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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

For refusing to drink from mucky vile mugs?

136 replies

ShittyTea · 29/09/2022 21:14

Just started a new job. I was shown the kitchen and put my lunch in the fridge. I was going to make a coffee but saw the start of the mugs and almost threw up. Absolutely vile. Luckily I’d taken a bottle of water.

Anyway 10 minutes later someone stands up and declares a tea-round. I politely declined. I was asked “do you not drink coffee?” So I said I was cutting down. I then got hassled to have a coffee. I continued to decline. I got told not to be so polite and everyone needs a coffee before the day starts. I said I didn’t want one.

an hour or so later someone else comes in with a tray of coffee, one was plonked on my desk. I said “ no I’m ok thank you” The sight of these mugs was making me want to shower the room in vomit. I couldn’t stand it near me and pushed it out the way. Obviously my face said more than my mouth did as the coffee maker asked what was wrong with it.

AIBu to refuse to drink from these filthy vile mugs??? If I take my own mug in tomorrow it will be obvious what is up.

OP posts:
transformandriseup · 29/09/2022 21:45

Without seeing them I want to say you are being unreasonable but a few years ago I had a job interview where there were multiple mugs sat around on desks which had started growing mould and washing up in the sink which looked to be weeks old.

LetHimHaveIt · 29/09/2022 21:48

Imagine being a grown woman having a visceral reaction to tannin stains. Pull yourself the fuck together.

CorvusPurpureus · 29/09/2022 21:51

Take your own mug in, leave it on the tray, & go home with it every day so you can wash it to a standard acceptable to you?

Our departmental mugs are in an absolutely parlous state. Some of them were left by dear departed colleagues 5 years ago & probably haven't seen hot water or detergent since, which we are generally quite relaxed about, but if anyone wanted their own mug to be used it would be fine.

Alternatively, just say you have quit coffee for <spurious reasons>. Cheerfully decline all offers, & push aside any coffee anyone makes you because you 'don't drink coffee'.

Everyone will just get used to you not joining in the communal brew.

CourtneeLuv · 29/09/2022 21:52

Awaiting the drip feed that op has health anxiety and a phobia of some sort 🤔

MarianneOnAMotorcycle · 29/09/2022 21:52

I suspect the established workers have their own mugs and there are a few (especially mucky) abandoned ones for 'visitors'.

olddustbag · 29/09/2022 21:52

Its a post dishwasher world isnt it

30 years ago all mugs were like that. No-one died.

BarbaraofSeville · 29/09/2022 21:54

I bet you're one of those weirdos who washes the tea pot aren't you?

EfficientDynamics · 29/09/2022 21:54

I have my own mug and all my colleagues do too. I keep mine in my desk drawer

A new guy started last week and left his own mug out then saw a random woman walking round drinking tea out of his mug lol

He now keeps it at his desk

Just take your own mug in

errnerrcallnernnernnern · 29/09/2022 21:55

I think you’ve blown it out of proportion. The mugs at my workplace are pristine but I still use my own mug.

Why not take one of those glass thermal mug things with a lid, that way no one wilo be offended?

junebirthdaygirl · 29/09/2022 21:56

One good thing to come from Covid..no sharing mugs so my one was always clean. I would have taken it though and just poured it out later as they sound like a friendly bunch.

Hibye23289 · 29/09/2022 21:57

Your post does sound abit dramatic about being sick but I am exactly the same I never drink or eat using work cutlery! That is annoying though people forcing drinks onto you. Can you not make a big flask up before work the ones that come with the cup? I have gone as far as using coffee stirrers like chop sticks when I have forgotten my fork before. Just because other people at work or on here think oh for goodness sakes each to their own

Cavend · 29/09/2022 21:57

You could leave the mugs to soak in the works kitchen sink with a glug of bleach?

mondaytosunday · 29/09/2022 21:58

Who insists you have a coffee? Forget about the mugs, that seems totally weird.

Octomore · 29/09/2022 21:59

BarbaraofSeville · 29/09/2022 21:54

I bet you're one of those weirdos who washes the tea pot aren't you?

😂

Lunabun · 29/09/2022 22:01

mondaytosunday · 29/09/2022 21:58

Who insists you have a coffee? Forget about the mugs, that seems totally weird.

I hate this!! I don't understand why people have no boundaries when it comes to hot drinks. Common sense flies out the window.

I go to a baby class where I get intensely hassled every week by the instructor and other mothers to have a coffee at the end despite politely but firmly declining each time. What I can't tell them is the reason I don't want one is because I'm pregnant (too early to announce to all and sundry yet), but why is "no thank you I don't fancy it" not a good enough reason 😭

EvilRingahBitch · 29/09/2022 22:02

If they're mouldy YANBU. If they're tannin stained YABU.

Octomore · 29/09/2022 22:05

There is no way that an entire office of people is drinking our of mouldy mugs, so they are almost certainly just tannin stained.

I agree with a PP - this is a level of weirdness that the post dishwasher world has given rise to.

devildeepbluesea · 29/09/2022 22:07

fucking hell what a princess.

are we talking about tea stains.??

christ.

VioletInsolence · 29/09/2022 22:17

You sound like Eleanor Oliphant.

YesIReallyDoLikeRootBeer · 29/09/2022 22:21

I would hate to work there. I dont drink coffee at all and if my new coworkers kept forcing it on me I would not be happy. When you told them you were cutting back they should have left it alone.

bippityboppity87 · 29/09/2022 22:26

I'm going to assume this is a wind up. If not, OP I'm pretty sure they won't offer in future, problem solved

PeekabooAtTheZoo · 29/09/2022 22:35

Wow they’re great at rigid thinking aren’t they? Have they seriously never met anyone who doesn’t drink tea/coffee? How dull they all are. Shame you now can’t drink tea/coffee there without being outed as lying to them all today. You could have fun with this though. Take in some nectarines and a juicer and tell them you are on a nectarine diet. Next week, only drink blood oranges. The week after, cantaloupes. Then the week after that revert to tea and insist you’ve been drinking it all along.

cawfeee · 29/09/2022 22:41

I wouldn't want to drink out of a tea stained mug, don't mind so much if it was my own stained mug, but not other peoples.
I'd just take my own mug in and say it was bought as a present for starting a new job or something.
I'd also be taking a bottle of bleach in to sort the rest of the mugs too.

NCforGore · 29/09/2022 22:46

Can we have a picture of the cup cupboard?

bippityboppity87 · 29/09/2022 22:51

I hate bleach with a passion. My DM used to have an obsession with it growing up and was the same with "tea stained" mugs and dousing them in bleach. It smelt awful. Unless you're properly rinsing it out with hot soapy water afterwards, it will taste funny. I'd rather have a stained mug. Food and other bits crusted on it is completely different matter. If it's the latter, then no, I wouldn't drink from it