Colleague stole my mug

[NewtMumLife]

Would you take someone else’s mug in the office?!! I had to rescue my mug from someone’s desk which was half filled with cold coffee yesterday and I think it’s really rude to just take someone’s mug without even asking, especially as there are plenty of other mugs they could use. The colleague didn’t even wash it up and didn’t apologise. The mug was a present from my husband. AIBU?

I keep my mug and teaspoon in my bag.

Years and years ago - 25 to be exact, I worked in a nursing home part time. There was a carer who worked overnight. She was really not a nice lady. Rude, abrupt, nasty to other staff.
I sat down for handover one morning with a coffee as normal. She walked into the room, saw I was using her cup (without any knowledge it was her cup as it was sat in the communal kitchen), snatched it off me and poured my coffee into another cup, then handed it back to me. She was furious and I had half a brew missing. She went home after handover, I still had a 12hr day during which her cup found itself in the sluice machine alongside dirty commode pans.

The only people being unreasonable are the people that voted to say that OP is being unreasonable.

Where I am we have company branded mugs (clearly generic mugs available for everyone to use), there are also unique/personalised mugs owned by someone.

There are some people who don't take the generic company mugs and instead take the personal mugs because they are better quality.

Wash the mug after you use it and keep on your desk until you need it next. Alternatively get a mug with your name on it

And do those people who bring in personal mugs keep them out of the communal space? Because unless they do and they never leave them in the dishwasher or the cupboard then they cannot reasonably expect them never to be used by anyone else.

Op I wouldn't have taken something with any meaning into the office. Yes it's a bit rude. But I couldn't get worked up about it. The bit that would annoy me is not washing after using it - rather than using it.

HR NOW!!!!

Is that any surprise? If they are in a communal area surely they are fair game.

😂😂😂don't joke we've had issues like this over office chairs that have resulted in HR getting involved!!!

i'm with you OP.

I worked at a place that had a whole load of company branded mugs. Which i didn't like to use because unlike everyone else i drank tea, and it tastes wrong from a black glazed mug. So i, as did plenty of others, brought my own mug. I told everyone it was my mug. It was the only one in the building with my football team's badge on. I was the only supporter of that club.

And the number of times i just either took it from someone who was about to use it for coffee... or just took it out of their hands and tipped the coffee away... it was well known and so everyone left it alone. (I was ruthless about just taking it back)

And then the MD used it, and left it in his locked office, growing mould, for 2 weeks of a business trip. And so... i told him not to do that, there was a sign in the kitchen already.

And then it stopped.

Petty? yes. Annoying? definitely. Unnecessary? (of the colleagues) very much so

Office culture was very much: don't use other people's mugs.

I used to have to visit lots of companies and sites and offices. It used to be a guessing game every day about which mug you would be able to nab without pissing anyone off. The offices with the company branding/generic white ones were the best because even if they were manky you could just wash them up. Otherwise it was a case of trying to find the ones that most looked like someone wouldn't be too devastated if they were otherwise occupied for a day. My top choice was usually the Cadbury's Easter egg mugs.

Someone took my mug with my name on it! Was really odd seeing it on her desk 😂

not if office culture is established as "company branded - everyone can use; not company branded - personal use only"

As for "wash it yourself" in the above scenario, no. Where that is not an established practice - absolutely.

ETA: totally get the chair thing. You need several qualifications from NASA to use modern ones, and you are sitting in it for hours at a time. Too right i have a secret mark on mine... it is INFURIATING if someone stops by to chat to your desk neighbour when you're not there, sits in your chair and then fiddles with it until it's unuseable.

I once worked in a charity shop. Put my name indelibly on my mug.
It still got sold!

These are the things that make working life so hard.

There's a random collection of mugs. Some "belong" to someone, some are just mugs. How is anyone supposed to know?

My colleagues, who want to keep their own mug, wash it up and put it back on their desk at the end of the day. Taking that would be off, but if they've used a mug from the kitchen, they haven't stolen anything.

This petty nonsense is the reason why no one wants to work in an office anymore

Maybe the thing is to have a mug that no one would want to be seen dead drinking out of. Like one with Young Conservatives on it, or a picture of Donald Trump.

Hide it, or not take anything that is sentimental into the office?

Love this!

This is a company culture thing. Where I work we have personal mugs that no one else uses, and company branded mugs for anyone to use. I said YANBU but I guess it depends on the norms where you work

We are a small team and everyone uses their own mug which either has their name on, initial, something that person is passionate about eg cats or unicorns. Along with my initial mug I have themed mugs, Valentine's, Easter, Halloween, Christmas. No-one uses anyone elses mug.

OMG, what did the police say?

This would annoy me, but this is why if the mug was that important, I'd both (a) bring a mug I wasn't that precious about and (b) hand wash it and keep it in my desk drawer when not in use.

Unless your colleague did this to deliberately wind you up, I think you are overreacting. They pulled a clean mug out the dishwasher and used it. Maybe they didn't know it was yours. Maybe they didn't see it as a big deal, since you obviously weren't using it. Maybe they didn't want to use crappy company mugs that are chipped. It's poor manners that they don't clean up after themselves, but that's all.

I wash and dry my mug at the end of the day and keep it on my desk overnight. Kitchen mugs are community mugs. Dishwasher mugs are a grey area as not every one can remember what mugs belong where or to who.

There is a great scene in this country where Kurtan joins a team of builders and they warn him that any unwashed mugs will be smashed. You can guess what happens.