Called “greedy” at work

[HamOnBeth]

Yesterday we had a lunch buffet for a staff member who is going on mat leave. Usual routine is the buffet comes out at lunch time and everyone brings something such as sandwiches, sausage rolls, flapjacks, etc etc … basic party food. We do a little gift and card giving presentation then everyone gets tucked into the buffet. After lunch the food stays there and people just pick at it during the afternoon whilst they work.

So after lunch we got back to work and I walked across and got a few more sandwiches (other people were also going back up). An hour or so later I went back and got a few more bits - certainly not platefuls - just a couple of sandwiches, a couple of (bite size) flapjacks and a muffin.

We leave at 5pm. At 4pm someone said “there is so much food left”. That’s all I heard so I assumed it needed using up so I went back and got a few more bits. At this point someone said “Jesus Christ Beth, are you hungry?!”

I said “well it needs using up doesn’t it?” And laughed trying to keep it light hearted. Someone else then said “there is going to be none left for people to take home! No need to be greedy with it”.

Long story short it was apparently agreed that whatever was left would be taken home by those with kids. I did not hear this. I said I hadn’t heard this so someone said “Well no, you won’t have” and rolled their eyes.

was I really out of order here?? The food was there, lots of it. Nobody else was bothering with it. I’m embarrassed but I still don’t really think I did anything wrong? It’s not like I scoffed it all as soon as it came out.

Both is batshit.

And no I wouldn’t want the food either.

Kids in Ethiopia? What a bloody joke. YANBU

Of course because the little kiddies never get any snacks 🙄

I'm the [childfree] person who brings extra tupperware knowing that there'll be leftovers at the end of the day 🫅🏻

What a bizarre response!

At the end of the day the reason for the obesity crisis in this country is the fact that people are over eating.

And nobody is allowed to say anything about it any more because it’s apparently fat-shaming to do so.

But while someone might go back to a buffet a couple of times, going back for several plates of food is eating to excess.

If the OP is greedy then she’s entitled to be.

But others are also entitled to think that someone who goes up for four plates of sandwiches and muffins is greedy. Because they are.

I wouldn’t have said anything, but I would have thought it.

So the question is, why isn’t it ok to say it if it’s true?

Taking home leftovers for the kids is a different thing and that shouldn’t have been pre-planned either.

It all ends up getting binned at our work place. I would rather people were scoffing it down than have such waste.

Was the food prepared by colleagues
homemade? I wouldn't eat it. 😕
Yes, you were greedy, 3 visits was too much without ensuring that other people were done, some people could have planned a second helping when leaving, you went for a third.

I still feel indignant decades later that I was told I couldn't have the vegetarian option at a group lunch (there was one meat dish, one fish dish and one vegetarian dish) because I wasn't a vegetarian and 'the vegetarians don't have a choice'. Yes, they do - they've chosen the vegetarian option! I still wish I'd said that I'd just become a vegetarian.

I don't know why the kids are catching strays when the problem is your rude ADULT co-workers making comments that had no place, regardless of what you knew or didn't know about the plans for the leftovers.

I'd think you were greedy and had some sort of food issue if you couldn't keep from going back for half stale bits of bread and multiple cakes after you'd just had lunch.

If lunch ended at 1pm and at 4pm you were off to fill up on your 4th pile of beige food and cakes, you were averaging going back for more every 45 minutes or so.

Can you not go much more than an hour without eating, or are you just unable to control yourself in a room that contains food?

I think the people who were planning on bringing any home are weird though, I would have to be using a food bank to be desperate enough to feed my children on left over stuff that had sat on the side in an office for half a day.

Colleagues were rude. Not OK to call a colleague ‘greedy’ out loud.

What's 'teeny tinies' got to do with it? Four plates of food in an afternoon is a lot of food by anybody's standards.

Yeah, this. It was very noticeable in my last workplace that three or four of the guys never brought anything to shared buffets but they’d pile their plates high. They were also the ones earning most. After about four sessions like this, I did comment that it seemed unfair that the people who brought least ate the most. But I didn’t direct it at one person.

I would be nipping the 'taking it home for the kids' thing in the bud right away, colleagues aren't there to feed your kids Susan.

I'm not a vegetarian, but isn't it an unspoken rule? That the vegetarian option was provided for the vegetarians when there is only a certain amount and hearty meat options available.
Just saying.
I wouldn't take from the small vegan platter that 3 colleagues are expected to split.

Absolutely this.

Why is eating a lot either 'normal' or 'healthy'? Four lots of food in one afternoon doesn't sound normal or healthy to me. Especially when it's sandwiches and flapjacks etc.

Agreed. 4 quarters is two slices of bread, which makes a whole sandwich. If you factor in that op ate more than this and all of the other bits and pieces here and there, she certainly ate more than her fair share. I think people end up eating more than anybody else with all of the mini trips. I think it is is greedy, but I wouldn't say anything. I would think it was especially cheeky if somebody was eating the rest of a homemade cake that everyone had already had a slice of, which the maker was planning to wrap and take home. I think the context is very important, and I still don't buy the kids comment as being it, and not an exaggeration/fabrication to get people to agree. I don't know many people who would do that, so can't imagine the whole office were taking all of the food back of their kids (when op stated there was "so much left."

I couldn't give a stuff about how much people eat, but at a shared buffet, it is rude.

Indeed, the usual mumsnet performative undereaters ("...one ritz with a bit of marmite on and I'm full!").

But they're convincingly out-voted in the poll, which is heartening.

Why though? The food was for staff, not anyone else, and there was lots left over. Greedy would have been if the OP had done this before the stage when things were left over.

Jeezus., so maybe put a timer out and let everyone know to get their plate by, say, 2 o'clock then it's going in the garbage? Adults can decide for themselves if they want that egg sandwich at 4pm. Who cares?
Why judge anyone anyway?

Greedy is hoovering things up before everyone else has had a chance

I agree, @Sdrena, but then if OP had already visited the buffet three times I can just about see folk tthinking it was time for someone else to have a go, regardless of how much was left

Of course if absolutely everyone else had had their chance and there was still stuff going to waste then that would be different, but this isn't clear from the first post

Think we've all experienced the buffet police. Watching who is taking what or deterring people from eating too much so the watcher can take as much as possible home. I've come across people hiding stuff in cupboards or taking trays for 'the pensioners'

Having four servings of food is greed though.

I think we need more information, OP. What was the diameter of the plates? Was the bread thin, medium or thick sliced? Were the sandwiches cut into halves, quarters or eighths? Crusts cut off or left on? Were they sparsely or generously filled? Approximate diameter of the muffin? We really need to know these details before we can accurately pass judgment. 🤔