Seriously I see these posts all the time about people who have a co-worker who steals food so they make gross food to ‘get back at them’ cause HR doesn’t do anything.

Legit question but how do you not just freak out and yell at the person? If a co-worker stole my food the 1st time I’d yell at them and curse them out, the 2nd time I’d threaten to shove the food in their fat face next time I see it happen. If HR didn’t do anything I’d threaten to quit and sue if they claimed I don’t get EI because it’s a toxic work environment.

I just don’t get how people are so passive when co-workers literally steal from them? I’d be fucking livid.

  • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
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    1 month ago

    Because that’s not how the corporate world works. You want to freak out and yell at them? Go ahead. Maybe they don’t eat someone else’s food for a week. Meanwhile you’ll be hunting for a new job. You threaten another employee? You’ll be lucky to be employed at the end of the day.

    Life is a series of tradeoffs. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Tim may steal food, but that doesn’t mean it’s throwing off the status quo. You yell at Tim, you’re upsetting the status quo. So go ahead, and have fun with your pink slip. Hope it was worth it.

    Or you can keep your lunch at your desk.

    • Azal@pawb.social
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      1 month ago

      Good lord this makes me happy I’ve not worked in corporate and stayed in blue collar work.

      Someone steals food in a shop, that someone’s gonna have a bad day and the boss yells at anyone “whining”, including the guy who got his ass kicked.

      • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
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        1 month ago

        Correct, that is another way of putting what I said.

        If the choice is:

        • Have a stable job, continue paying my bills on time, enjoy the coworkers I do enjoy, continue on with my life -or-
        • Have a few seconds of glib satisfaction after yelling at a coworker

        I mean, yeah, I’m gonna just keep my lunch at my desk.

      • UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        The one true way is to find a new job if your coworkers/boss/the job itself is mistreating you.

        We did not mistreat you, so don’t take it out on us.

  • Sc00ter@lemm.ee
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    1 month ago

    Yall dealing with people stealing food? Ive worked in an office setting for almost 20 years and ive not once ever heard of someone taking someone elses food

    • JareeZy@feddit.org
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      1 month ago

      Where I work there was a night guard who would go around at night and steal food from alle the office break rooms. They installed combination locks on them ans gave the code only to people in the department. When they found the culprit, they fired him. Which is the only sensible thing to do when someone is stealing on the job.

      • wolfpack86@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        So say 100 people work at this company, the other 98 not involved don’t want to listen to you rant and rave either. They might understand, but the more you escalate the less they want to deal with your shit either.

  • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    Maybe because the only co-worker food theft stories that get upvoted and therefore seen are the dramatic ones about passive-aggressively making gross food for the food thief. And who knows how many of them are true stories and how many are creative writing projects for internet points.

    • zod000@lemmy.ml
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      1 month ago

      Making inedible or spicy food to catch a food thief is a trick as old as time and I have even done it myself. There is no other way to catch them out usually.

  • RoquetteQueen@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    My cop relative said everyone working in police stations keeps their stuff in lockers because cops constantly steal from each other. Not just food.

  • Vanth@reddthat.com
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    1 month ago

    If they’re any good at it, you won’t know who stole your food. If I did know who the thief was, yelling/cursing/threatening would get me fired. It’s easier to keep my food at my desk in an insulated lunchbox with an ice pack.

    And finally, HR doesn’t give a flying fuck about your lunch. They would laugh in your face if you threatened to sue them.

    • cybermass@lemmy.caOP
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      1 month ago

      I would only use them if they denied me EI after leaving the company and claiming I left due to the toxic environment. In Canada that’s how EI works, you can get it if you quit if the working environment is illegal or toxic etc

      • Vanth@reddthat.com
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        1 month ago

        Not familiar with the acronym “EI”

        Employment insurance?

        Idk, if they fired you for screaming and threatening someone, seems like they’d have an argument that you were the toxic one. The company didn’t steal your lunch. Even if you could prove you made every possible effort to report the thief and handle it through official channels, falling back on screams and threats would really detract from any argument, IMO.

        I’m not Canadian though so I can only say I personally wouldn’t intentionally burn bridges like that over leftovers. To answer your original disbelief that anyone could be so passive about accepting lunch thefts, I’ve not had it happen with any frequency that would make me put my employment at risk by acting out.

  • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    Stealing food is theft - it may be petty theft but it’s still theft. If you report it to HR and nothing is done then you can sue the company for a hostile work environment.

    If you use laxatives, excessive spice, whatever and injure a coworker then you can be fired with cause and possibly be civilly or criminally liable if the damages are significant enough.

    • MarxMadness@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 month ago

      If you report it to HR and nothing is done then you can sue the company for a hostile work environment.

      Good luck

      Filing a lawsuit over a sandwich (or threatening someone, as OP mentions) is a comical overreaction anyway. There are a dozen simpler ways to solve the problem.

      • zod000@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        Theft of both food and desk items was a huge issue at two different large office jobs I had. In the second one, HR and management didn’t care until someone stole the electronics from the break room and they finally put up cameras. I think the correlation is that those big offices had large phone sales and support staff that works in the building. Those roles underpaid, under-appreciated, and have high turnover. I can definitely see some of those people being on their last rope and not giving a shit about stealing from either the company or people they feel have “cushy” jobs.

  • Alice@beehaw.org
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    1 month ago

    I mean the real answer to your question is that those posts are all fake because the internet loves stories about revenge on such a small scale they can’t be disproven.

    But I want to know what kind of job keeps you by the fridge 24/7 so you can always witness food theft. Most people don’t work in the break room, so they have no way of knowing who to yell at when their food disappears.

  • Atomic@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    Never ever been in a place where people take food that isn’t theirs. I cannot even comprehend it. And if it happened more than once I’d keep my food in a backpack at my desk.

    Is it yours? If no don’t touch. Simple as that.

  • MrFunnyMoustache@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    Happened to me too. Didn’t know who it was. I ended up keeping my lunch in my backpack (thermally insulated container), and no one stole my lunch after that.

  • AngryRobot@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    A guy I worked with had his lunch stolen from the freezer one day. He walked around and found the empty container in the trash of a new guy. He was canned that day.

    • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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      That’s poisoning and you absolutely can be held liable for any injury you cause.

      Also, it’s a completely reasonable reason to fire you.

      • hddsx@lemmy.ca
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        1 month ago

        What do you mean? It as a laxative to help me poop. Why are you eating my medicated sandwich?

    • TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 month ago

      Careful, people have been terminated and been sued for this kind of behavior.

      You can make it very very spicy, however, as long as you’re willing to eat it too