My colleague has thrown my lunch in the bin

[DidYouBINmysushiyouTWAT]

What is the correct etiquette please?

You need not quote directly from Debretts.

If I weren't in the queue for the soggy salmonella sarnies left in Tescos- I'd write a longer OP.

Part Two here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/a2631196-My-colleague-has-twat-me-over-the-head-with-a-courgette - edited by MNHQ

Maybe you have a friend who is into fishing? Perhaps they have had a fridge type emergency meaning you need to keep a Tupperware box full of maggots in the fridge?

Crying at the stapler in jelly!

Cunty... I want to be like you.

Is there room for another fridge? Ask HR to supply one because you can't keep your lunch fresh. Let fridgehogger carry on, the penny might drop eventually, selfish woman.

Factory sealed raw meat isn't a health hazard.

Hmmm, but who knows what it's touched before you bought it? Plenty of times I've seen say clingfilmed chicken whole or in portions that's leaking blood from its packaging. Or factory sealed containers of meat sitting on a supermarket shelf where one package has leaked or split and some are sitting in the residue.

Okay, I'm very fussy about that stuff, but in my own fridge at home, I'd never put packs of meat in it unless I'd wrapped them in a sealed poly bag myself, to stop their already contaminated packaging touching other food or just the shelves.

I wouldn't have tolerated this woman's behaviour with the communal fridge for 30 minutes, it's vile and IMO very likely to give colleagues salmonella etc.

I love the idea of taking something each day and binning it elsewhere. If you know the sort of thing she's buys - eg chops, I'd bin chops in the morning and produce a lovely chop salad for lunch. But it has to be on the day so she can't accuse you of taking it - because you couldn't have produced it by lunchtime!

Tate and lordofthetits- you have just ruined me. I'm laughing so hard in work i'm getting looks!
Bloody brilliant thread!

Take random items from her shopping, then (after work) take photos of them at the park, or in a fake hostage scene, then email her the photos from an anonymous email address.

I think there actually ARE health and safety guidelines regarding correct storage of raw and cooked foods. Raw food must be kept separate (ideally separate fridge altogether) and outer packaging removed to prevent cross contamination.

I only have the Irish guidelines but chances are we nicked it from you lot in the UK anyway initially, tinkered a bit with the wording and stuck a harp on it like we do with a lot of rules and regulations

I'm just here for the courgette cock.

This thread is gold.

I just don't understand this woman. If she doesn't do it when the boss will be in then she must know she's wrong.

At a previous workplace it was relatively common to do a top-up shop at lunchtime, and leave it in the fridge for the afternoon. That makes no difference at all to people who use the fridge to store lunch, because they've eaten it by then. Since she has the hide of a rhino, would she respond well to that suggestion?

Not opening up on time because she's shopping is awful and would get her a formal warning in many jobs. You really must start escalating.

OP, surely there's a H&S inspection due "very soon"?

Fantastic!

We had a communal fridge at university that got raided regularly by the guys from the floor above. We put a note on the fridge stating politely that the fridge raiders should leave the contents alone. So they took the fridge!

Hide the fridge.

Removing the lunch from its packaging was a deliberate and malicious move to make sure it couldn't be salvaged, surely? To try and put you off using "her" fridge again.

You have my every sympathy OP, she sounds like a horror, but as a former HR Manager I am cringing - this is the sort of thing that used to have me banging my head on the desk going "FFS, can't you at least try to behave like the adults you supposedly are?!!"

Wait until she goes to the toilet
Then quickly load her shopping into a bag and stick it on her chair. Fill up the fridge with food from prewarned colleagues.
At the first sign of whinging - chant "first come first served"

But seriously, I would buy a whole bunch of left over sandwich food, badly wrap them in barely enough cling film and squidge them up so that they leak old mayo out the edges. Then I would ram them into the fridge contaminating all of her shopping. The odd burst pot of stinky yoghurt would work well too or cottage cheese.....

Presumably this is why you are a former HR manager BeStrongAndCourageous

This thread is brilliant! I was howling at the poster who took a bite out of each of 'Laura's' sandwiches

OP what a selfish cow your colleague is! I worked with a utter bitch woman just like this. She moved my lunch which was in my office (which was a through-room if you like) with the fridge in several times because she didn't want to be 'fighting with my lunchbox' everytime she came in. She nearly crucified me for knocking on the boss's door and going in to speak to him without asking her permission as she was his PA. His office was next door to mine and hers was down the corridor Everyone was scared of her. We all thought she was a dominatrix and expected to find the boss tied up with her whipping him before office hours. I just took to ignoring her completely rather than be at her whins which had her trying to talk to me and be friendly bloody weirdo

Chuck all of her shopping in the bin or nick half of it. Stupid bint needs a lesson.

Better still why don't you steal items, take them 'hostage' until the sushi and photograph them gaffa taped to things or suspended from things with ransom notes attached then get the photos sent to her by your DH or a friend or someone not on the premises. Do it lots.

Damn right TreadSoftly - every so often I think "I really should get back to work" (am a SAHM). Then I look at a couple of job descriptions and think: "Nope."

Take heart. My colleague had someone take her lunch out of the fridge, eat half of it, then put it back in the fridge No way they could mistake it for their lunch.

"We cannot come in before her as she has the keys and opens up."

Wow, so much for "first come first served"! Its literally impossible for anyone else to be there before her, and she uses all of the space! You're definitely justified in just taking out her stuff and leaving it on the side.

"There 10 of us in this office, and you went over your allowance of 1/10 of the fridge space. Ive left the rest on the side".

Quietly unplug/turn off the fridge in the morning after her groceries are in there.

You need to work with your colleagues on this one. Every one of you needs to bring a packed lunch in an assortment of Tupperware. The bigger the better. You take all of her shopping out of the fridge and store your mega-lunches in there. When she protests, you present a united front and inform her, in your most reasonable and calm tone of voice, that you are very sorry there isn't room for her shopping but the fridge is there to store everyone's lunches. If you all do it together, surely she can't throw everyone's food out. If you all do this, every day, she will soon get the hint.

I'm curious as to what it is she does that is so intimidating that she has been getting away with her selfish fridge-hogging for so long.

until the sushi is replaced

But if you want to be more subtle don't make that a condition. Just send her photos of the items cooked and plated up

After the first time, leave a note in the fridge for her to find the next morning saying 'oooh what have you bought for my dinner tonight?' Should put her off

Love the idea of leaking fish sauce and yoghurt all over the meat....

Shame. I chucked away some 2 year out of date fish sauce, earlier. That would have been perfect.

"FFS, can't you at least try to behave like the adults you supposedly are?!!"

That's what I've been thinking through the whole thread.