Hot take: putting a passive-aggressive note on your food in the office fridge should be a fireable offense.
By @tateyy · Work
I'm not even talking about a simple name label. I'm talking about the full-blown, ALL CAPS, highlighted manifestos on a bag with a $4 sandwich in it. It's performative and makes the entire office feel like a kindergarten classroom with a narc.
The full story
I just went to the office kitchen to grab my lunch and was confronted with another masterpiece of passive aggression. Someone had taken a sharpie and written on their brown paper bag: "DO NOT EAT. THIS IS NOT YOURS. I AM WATCHING YOU." complete with a little hand-drawn angry face. Inside was, I'm guessing, a sad turkey sandwich and a bag of chips. Let's be clear. I don't condone lunch theft. It's wrong. But this level of theatricality is, in my opinion, a far greater crime against the office ecosystem. It's a public declaration that you believe you work with a bunch of untrustworthy goblins who are just waiting to steal your precious Yoplait. It poisons the well. It's an instant injection of negative, accusatory energy into what should be a neutral space. There are levels to it, too. There's the cutesy-but-still-annoying "Hands off my grub!:) " note. There's the foreboding, quasi-legal "Property of [Name]" label. And then there's today's masterpiece, which basically implies there's a sniper in the ceiling vents protecting a half-eaten bag of pretzels. My core argument is this: The communal office fridge is, by nature, a place of benign chaos. It's a social experiment. Things get pushed to the back. Things are forgotten. Sometimes, someone in a rush might grab the wrong carton of milk. It happens. If you are so precious about your organic, single-origin, artisanal kombucha that you need to post a TSA-style warning on it, then the problem isn't your coworkers. It's you. At that point, you have forfeited your right to use the communal space. Just get a mini-fridge for your cubicle or bring one of those insulated lunch bags with an ice pack. Stop making the breakroom a theater for your personal trust issues. It's a shared space, not your personal panic room. I said what I said.
How people voted
- Valid Take — 31% (40 votes)
- I’m Torn — 35% (45 votes)
- Bad Take — 35% (45 votes)
Readers are split: “I’m Torn” leads with 35% — 130 votes and 5 comments so far.
What people are saying
@yepokay — I feel like people don't just start doing this for no reason; someone's lunch probably got stolen before.
@elijahbye — If people kept their hands off things that didn't belong to them, this wouldn't be an issue.
@zanehm — OMG we had a person who would put post-it notes on every single one of her diet cokes in the fridge. some people are just extra lol
@emilyy — I'm with you, that kind of attitude just makes the whole office feel tense and unpleasant.
@danayy — Is lunch theft actually a recurring problem there?
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