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?

Uh oh.....👍🤣

The skimmed Cravendale I have in there now I bought last Saturday and it's use by date is the 5th Feb Always lasts really well.

Why doesn’t your boss provide milk?
why doesn’t your workplace have a communal milk ect?

If you bring in a small bottle make sure it isn’t date stamped. Our office cleaners used to clear the fridge of anything that looked out of date. I wish I wasn’t retired, I really would love the excuse to use an Udder Lock.

I think if you decant to take in & leave in fridge it probably wouldn't be long before someone noticed & started to help themselves.

Lock seems the best idea.

Food colouring - my husband did this at uni - no one likes green milk!

The skimmed Cravendale I have in there now I bought last Saturday and it's use by date is the 5th Feb Always lasts really well.

Isn't it best used within 7/10 days or so like a lot of stuff once it's opened regardless of the bb date?

Although if it still smells & tastes OK that's all that matters!

Decant it into another bottle and label it ‘dog milk’.

I used to work somewhere that had milk issues. It was a small company and they didn’t mind people buying milk with the petty cash. Cash was freely available for anyone who fancied popping to the shop to buy it. The problem was, no one wanted to go and get it. At one point I started having cereal for lunch so I would go to the shop Monday morning and buy my own with my own money. I only worked there 2 days a week so bought a small one for cereal and tea for the two days. Sometimes even by lunchtime Monday it was pretty much empty. I spoke to every single person individually to explain it was mine (and wrote my name on it) yet it still kept happening. One woman in particular would always own up and say oh sorry I made a tea round it was just because I didn’t have time to go to the shop to buy a communal one! Well that’s great that you’re sorry…. But I don’t have any lunch now unless I go back to the bloody shop! Eventually I bought a lockable flask thing. People became a lot more energetic after that and walked the 5 mins to the shop to buy their own.

I used to bring in skimmed milk which went untouched by thieves while my colleague brought semi skimmed which people regularly stole. When we realised, I gave her one of my skimmed lids to use on her bottles and hers suddenly started to last longer. Maybe try decanting your milk into something less appealing and see how it goes.

No one said it is like fresh milk :)

Cravendale keeps for up to 7 days once opened and up to 3 weeks when unopened.

Boak, boak, boak at using it after it's been open for a whole month.

Are you sure people aren't just chucking gone off milk away?

You could try saying....I seem to be buying milk for the office could everyone contribute £1 (or whatever) a month for milk please as today I went to open my new milk and it was 3/4 full

Unless it's brought by someone else then the milk preference is out the window.....but some obscure revolting milk and put it in your old bottle ....or sour some....

They're going to use whatever milk is in the fridge. Stop buying it for yourself and set up an office kitty that everyone pays into - a quid a week should do it.

This should work. If it's not recognisable as milk it's less likely to be used.

Buy a fake Stanley cup from B&M and our your milk in that each day. It could sit ok your desk all day and still stay cold.
My DD has one and it was only £4 and great quality.

But it is normal for a company / boss to provide tea, coffee, milk and sugar at the very least. That is just basic decency.

If people use different types of milk then that is on them to provide their own but milk for tea and coffee has been the norm anywhere I have worked over the past 30 years.

This.

Or can you send round an envelope saying that since you have repeatedly been inconvenienced by having your personal milk used, you are offering to collect the funds to purchase a communal supply. Though I suppose the usual deadbeats won't contribute...

I have a small flask from Tk maxx and bring a small amount every day

Well I'm not dead yet and it smells & tastes perfectly fine 3 weeks in I can assure you.

When this used to happen to me, and Im sure its happened to everyone or it happens in most shared work spaces, I said ok, we keep running out of milk, I will bring the milk in - I want a milk kitty - who takes milk? 50p/£1 week please ( you need to count heads and divide and Im going back a while when milk was cheaper )

Didn't cost me anything to stop on the way into work and buy a couple of jugs

Someone will just throw it in the bin if the date has passed.
I love the idea of decanting into a flask to keep on desk. Then leaving a dodgy milk in the fridge to get the thieves back!
Clearly labelled "DO NOT USE" and FULL of laxatives !!!!!

Dont message them. Get a flask and bring in your daily milk.

Get a chilli’s bottle - keeps cold drinks cold for 24hrs - and keep it at your desk.