Cake theft at work

[Villagegreenpreservation]

I work in an office where people bring in cake or treats pretty often- think every birthday/ anniversary/ rainy day/ Monday.
Usually the last to leave wraps them up and then we tuck in to any leftovers the next day.
Could explain my weight gain but I digress. We now have strange happenings however. For three weeks, any leftovers have disappeared. Not just the odd doughnut/ slice of cake but whole, unopened cakes and whole boxes of doughnuts and tubs of chocolate.
We have been told the cleaners likely think it's a perk and to take them and we need to communicate they should be left in the office. I think this is odd. Shouldn't you just leave the stuff especially if unopened and not immediately going out of date? Cleaners are external agency if that makes a difference.

Stuff in our office now needs locking away when leaving or else will be confiscated to avoid attracting vermin (not that anyone has ever seen anything, but thats what we're told......)

Are the cleaners employed by the company or are they an agency?

I’m a cleaner and I see and clean up after the most disgusting CEO’s, management, office staff, maintenance staff etc. I’d bet my last quid that a cleaner hasn’t taken it. I certainly wouldn’t

Cleaner MAY have binned it. Stick a note in the kitchen/on the fridge/on the cakes saying “do not take.”

Maje a chocolate cake with laxative chocolate and see who is off sick the next day. 😁

Maybe someone is struggling with food poverty? I read an advice column once from a lady who was living on cupcakes from work.

Hope I am not breaking rules by giving the link:
www.askamanager.org/2011/11/dont-want-my-co-workers-to-know-im-living-off-cupcakes-from-the-employee-kitchen.html

I worked in an office where we had a bookable meeting room for other teams. After a while, we realised that some of the attendees were emptying the tea and ciffee canisters in the kitchen. Not the Nescafe but the 'posh' cappuccino sachets We stored the makings in the office after that so they had to ask. It was coming out of our office budget!

Makings?

There's no way the cleaners think an entire unopened cake is free pickings. Someone is deliberately nabbing it.

We had a milk thief in one of my jobs. The thing is, they would never take from a full bottle, oh no, they would always nick someone's last half inch of milk so that person would make a tea/coffee and open the fridge only to find they had no milk. That stopped when someone stuck a note to the fridge door saying that one of the bottles had randomly been laced with laxatives - go ahead, make my day. I know who stuck the notice up and she hadn't laced anything, but the possibility of getting the 2-bobs was enough to put the thief off.

Here, we have a couple of people who take leftovers for their children. On Fridays it's fair game anyway, else they'll be binned. I think if it's just one or two bits left from what was a bigger cake or collection of doughnuts, it doesn't really matter; Iif I was specifically saving a slice for Sarah who isn't in today, I would take it and keep it separate with a note (I have a spare cake box here, can't remember why.)

I wouldn't mind if the cleaners took some. They're some of the more useful and least-appreciated people in the office.

Just reminding me of the case of the missing biscuit tin "Police Officer cleared over stealing 2 tier tin of biscuits " Evening Standard Reports Missing tin of biscuits 21 feb 2018" which resulted in a 3 day hearing Officer returned to normal duties .Wonder what Sherlock would have made of this .Probably would have taken the biscuit !

YABU. At my office everything gets billed, including Tupperware, boxes of sweets, cakes - anything!

The onus is on us to clean up after ourselves not rely on the cleaner to ‘save my stuff for you.

I know you say the policy is the last one left does this but it’s not happening, your system is broken and you need to let the cleaners do their job instead of implying their thieves.

*chucked not billed

I’m a cleaner and wouldn’t steal from any of my customers (I know you aren’t suggesting that it’s the cleaners op, it’s other people). Bloody offensive that people think cleaners are just opportunists who want cake scraps.
Hide the treats away somewhere each night

If it just started three weeks ago, what changed at that time? New staff?

In my office, cakes, cookies, etc., don't last the day. I can't imagine getting upset about this really; I'd just assume a coworker had finished it.

My husband and I clean an office once a week. During the time we're there, we have a drink (that we take with us), whilst sitting at the table in the main office. There are always cakes or biscuits left on the table, and at this time of year and at Easter, there will be chocolates left in open bowls. Neither of us have EVER taken even a sweet from there, and we definitely don't think of stuff left there, as perks for us. That would be stealing. I'd hate to think that if food was going missing from the office, that we would be suspected of stealing it.

At least it’s just cake - I work in a role that requires me to put together promotional printed material (product brochures etc) and compile gift bags with it. I regularly do this using the low cupboard top next to my desk so I can lay things out and make up bags over the course of a day around other tasks. I’ve had to stop as the amount of people who walked by and without so much as a smile hello would start riffling through the bags and boxes, thumb through materials then walk off with them. I had to chase people through the office to explain what they had just helped themselves to was in fact company owned material that had been purchased for event guests!! I think word has gotten out that I’ll chase you though as it’s stopped lately
In your case is the person last out there door putting the cakes away or just folding the top of the packet down? Perhaps just making it a bit more obvious it’s not a free for all help yourself will help!!

Where I work anything left is assumed to be abandoned so the caretaker has it unless clearly marked

I used to work for an organisation where one of the senior managers used to snaffle stuff and take it home with her.
She didn’t see it as stealing just her rightful dues as she worked so hard

@WingingIt101 I hope you got a lockable cupboard?!

This really isn't that hard to solve. Put the food in a cupboard, or under someone's desk. Or something.

But honestly - you clearly have so much food coming in - two full boxes of left over doughnuts?! - why does it matter if some of it gets eaten by others some days?

I get the principle of it - you see it as stealing.

But come on. There will be another massive cake, or box loads of doughnuts in the coming days. What does it really matter?

And if it does really matter, just store the food somewhere else, or get Phoebe someone to write a threatening note to leave on it.

Whole cakes and full packs of doughnuts aren't leftovers! Whoever brings them in probably takes them home again, to bring another time.

I don't think people say cleaner's because they think "lowly peasants", but more because there is more opportunity for someone who is in at a time fewer people are also in.
If the cake is standardly there when the last day shift goes and gone by the morning, it's more likely to be the night shift than either a day shift coming back in to get it or a random stranger off the streets.
I would suspect its more likely thrown away than taken if it is the cleaners and they've probably been told to.

This happened in a office I worked in a few years ago. It was the cleaners. They admitted it. So for all the "it would NEVER be the cleaner" commenters - yes, it could be.

When stuff like this happens, it's 99% of the time a CF employee and usually one who is not poverty-stricken.