Stealing food - new HR title "Food Police"

mbeam · November 2003

Anyone have tips on dealing with missing food items? Periodically we have food that goes AWOL -problem is when it's someone's lunch or food someone bought for a charitable fundraiser. Best three options (none of which is very palatable) is to (a) put in surveilance cameras, (b) discontinue allowing people to sell items for their children's schools or charitable fundraisers or (c) pay for the missing items (non-business expense).

My last suggestion was to put a sign on the refrigerators indicating "beware - company not responsible for missing food".......

Help Please!

marc · November 2003

Your refrigerator message is the way to go, in my humble opinion, or, you could remove the refrigerator all together. You may find forumites suggesting (note their tongue in cheek) that you sabotage some of the food with substances that will identify the culprits.

The refrigerator is a convenience for the EEs, it is not a requirement of the ER to police the use of it, nor to dispose of the old food and tupperware containers that look like science experiement repositories. That is why I say, use your sign idea.

mwild31 · November 2003

I vote for "B" and your last suggestion - the others cost more than the actual problem.

HRsage · November 2003

I agree with the others. Put the sign up, it's their own risk. Unless you want to be the food police.

Parabeagle · November 2003

Go with the sign, definitely. You do NOT want to become the food police, trust me on this! x;-)

Reysa · November 2003

We have SERIOUS food police here (not HR by the way) who go to the trouble of 'baiting' the refrigerator with good-looking food that also has fingerprint dye on the wrappings. That way the thief leaves his autograph on everything he touches after the food. However, I have to say that's an extreme and I don't necessarily recommend it. (Turned out to be a highly compensated person who was stealing the food though and it was quite funny to catch him in the act!)

Don D · November 2003

This is not really an HR issue at all. HR is not the food police any more than they are the dung police or the panty patrol. Adults are aware that anything they bring to work may be stolen. Stuff happens. Move on. Solve HR issues.

mbeam · November 2003

Thanks for the advice.

I agree that there are much bigger fish to fry.

In the past have found that dealing with these minor annoyances (which often are seen as big hairy deals to those on the "giving" side of the food) upfront makes life easier all around.

It also prevents insidious grapevine comments or unwarrented accusations or "scoldings" via e-mail to the 99% of the people working here that wouldn't do something like this.

Guess it was time...had finally redirected the fashion/perfume/cologne comments back to the managers here to take care of & "patrol". We also encourge people to discuss certain matters directly with their co-worker and give tips on how they may want to do this instead of bringing every grievance to management's attention to handle.

ray a · November 2003

On the ocassions I have had complaints about stolen food, I offer my condolences and say that any personal property, including food is not our responsibility. It is unfortunate, but I've taken a disinterested approach - otherwise you can get sucked into problems you shouldn't be involved in. One ee wanted to "doctor" their sandwiches to get back at the thief, but didn't. Usually, in my experience, ee's work these problems out by themselves.

Whatever · November 2003

Put up the sign. The other three are not really reasonable options.

donicek · November 2003

We have similar situations with our breakrooms. We have signs posted on the refrigerators that anyone caught stealing food will be terminated. We also post signs that indicate when our cleaning crew will clean out the refrigerator and to take food items home as it will be thrown out.

HRGirl · November 2003

At my company, we refer to this as "bushwacking"! There are strict rules when it comes to bushwacking and everyone knows them and abides by them. The #1 rule is if it has a name on it....DON'T TOUCH IT..its off limits. When you fling open the 2 frigs here...there are names on everything from salad dressing to ice cream. Put a sign on the frig "No Name...Fair Game!"

moneyman · November 2003

We starting having this problem and put up a sign. The problem continued and we were ready to remove the refrigerator just to get rid of the complaints when we found out that it was the cleaning service! The were also raiding all the desk top candy dishes every night (even took one jar completely). Needless to say, that company (which was bonded) was out of there the very next morning.

Now we just deal with the leftovers that are left so long that they can walk off by themselves. We have designated one department a month that "monitors" the refrigerator. Every friday at last shift, they dump all leftover food (including tupperware containers). Only drinks and condiments are left. This solved the problem real quickly.

Stealing food - new HR title "Food Police"

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