'AITA for locking the office snack cabinet after a coworker kept taking whole boxes home?'
"AITA for locking the office snack cabinet after a coworker kept taking whole boxes home?"
I run a small data team, hybrid schedule. We have a tiny budget for morale stuff, so for months I was buying snacks on my own card and expensing part of it. Nothing fancy, just granola bars, tea, sparkling water.
It kept people from running out for junk and it made late afternoons less meh. I also put a little sign that just said "take what you need for today" so then it would last the week.
Enter D. Nice enough in meetings, but the kind of person who treats shared things like free refills. First week back in office he walks out with three seltzers and two bars. I shrug. Second week I notice an empty cardboard sleeve that had twenty trail mix bags. I restock and start paying attention.
Over four Tuesdays in a row the cabinet is half empty by 2 pm and D has a tote bag. I ask him casually if he is grabbing for a team. He laughs and says my kids love these. I say please try to keep it to one or two a day so everyone gets some. He says sure.
It does not change. I try a clearer note. Please one drink and one snack per person per day. That afternoon D jokes that the sign is cute and takes a family pack of fruit strips. My manager tells me to just stop buying snacks if it is a hassle. The problem is people actually like the setup when it lasts, and it costs me time to micromanage.
So I buy a cheap cube cabinet with a lock, leave a daily basket out with a fair amount, and stash the rest in the cabinet for refills. Staff knows the combo. I do not give D the code because he already ignored the limit twice after I asked.
D goes to HR saying I created a hostile environment by excluding him from a shared resource. HR pings me asking for context. I send receipts, the sign photo, and the fact that the snacks are budgeted for work consumption on site, not grocery runs.
HR says to keep a consistent rule and apply it to all. I update the policy in our team chat. Basket is first come first serve, refills at 2 pm, no taking boxes home. D replies that I am policing food and that he has a big family. A few coworkers privately thank me because now the basket lasts all day.
Today D told me I am petty and that I embarrassed him by locking up granola. I said I am just trying to make a shared thing actually shared. He called me a control freak. Now I am second guessing. AITA for locking the cabinet and not giving D the code?
Here’s what people had to say to OP:
NTA. Just stop providing snacks and let the group hate toward him teach him a lesson.
D needs to remember he's the one who had the size of family he did, it's not on the workplace to feed his swarm.
NTA but really I think you need to stop being nice and either a) keep these treats at your desk and share with people as you please, or b) stop footing the bill altogether even if you get to expense it.
D is the reason good things are taken away in offices. Policing people like them just becomes too much of a hassle so people just take the benefit away entirely.
My cousin used to work for Pepsi. When she first started working there you could go to the vending machines and get a free Pepsi any time. Then someone came into the office with large trash bags and filled them with cans of Pepsi and took them home and the machines were changed so you had to pay a quarter a can. Always a jerk who has to ruin it for everyone else….
Tell D he has embarrassed himself for being greedy and all of his coworkers know he is the reason the snacks are now rationed. Point out his family doesn't work there and the snacks are for those that actually produce something for the company.
Alternate answer - Tell D he is the one responsible for feeding his family, not you. Let him know all of his coworkers know he is the reason everything has to be locked up.
If you want to go petty mode. Tell HR you are concerned for D and would like to run a can food drive for them since he has acting like he can't feed his family cause you had to police the snacks.
Then get the whole office involved put up signs about the can food drive and this is to help him during thanksgiving. Also make sure you put healthy foods and can goods to make sure the family can eat healthy. I'm also horrible person.. you are not the jerk.
You are funding a portion of it so what he is doing is stealing, you've given him the rules. Take a snack to get you through the day. It's not a grocery store, it's not snacks to bring home for the kids. You can offer to buy his kids snacks if he wants to pay for what he's bringing home to them.
I keep a candy jar at my cubby for everyone. Most people just take one piece at a time, but one Monday I came to work with two bags of candy to refill the jar. I sat them down and went to put my lunch away before I clocked in and refilled the jar and got to work. When I came back, one of the bags was gone! Like, wtf??
I know who did it too cos I saw them walking through as I was going to lunch room. I can't prove it, it wasn't worth it to make a fuss, but you better believe I didn't set the bags down anywhere near the candy jar anymore. Who would honestly believe that the whole bag of candy was for the taking??