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?

As someone who 'did this' to someone else, please don't make the other person feel too bad. I had a horrendous experience after borrowing the cup of a man I had been seeing and I only used his cup because I knew he is clean (I too worked in a team of men). Bearing in mind that this man had been in my house, bed, we'd been intimate....when he found out I'd used it as a one off after forgetting my own ( I washed it, made sure it was nice and clean and put it back), he stopped speaking to me, deliberately ignoring me until I apologised. When I did, he said 'I don't like people using my stuff'. It took all of my self control not to say 'well you didn't mind having your willy...' but I didn't. He made my life hell (this was not the first time he had hurt me either) and I had to leave my job over his behaviour.

Please just lock your cup away if you don't want anyone using it and don't hurt this other person for using it.

People had their own milk?!

Have you phoned 101 for advice ?

Thoughts and Prayers OP

Maybe talk to HR / The Union / ACAS

Definitely grey rock

In my workplace everyone brings their own personal mugs to work andwe dont share, so if someone took mine from my desk I would absolutely without asking or sayig they are borrowing it, Id absolutely think they stole it.

Someone took my mug that had a teabag in already as I was making tea, I nipped to the loo when the kettle was boiling. I used to go in very early, we had flexible working so there were never that many staff in. I knocked on doors and lo and behold there it was on a colleagues desk who had finished making my tea and taken it. I just said that is mine and walked in and took it. I did keep my mug on my desk.

Don't you just hate this "everyone knows" business! 🤬

OP, just speak to your colleague and ask them politely not to use your mug in future if you're that bothered.

I was in a Teams meeting once and a bloke was clearly using my colleague's mug with her name on it.

She leaned forward, peered at her screen and said to him "Oh, is your name Christine too? That's a coincidence"

🤣🤣

Take it back from them "Hey, I think you accidentally grabbed my mug".
People who complain about you here probably nick other people's mugs and feel called out.

My colleague had bought a big cake in for her birthday to share, we all did it. Someone went in and cut a huge slice, much worst than just taking a biscuit. It was in the fridge as had fresh cream in.

We had to buy our own because of people with allergies, those wanting full fat or skimmed etc. It was just easier to buy your own to avoid arguments

I can assure you I was not prepared to share any body fluids with my mug nicker.

Ooh, that reminds me. Years ago I made some fancy cupcakes for my husband’s birthday to take to work. One of his colleagues - the sibling of a semi famous TV rentagob - grabbed a number of them to take home to her kids, telling DH that as a working mum, she didn’t have time for home baking! Me: same profession.

You've brought back a forgotten spoon memory for me now! I worked on a counter team about 30 years ago, and breaks were always a rush job.

One day all the spoons had disappeared but we knew where one was - the only man on the team kept his in his drawer. He also liked to take his break alone, so we didn't mix that much. He kept his spoon in his drawer, so we borrowed it, washed it and quickly replaced it - he was none the wiser.

We stopped doing it on the day someone clocked him make his tea, eat his yoghurt, lick the spoon clean and put it back in his drawer. We never touched it again.
😳

Teaspoons were always an issue at my old place. One week someone would buy a new set from the tea club money, a month later there were none left.

My work mug is so breathtakingly unusual and tacky that it's normally pretty safe. To be extra sure I keep it in my cupboard though rather than trust it to run free in the kitchen.

We stopped doing it on the day someone clocked him make his tea, eat his yoghurt, lick the spoon clean and put it back in his drawer. We never touched it again.

That reminds me of the case of the worker who liked very spicy food as her norm. She brought her lunch in - it was obviously hers - and put it in the communal fridge. A colleague stole it and wolfed it down and couldn't breathe for how hot it was - and he ended up having the audacity to officially complain about her 'trying to poison him'!

I used to keep mine on my desk and wash it up myself. Otherwise it would go walkies all the time, being a clean, non chipped option for the tight lazy bastards in the office. People would use named mugs, ones with MUM etc on - obviously someone else’s. And don’t get me started on the scuzzy end of day sink, which was like a hoarder’s kitchen.

I had another colleague who would (and was seen doing it), rubbing items of cutlery on his private parts and backside because someone kept using them. So he did that so the next time they used them, he knew where they'd been.

Ralph Waldo Emerson:

“The louder he talked of his honour, the faster we counted our spoons.”

Another vote for washing it yourself each day and keeping it in your desk. Our dishwasher is so grim that I’d end up re-washing it anyway. My mug is now never stolen, never chipped, and doesn’t smell like wet dog 👍🏻

Some people use non-diary milk (or low fat, non-fat, full fat, etc so bring their own.

Imagine the rage he must have had that made him do that 🤣🤣

And then he would eventually have to use them himself too.

Still, I suppose we all have to have a hobby...

I would never have a mug at work that I cared about enough to worry about it being used by someone else. I had a lovely mug and it got broken by someone heavy handed in the staff canteen.

I still miss that mug. Lesson learned.

I was a teacher in a school and had my own plain black mug that was low enough to fit under coffee machine to get my latte. On an almost daily basis the deputy head swiped my mug, as most mugs did not fit under nozzles and made a point of pointing it out to me. Oh Caring I got here first today so got your black mug, ha ha. I just got another the same in hope no one would swipe that one. Strangely DH was heard on a number of occasions telling others not to use my mug. I found it quite amusing the DH was so blatant.