To think don't keep taking my drink at work?

[openitsoicanseeyousmile]

I'm known to bring a can of drink in everyday for lunch. It's kept in the shared fridge at work - Everyone knowns it's mine as there's a little section box for each person with their name on.

A colleague of mine is pregnant and for the third time has taken my drink and not bothered replacing it. When questioned, she says something along the lines of "Sorry! Bad sickness. This helps. I'll get a new one for you tomorrow".

She always does, it's there the following day. But it means having to go out at lunchtime to get another one. The local shop is only 2 minutes away but it means eating up time I don't have since I have 30 minutes lunch.

I'm really not sure how to go about it. If it was the usual person, I'd tell them to stop the cheek and buy their own to bring in! But she's pregnant and suffering from sickness. I had HG with my son so I feel awful at the thought of telling her she can most certainly never take from me again without asking

I remember the horrendous feeling of needing something sweet and fizzy to curve the sickness and it did often help, so I imagine it's very helpful to her.

Perhaps I should buy a multipack and suggest she goes half's so we can both enjoy them during the week? Or is this too doormat like?

I'm really not sure how to go about it. I don't think she thinks she's being cheeky in the slightest, and is an otherwise lovely colleague.

What would you do? I usually have no issues being assertive but I feel as if the lines have been blurred.

Cool pack and secretly keep your drinks in your desk. Give it a few days of her going to the fridge and finding nothing there and she'll stop expecting to be able to steal it.

Oh, and if she comes up and asks for one, tell her you haven't got any. then make sure you crack your can open where she can hear it.

It’s the taking without asking that is so wrong. Tell her not to take it as you brought it in to have that day and her sickness is her own issue to sort.

...,or suite in her desk drawer it is the only way to deal with cheeky fuckers!

Anybody who wasnt a CF would just keep a can in the fridge as a just in case supply.

Oh ffs *shite not suite!

@Hesafriendfromwork

I think it was the op who suggested it first, so people are responding to that idea.

It is a very sweet idea.

I wouldn't do it, but I'm not all that nice .

This is very cheeky - do you have a freezer you could put drink over ice? And keep it by your desk until lunch!

She should buy her own, as a one off I wouldn't mind if someone asked, but if she knows it helps there's no excuse for her not getting some.

God what is with cfs at work stealing people's food these days?

Get one of those sho bottles. It's amazing, keeps your drinks cold all day. More expensive than other bottles but it's worth it.

One of those soft cool packs that wraps around the can is a good idea

She had sex, got pregnant. Not your fault. Tell the drink thief to bog off and if she doesn’t then raise it with her line manager.

So you just notice her drinking your drink? She didn't even tell you, let alone ask first?
You need to deal with this. On Monday tell her you need her to buy her own drink and leave yours alone because you want it for lunch. If she takes your drink again then get angry with her. She deserves it!

Buy the multi pack it's not doormaty its kind

Talk about enabling CFs. And this is why they carry on with their behaviour.

Send her to the shop at lunchtime

I'm astounded that she thinks you going without a drink that day (if you're anything like me and cannot stand the taste of water) is okay. Nicking an odd can temporarily to fight off nausea is a bit cheeky but it MUST be replaced immediately with an apology. If someone took something from my lunch, getting it back tomorrow wouldn't feed me today. What a rude woman!

Those blue ice packs stay frozen for ages. Put one in a cool bag with your drink and it will stay really cold.

But a multipack this week.

‘Hey Mary - totally understand you’re craving the cans at the moment so I have bought a multipack to share this week. You can get next week’s. Cheaper for us both that way!’

Remind her on Friday. ‘You all right for bringing the cans next week?’

Do not buy a multipack the 2nd week. Walk to shop at lunchtime and complain loudly...

but it MUST be replaced immediately along with an apology.

Cheeky fucker

She will be one of those people who will use her child as an excuse to leave early, have a day off and just generally thinking that everybody should cut her some slack because she is a parent now.

I can't believe some of the long winded 'solutions' on this thread.

Just tell her it's not ok and to bring her own bloody drinks in.

there's a pattern here....

OP you're not the lady who keeps buying the girl lunch even though she owes you for nearly two months lunches are you ?

i think the pregnancy is just an excuse.
she's found a way of getting what she wants, with less effort, so she takes it. she doesn't care how it affects you.
you don't have to consider her/ make arrangements for her.
do you have a locker or lockable desk drawer?
you will have to stash your drinks where she cannot get at them.
just avoid her and avoid the subject. it is annoying not to be able to use the fridge, but you need to break the habit.
she will find someone else's drink to take.
she is the kind of person who is a nightmare in a flatshare, while smiling sweetly and leeching off everyone around, with no conscience at all. that is why it's best not to try to engage, compromise. these people laugh at other's fairness as weakness and zone in for the kill. you do not inhabit the same moral universe.
step away and preserve your own values, and drinks.
good luck.

I can't believe the amount of people saying op should bring in multipacks or 2 each day.

The cf can buy her own.

Bumble No, but I did comment on that thread with a lot more assertiveness than I can muster up for my own self