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A coworker stole my spicy food, got sick, and is blaming me (2016)

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Re: A coworker stole my spicy food, got sick, and is blaming me (2016)

#81

Post by pjc50 »

sh4z wrote: post #20
seattle_spring wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They noticed food being stolen from the fridge and he purposely put extremely hot spice in the food for the purpose of getting back at the perpetrator. Even if that were the case (which I doubt), why is that wrong? On what planet is it OK to defend the actions of the thief?

Is it not always wrong to cause someone harm? edit: If he would have poisoned the food and the thief died, would that be ok? I guess the point I'm trying to make is that if he did purposely contaminate the food in order to get back at the thief, instead of just talking to him about it, the talk with HR seems justified.

It wasn't contaminated, merely spiced; assuming the story about him eating some himself to demonstrate that it was his normal (hot) level of spice. The idiot here is someone eating something that is obviously far too spicy for them - which is not going to be a secret, something obvious from the first bite.

Re: A coworker stole my spicy food, got sick, and is blaming me (2016)

#82

Post by s2g »

cortesoft wrote: post #40
seattle_spring wrote: post #14

Kind of orthogonal to the story, but anyone who steals lunch or food from a co-worker should be fired immediately. There's a 0% chance that someone who steals others' stuff is a good, honest person in other parts of their life.

Mistakes happen. There are all sorts of ways you could accidentally eat someone else's lunch, and having a 'zero tolerance' policy is a good way to end up firing an innocent person.

But the person who makes a mistake should be willing to own up to it and buy the other person a new lunch, at least.

Re: A coworker stole my spicy food, got sick, and is blaming me (2016)

#83

Post by lutorm »

cortesoft wrote: post #40
seattle_spring wrote: post #14

Kind of orthogonal to the story, but anyone who steals lunch or food from a co-worker should be fired immediately. There's a 0% chance that someone who steals others' stuff is a good, honest person in other parts of their life.

Mistakes happen. There are all sorts of ways you could accidentally eat someone else's lunch, and having a 'zero tolerance' policy is a good way to end up firing an innocent person.

Do tell, which are a couple of those ways that someone might accidentally pick someone else's lunch box, open it, and start eating some unknown food without realizing?

Re: A coworker stole my spicy food, got sick, and is blaming me (2016)

#84

Post by dredmorbius »

wl78393 wrote: post #36

If you crowd rats together in a small cage (the modern open office) they will start irrationally attacking and abusing each other. 95% of office dysfunction can be explained by this.

John B Calhoun's "utopia" experiments.

https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Escaping+the+Laboratory%3a+th...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_B._Calhoun

https://youtube.com/watch?v=0Z760XNy4VM

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-doomed-mouse-utopi...

Re: A coworker stole my spicy food, got sick, and is blaming me (2016)

#85

Post by jlebrech »

lkrubner wrote: post #46

One mystery that continues to fascinate me is when people at work say things to me that are obviously irrational -- are they sincere or is it some kind of manipulative power play? I've had managers ask me things such as "When will the rebuild of the website be done" and I answer "In two months" and they say "You have two weeks" and I say "Maybe 6 weeks, but not 2" and then they repeat "You've got two weeks." I wonder…

do it in 14 business days.

Re: A coworker stole my spicy food, got sick, and is blaming me (2016)

#86

Post by pjc50 »

SwellJoe wrote: post #19
apandhi wrote: post #6

The update to the post can be found here: http://www.askamanager.org/2016/10/update-a-coworker-stole-m... TLDR: Guy gets his job back and a generous raise (almost double his paycheck) after getting fired and threatening legal action.

It's literally incredible that they fired someone for having their lunch stolen. It's great that sanity prevailed, but gods what a ridiculous situation. I hope whoever that HR person was is never employed in a position of authority again. The lunch thief is bad, but the HR person is much, much, worse. I'm still mad over here just thinking about it.

That's what at-will employment means. Really he was fired for crossing the power structure of the office, which is always a disaster even if it's a secret power structure.

Re: A coworker stole my spicy food, got sick, and is blaming me (2016)

#88

Post by xir78 »

jobowoo wrote: post #4

There's an update to the original post. What a lovely ending to the story. http://www.askamanager.org/2016/10/update-a-coworker-stole-m...

It’s so far over the top, it’s hard to see returning rather than thanking them for the mela cupola and moving on.

Re: A coworker stole my spicy food, got sick, and is blaming me (2016)

#89

Post by tom_ »

sh4z wrote: post #20
seattle_spring wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They noticed food being stolen from the fridge and he purposely put extremely hot spice in the food for the purpose of getting back at the perpetrator. Even if that were the case (which I doubt), why is that wrong? On what planet is it OK to defend the actions of the thief?

Is it not always wrong to cause someone harm? edit: If he would have poisoned the food and the thief died, would that be ok? I guess the point I'm trying to make is that if he did purposely contaminate the food in order to get back at the thief, instead of just talking to him about it, the talk with HR seems justified.

But he didn't poison the food.

Re: A coworker stole my spicy food, got sick, and is blaming me (2016)

#90

Post by vorpalhex »

dpeck wrote: post #61
cortesoft wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mistakes happen. There are all sorts of ways you could accidentally eat someone else's lunch, and having a 'zero tolerance' policy is a good way to end up firing an innocent person.

| There are all sorts of ways you could accidentally eat someone else's lunch Want to give us some examples?

Same lunch box as someone else. In an office of 7 people, I had the same lunch box as two coworkers. Have someone else make your lunch or bring a generic enough item and it could happen.

Honest mixups happen and when they are followed up with an apology then it's fine. Let common sense prevail.

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