Colleagues keep using my milk!

[Immo8]

I don't want to sound petty as in the grand scheme of things, milk isn't an expensive item and maybe I should leave this be, but it's really starting to grate on me...

Work in an office with around 30-ish staff, the majority are on shift work including weekends so people are in & out a lot. I work standard hours 4 days a week. The company provides tea & coffee but staff bring in their own milk etc. I buy a large filtered milk every month as it lasts and I only have a few cups of tea a day so makes sense.

However, over the last 6 months or so, people will ask me if they can 'borrow' some milk. I would never say no to someone asking but they NEVER bring in their own milk or buy one to replace mine that they've used over the weeks...

Today, I brought in a brand new milk, name on it, placed it at the back of the fridge so hard to find, and I've just gone to make a cuppa and it's been opened without asking, and a 1/4 of it has gone!

How do I word an email to my colleagues (if people think I should) that is polite and doesn't sound too petty?

This happened in my office but with someone's bread. He started charging £1 per slice 😂

OP has clearly said that there's no shortage of space on the fridge for those who use milk.

I'd love to see the thieves' faces when they see the milk lock. I think that's the best way of (hopefully) bringing it home to them. For all they know, you might have started using a different container for your own convenience - but a lock comes right out and screams "Thief!" at the thieves!

No the office manager sorts all that out.

Don’t send email just creates drama and it’ll go on & on
Decant into metal water bottle , unlikely they’ll use that

Agree.

In cases like this, I always think to myself, "What's the easiest, least dramatic work-around?" And it's this.

As an aside, your milk lasts an entire month? boak.

Agree. There will also be people who because they are paying will think they should have their preferred kind of milk available whether that is full fat, semi skimmed or skimmed. And milk buying rotas don’t work either. There will always be someone who forgets it’s their turn or who says “sorry, couldn’t get milk today because x”

Use a flask to store your own milk for five or six weeks. You must endure this temporary inconvenience while you train your thieves. Before the first week of flask usage, buy a small bottle of your preferred milk. Leave it somewhere warm until it has noticeably gone sour. Not horribly curdled and separated; just enough to fail a sniff test and make a drink unpalatable.

Place this bottle in the communal fridge. Make sure it has your name written on it. The thieves will quickly discover that it’s off and either discard it or begin to ignore it. Repeat this process over a few weeks until the thieves have made a powerful mental and visual connection between your small bottles of milk and it being off every time they try it. You must make sure that you use the exact same milk, bottle size, writing, and place it in the same place each week.

People are extraordinarily quick to learn to avoid things they find distasteful. In a short time your distinctive little bottle will become invisible - even repellent - to them and you can start putting identical small bottles of fresh milk in the fridge again, reasonably sure that it will be left unmolested.

Although tempting, adding laxatives is unlawful.

I'd have personally gone for the suggestion to decant half into a cooler container to store in the fridge. People tend not to use stuff when they aren't too sure what's in it, and don't want to take time sniffing a unknown liquid. Chances are there will be one horrid jerk amongst the free loaders that will be upset by your tactic and sabotage it.

I mostly drink espressos at work so don't have it a lot.

When I experienced something similar, I bought a lockable cash box, and put that in the fridge. It is not much bigger than a tupperware box.

I suppose you could also get one for your desk biscuits.

BTW, My Cravendale milk which is in a very cold fridge, has been open for 8 days and is definitely on the turn. It has a use by date of 25th January.

My milk (non filtered) seems to happily last a good couple of weeks in my fridge. I only get deliveries once a fortnight and I my milk is never off.

Do you work at a desk? Could you bring milk in a flask each day? You shouldn’t have to but it would solve the problem.

I’m surprised that there are companies out there who provide tea, coffee and milk. Us public sector staff can only marvel at such luxuries!😃

Please nobody reply to say your company provides biscuits as well, I couldn’t cope with the jealousy!

I do! I always make sure there are snacks available, and I get ice creams on the hot days in Summer. They work hard, it's the least I can do. I fully appreciate my employees.

I can't wait to read what the reaction will be in the office

Label it with 'expressed breastmilk for @Immo8' might put them off.

Is "label it as breastmilk" the "cancel the cheque" of this thread?

In the public sector it's common for the employer not to supply staff beverages.
In my last place we had expensive vending machines to use but most office based staff had their own kettles and brought their own tea, coffee, milk etc to avoid using the over priced vending machines.

It was certainly a novelty when I started working from home in the summer and could grab a lolly out of the freezer to suck on whilst working. I'm in the civil service, so we'll never get that luxury.

My advice would be to put some laxatives in the current carton of milk that you have.

wtf

I used to keep coffee creamer in my personal desk draw ( unlocked). Thought I was imaginig it going down so fast until I came into work earlier than normal and found some fucker helping himself.

🤣🤣🤣

My work do supply milk - UHT in those little pots. But my fresh milk will still go missing if I bring any in, presumably because it's nicer than the UHT. I've eventually trained myself into accepting the UHT in tea.

It's a big single story building with a few tea points, and loads of staff from various different teams, so very hard to work out who's taking it. I happen to be at the 2nd lowest grade there (apprentice is the lowest), so among those with the least income. The bottle was always labelled with my name clearly in large permanent marker letters on all 4 sides and my initials on the lid.

The reason some people do things like steal other people's milk is because they have an entitlement attitude that anything goes if they can get away with it. This attitude is reinforced every time there are no consequences for externalising costs. Tainting the milk with laxative will quickly internalise the consequences of stealing, and eventually they will take the hint that perhaps they should buy their own. The reason why the behaviour of the public in general has deteriorated (especially since the pandemic) is because of a combination of entitlement to externalise costs/inconvenience and no consequences for doing so.