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?

UHT is ghastly..in tea certainly…I’d rather take it black then stick that in, I can taste it a mile off..,nasty stuff

I agree about UHT being vile. I used to work with a puerile prankster who loved to “accidentally” spray uht milk as it opened and point and laugh and make comments about semen stains. I haven’t been able to open a uht milk without remembering that little snot.

That's the CF's textbook MO: only ever take and take and take - then when you say enough is enough and stop giving and being treated like an absolute mug, then YOU are the one who suddenly doesn't understand what 'acceptable behaviour' is.

Did you challenge the Queen Bee over the croissant crumbs?

Yes, please - we need to know!!

Of course they won’t buy their own. They don’t need to, they have the that one you buy. I would put yours in your own small container and take home each day.

In our office, someone will bring milk in but it isn’t one particular person and usually if there is no milk left, someone will nip out to get some.

A male friend got so annoyed at this that he bought a 1 litre milk, poured some out and pissed in it, before replacing in work fridge. He was delighted to see over the course of a couple of days that several people had obviously enjoyed a splash in their coffee…

Take some milk in a metal water bottle and store that in the fridge. People are unlikely to use it then, as they won’t know what’s in there or whether you drink it directly from the bottle.

People are arseholes.

Lots of lunch stealing going on so I just take my stuff in an insulated lunch bag with ice pack and lock it away.

I worked in a place where milk was centrally provided. Each dept had to collect their own and log it. Then on the late shift and night shift other depts would raid our fridge when they ran out. 🙄 And within our team people would use the last of it up and never go to collect more. It was meant to be for cups of tea and coffee but they used loads for cereal instead of buying any.

It does seem rather a sad state of affairs when workplaces provide a fridge for the use of employees - except nobody can use it, and instead everybody has to keep their lunch and milk in a cool bag or buy a mini-fridge for under their desk - because of thieves.

The epitome of 'this is why we can never have nice things'.

They could just have milk though, obviously 🤨

Use a vacuum flask that keeps milk cold all day and keep it on your desk. You are never going to stop people using your milk.

I wouldn’t keep it on view on the desk pr people will try to sneak a bit while OP is out of the room. Keep it in a drawer, preferably a lockable one.

I'd just see if you can get your employer to cover the milk as well as the tea and coffee. We just chuck everything onto petty cash at work. Saves any milk drama.

Sho bottles do some fabulous insulated bottles in smaller sizes that can keep liquid cold for hours, so if they won't cover then you could always take milk in something like that and keep on your desk.

I use one of those metal water bottles for my milk now. I feel your pain and it’s not petty being annoyed by it. I wrote my name several times on a carton once in bold sharpie pens. Still got opened and used.

Looks like those you have said yes to in the past now class it as a free for all. Leave a note on the bottle. Hands off. I am not providing milk for the office.

This is why I just take a big bottle of milk in on a Monday morning and tell people to help themselves. It’s plenty for our office (would buy more bottles if it wasn’t). For £2 a week I’ve done something nice for the office and don’t have to worry about feeling annoyed at CFs or anyone else harbouring secret feelings of resentment.

OP, how did you get on yesterday?

If anyone grumbles at you that you said yes in the past, point out that they asked to "borrow some milk" and borrowing means returning, yet they've never given you any milk in return.

I worked with someone once who got so annoyed about people doing similar that he wrote 'breast milk' on the carton, funnily enough no one touched it after that!

A number of people have said that they tried that, but that the thieves still stolen it anyway.

Would it not look slightly suspicious if Steve was taking a bottle of breast milk in to work every morning, though?!

But would it not be an equally nice thing for anybody else to do now and again too?

I just add it to my weekly shop being delivered on a Sunday and bring it into the office on a Monday. It’s really no stress. Would much rather that than risk having someone silently seething in the office because they feel that the milk bringing is unfairly on them. Other colleagues bring in cake or make the tea more often than I do. It balances out!

Fucking milk in offices is always so much of a fucking drama! In my current workplace our employer doesn't provide it and we have a kitty. We are all supposed to pay a grand total of £3 a month into it. Inevitably it's those who are highest paid who keep on forgetting to put money in the kitty and never think to go and do the milk run or bring some in the next day if they use the last of it at 5pm.

I hope OP gets on ok with the milk lock. I've worked in workplaces where it works for a couple of days then somebody pierces the bottle and squeezes out a stream from there instead and now the milk is going missing AND not airtight any more 😡The mini fridges in different workplaces were raided every time any department left them unattended and the whole thing just made for such a shit atmosphere. I was one of those people who learned to drink their coffee black as a result.

A small insulated flask/bottle kept in handbag is the only way to have milk for drinks in offices where this is an issue IME. Even on the hottest heatwave days it stays fine for use in hot drinks all day as it's fresh out of your home fridge in the morning.