Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

askamanager.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 220 posts

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

#121

Post by acdha »

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.

Here’s what that sounds like when an innocent person does it: “I’m so sorry, your bag looked just like mine and I didn’t notice it until I heated it up. Can I buy you lunch?”

Someone who has to be confronted is just hoping you’ll believe their excuse because that’s worked in the past.

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

#122

Post by cortesoft »

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?

Sure! I have worked in a lot of offices over the years, and most of these have actually happened at least once:

- Someone tells another coworker they can have their lunch, but they grab the wrong one (because the tag fell off or they didn't see the label)

- Someone says there is leftover food available in the kitchen after some catered meal, and the person didn't realize that container wasn't part of it.

- A new employee got confused about which refrigerator is the 'office stocked one' and which one is the 'personal items one'

- It was fridge cleaning day, and the person thought the food was getting tossed out anyway, so they ate it. Turns out the person was going to eat it that day (this one is borderline, not only because it is kinda gross but also kinda not cool)

- Two people had similar lunches and they just grabbed the wrong one without paying a ton of attention (much more common when a group of people go out to lunch together and come back with leftovers)

- A loose, packaged food item got knocked over and fell into someone else's food container.

Some of these are probably pretty rare, but I have seen many of them happen.

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

#123

Post by raarts »

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…

> you've got two weeks

It happens in movies and it always works.

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

#124

Post by mathieuh »

fasj82 wrote: post #67
lbeltrame wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back during my Ph.D. days people stole coffee capsules from others. I remember having a few in my drawer, only to find none the following morning. It can be mind-boggling, but it definitely happens.

Can't compare coffee capsules to food you cooked yourself.

If they were in his drawer though...

I don't know what it is about office spaces that causes latent kleptomania to surface with such regularity.

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

#125

Post by mmanfrin »

LandR wrote: post #107
mathieuh wrote: post #22

Who steals other people's food? This is completely bizarre to me. Do these people do it every day and just never bring their own lunch? Do they just see something that takes their fancy and decide to nick it? The mind boggles.

I work in a shared working space, it's just me using my stuff yet the amount of milk, tea bags and sugar I get through and have to keep buying... Even tried labelling it yet people just to go to fridge or cupboard and help themselves... It's so annoying.

To be fair, if I saw milk in the fridge of a coworking space, I would guess it was communal.

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

#126

Post by btrettel »

aqme28 wrote: post #45
wgerard wrote: post #16

My guess is this falls under the same purview as booby-trapping your house: Yeah, they're committing a felony by breaking into your house, but you're not allowed to setup a "Home Alone" defense system (if nothing else because first responders might need to get into your home). It's dumb in this case because the "booby trap" likely isn't one at all, but at a very cursory glance I could buy that someone would make thei…

Exactly how I read it. Except it wasn't a booby trap. It's like a thief complaining because they crashed the car they stole from you.

Good example.

Another more similar example is if the thief had a food allergy, say peanuts, and they stole a meal containing peanuts and got sick. I don't think most judges would argue that people need to ensure their meals can be eaten by anyone.

Though some schools do ban all peanut products for lunch. I am not a lawyer, obviously.

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

#127

Post by klhutchins »

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?

Takeout box is the same and food is similar. I have the same container and it isn't labeled. Food got moved around. Forgot I didn't bring food that day.

I've caught myself once or twice where I grabbed the wrong thing. But sometimes in a rush, in sleep addled daze, or just not paying attention, it could happen. I would hate to be fired for a mistake like that.

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

#129

Post by yourself92 »

ZetaTwo wrote: post #65
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.

I actually had a boss who stole my lunch. His wife cooks for him so he didn't know/remember what food he was bringing to work and he had the same kind of (IKEA) lunch box as me. He apologized and bought me lunch the next day so it was absolutely fine in the end but there was a moment of confusion and some colleagues mocking me.

I think stealing implies intent, not that it was an accident

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

#130

Post by kickopotomus »

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?

One comes to mind for me. At my office, people will often leave snacks, leftovers, or just food for the office on a table for anyone to take. It's within the realm of possibility that someone may leave their lunch unattended on the table and a passerby may think it's up for grabs.
Post reply on HN