know, but we now just share food when she isn't there. She isn't tight on money, just doesn't see why she should bring stuff in.

On Christmas eve, we had been promised Christmas nibbles in the social room at work.

The boss wouldn't let us go to the social room until 12 on the dot, and when we got there found that some people, who were not working that day, came in with their families and scoffed the lot.

I agree, there's always someone like this, and usually men.

We did have a woman, now retired, who was constantly mauling food that other people brought in, taking it on herself to cut up the cake in slices with maximum hands all over it, or rearranging the tea cakes and buns onto different plates, again handling them as much as possible in the process, or licking icing off her fingers before handling the cake again. It was really off putting.

The guy who sits next to me took him into the meeting room and politely told him to stop porking. He took it as a bit of a joke by all accounts.

So the table has to go. This guy finds his greed funny. One person usually ruins things for everyone else. This is the one!

If you want to bring stuff in the do so but monitoring who brings what and who eats what is ridiculous.
Why don't people just bring a snack in for themselves?
It's another of these office 'things' that is daft. My daughter bakes cakes and takes them into work for everyone because she likes baking and giving stuff to people but she's never expected anyone else to do it.

I'm intrigued about what sort of office it is where so much time is spent eating and organising the food and cheese club. It can't be a commercial company surely?
It must be Dept of Work & Pensions or a Tax office I think.

I love the snack roulette idea. One soapy muffin, a slice of salty chocolate cake and a mouldy biscuit. Or maybe sneak a dead rat into something.

As a manager in my office I will sometimes bring in biscuits or cakes on a friday and there is one girl who is fairly greedy.

One time I was hosting a work buffet for charity and a colleague brought in a home made cheese fondue. Greedy girl leaned over it and dipped her bread in it, it was too hot so the fondue dribbled from her mouth back into the pot.

I was furious. She isn't the most hygienic of people either.

user1457017537 you need to revisit your understanding of a sharing table. Some take more, some take less but no one should take 90% or all and barely bring anything to the table.

Hope you are resting and not working in ITU

Do NOT poison the food or tamper with it in anyway, that is much more serious than what he’s doing - that could constitute both gross misconduct at your work and criminal proceedings if he gets hospitalised

Is he a ‘larger’ man or seems someone who generally over eats? I ask only because I used to work with a guy in our office and he was forever eating lots of food brought in but rarely did the same. It turned out he was eating so much at work because he was going through hardship at home and was missing actual meals at home because he couldn’t afford to buy food. I know this is unlikely to be the situation but just wondered.

Me personally I wouldn’t say anything nor would I be bothered how much someone else ate of what I brought in i just like people to have what they want but that’s just me

I LOVE the idea of a weekly cheese board. I might have to introduce that in my office.

I've worked in a similar place, 12 of us with pretty much daily snacks. I never noticed how much anybody took or didn't take. If I wanted some I would go over as soon as the snack arrived and take one... surely that's what you all need to do?

limitedperiodonly you work in the same place as me, one ladies in our are only has 2 toilets, one was out of action for ages and people still kept using it.
We also have someone in our team who eats all of the biscuits, we are very honest with him about how annoying it is.

This is a non work issue as it’s something you’ve voluntarily set up, so please don’t involve a manager to have a word. Absolute crossing of boundaries if you do that.

If it’s not working, stop.

Make mince pies and make a little flag with each persons name on and insert into pie. (Satsumas ditto - stick on label) or maybe more sensibly, juts put out a few treats and hold some stuff back, when he's had one put out some of the held back things. If he comes snorking up to grab more say 'oh didn't you have one of the last lot Bob? I don't think Mary's had one yet'

I had similar problem once when the only male member of team refused (or rather sort of always managed to wriggle out of) taking his turn to make tea at coffee break. We had to be blunt in the end 'your turn today Ron you skiver' - he took it well - he knew damn fine he was being a CF (and your greedy bloke knows too)

At the end of the day if you don’t want to share, don’t bring things in. However there could be other reasons behind the situation and I am shocked that so many other posters just say it’s greed - it may not be. We had a lady who used to take a lot and then found out her husband had left and she wasn’t eating properly and hadn’t had a meal for two days. You cannot assume anything and I would delicately try to find out if there was a different reason before giving judgement. On the other side I love it when people eat more of what I bring in because it stops me eating it at home if we have extra cakes from family or whatever - I’m happy to take them in!

Totally with you on this OP.

Shared food it may be, but not everyone likes to eat it all in one go. My boss will plough her way through anything sweet brought in & not stop till it's finished. No consideration for those who prefer to have say one or two biccies, chocolates etc a day with a brew.

When the boss brings something in, it tends to be the cheaper less appealing things which no bugger wants to eat. Unsurprisingly, she doesn't eat much of it either 🤣