Milk!

[Foodieasfuck]

Very petty post but would appreciate your views please.
I work in a small office. There are 8 of us. Management buy all the tea, coffee and sugar and we have a kitty for the milk. There are guests in and out all day for meetings etc. We all put £2 a week in a pot which more than covers the milk needed for both the staff and the guests. Every now and then biscuits get bought out of the leftover kitty which is seen as a bit of a treat. All good.
Someone has started having their breakfast at work so every morning they use the milk to have their porridge or whatever.
I don’t really see it as a big deal bit it has caused a real issue by some of the other staff.
I’ve been there years and some of the staff have asked me to have a word with the breakfast / milk person. I really don’t want to as I really don’t care.
For clarity, I’m not the manager. Just someone who has been there the longest.
I can’t get worked up about it bit I’m sick of hearing all the moaning.
Ridiculously, I’m sat here hoping the person involved has bloody toast in the morning!
We usually all get on fine with no issues.
What would you do?

In my office milk is provided in the staff fridge for teas and coffees - but there are notices about not using staff milk for cereal etc

This has already been said, but it depends on whether this person uses milk for their drinks or not. Because if they don't, and they are paying the £2 a week, then they are probably not using much more in their cereal that they would in coffees.

If people start moaning too much, you run the risk of management saying 'you can all sort your own tea and coffee as well.'

If there are lots of visitors the company should pay. The manager should speak directly to the person. Passive aggressive emails with such a small team will breed suspicion and bad feeling. Poor management.

The complainer has 3 options:

Talk to the person

Shut up

Opt out of the kitty and buy their own milk.

Thanks again all. The person concerned drinks as much tea and coffee (with milk) as the rest of us. The problem started when he bought a box of weetabix in and has them every morning (also uses sugar) but no one’s moans about that as the employer pays.
I do get it, it is a piss take, but maybe they haven’t considered it that way. Hopefully the memo will take care of it. It all just seems so petty.
The person was sat there this morning munching away on his weetabix without realising that everyone was watching every detail (and mouthful) 🤦‍♀️
I’m the only one that doesn’t really care and yet they wanted me to talk to him (or management) I declined.

Did you consider if they were calcium deficient and you are now discriminating against them?

It's just a bit of milk, none of us in my office would bat an eyelid at this. Seems petty.

I just couldn't bring myself to give anything approaching a shit about this. I'd tell them that. I don't care, if you do then you need to raise it yourself.

The company should be paying for the milk, especially if it's being used for external visitors! So tight of them not to.

I think the company should be paying for the milk. But even so, I wouldn’t be bothered about this unless the milk was running out all the time.

Gosh the drama over some milk! Reminds me a bit of years ago when I started a job as an usher in a theatre/cinema complex but in the cinema bit. First day, had to wait in the kitchen for someone to get me, was waiting there ages, so decided to make a tea. 2 big bottles of milk in the fridge. Plenty of tea.

Second day, got pulled into the office for a condescending "chat" about using the staff milk. Someone in the theatre staff had seen me with my tea and got rather upset about it apparently. (Lowly cinema staff not good enough for a brew 😂) Twats.

Anyway, sign in the kitchen would have sorted it out, so do that. That way it addresses everyone equally so cereal guy gets the message without feeling like he had the wrath of the team upon him (although he probably does!)

Lord this is so petty.

How deep do they want to dive with this. Can someone who drinks less tea demand they only put one pound in? If someone is off sick in the back half of the week, can that take their share of milk home?

You're already subsidising all the visitors who drink milk every day, what's the big deal with paying for a colleague?

Ultimately it's an office expense and the workplace should be funding it so these ridiculous conflicts don't crop up.

Incidentally, that's a huge amount to be spending on milk for eight peoples tea each week. Surely the majority is being used by guests, in which case it's even more ridiculous that employees are expected to fund it.

I don't drink much tea at work. I may as well pour it straight down the loo, as it goes right through me .What about if someone has 7 or so cups a day and I only have one? Where do we draw the line on unequal milk consumption?