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Old 09-06-2013, 01:22 PM
 
Location: Niagara Region
1,376 posts, read 2,150,205 times
Reputation: 4847

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These stories are great!! I haven't worked in an office for decades but still remember the pot luck parties and the daily aromas and odours of all the different types of ethnic foods being heated up at lunchtime.

We had a very outgoing (polite word) receptionist who made sure she gathered up all the leftover cakes and goodies for her "beautiful" children. She was the type who contributed to these events by providing the paper plates. Come to think of most of the young single guys would provide the drinks, chips, dips, cups etc. There would always be some suspicious-looking macaroni/bean/potato salad absolutely covered in paprika and firmly squished into a rectangular Tupperware container.. they usually ended up not tasting too good and there would be tons left over. I'd feel a bit sad about those and always try to take some.

Out of an office of 70-80 people, about 10 were outstanding cooks and providers, and everything they brought would be eaten. lol. My favorites were the Indonesian dishes full of cilantro and hot spices. Mmmmmm.

Normal lunch times I recall RUNNING from the office to avoid the stench of microwave popcorn (but there were only a handful of us who objected so the majority ruled and it stayed forever). Just as bad were these terrible smelling preserved Chinese radishes (Daikon) - absolutely reeked of a sewer-like smell. Apparently they tasted amazing but I never had the courage to try.

Then there were the nightly fridge raiders. These were usually programmers and journalists working into the early hours of the next day. They had no qualms about helping themselves to food belonging to others. A small jar of breast milk was strategically placed by one offended woman, and yes, we all got a chuckle when it was almost gone the next day.

Ahhhhh, those were the days!
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Old 09-06-2013, 01:53 PM
 
Location: Oakland, CA
28,226 posts, read 36,712,865 times
Reputation: 28561
I had a very weird coworker many moons ago. Once of her eccentricities? She only ate frozen food daily at lunch. Hot pockets and lean cuisines only. I worked with her for about 5 years. And other than the occasionally company lunch, she did not vary during those 5 years.

She also had issues with people putting their own frozen food on top of hers. As in she did not want other boxes on top of hers. You know, because our lunches had cooties.
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Old 09-06-2013, 03:21 PM
 
Location: Raleigh, NC
19,372 posts, read 27,598,439 times
Reputation: 35972
When I was a firm administrator for a CPA firm, I discovered that one of the tax staff had brought in his own little mini-fridge and hidden it under his desk.

When I asked him why, he replied that he was a vegetarian and didn't want his food "contaminated" by the food in our large, office fridge. Additionally, he had put a lock on the thing.

I reported this little dilemma to legal at headqufarters so that they could deal with it. Always helpful, they told me to grab a partner to serve as a witness and ask (read: demand) that he unlock and open the fridge. After a few minutes, he complied.

It was filled with beer.

I was astonished when the partner laughed, told him to take the beer and the fridge home and we'd see him tomorrow. I was less amazed when he was fired a few months later for doing crappy work.
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Old 09-06-2013, 06:00 PM
 
Location: San Antonio, TX
11,495 posts, read 26,739,577 times
Reputation: 28029
I was working in a liquor store when I was pregnant. My manager thought she was a great cook and it was her mission to feed the pregnant woman. I had to choke down things I never would have eaten otherwise...banana pudding, rice pudding, salads that were more mayo than anything else, weird hamburger patties in sauce, etc. I ate it all in the name of getting along. One day it was someone's birthday and the manager had baked a red velvet cake. She used unsweetened cream cheese as frosting, which pulled up the crumbs and left the whole thing looking like roadkill. I told her I couldn't eat it because I was having a glucose tolerance test the next day (a lie), but she insisted as long as I ate some cheese that night, it would even everything out, and she cut a huge slice and put it on a plate for me. I decided to be brave and go ahead and eat it. The cake was mushy and there were huge blobs of thick, cold cream cheese that glued it to your mouth and throat. I kept swallowing and swallowing and it just wouldn't go anywhere.

Our break area was a really small table set up next to the door to the one-seater bathroom. I'm afraid the sounds of me getting violently ill were clear to everyone, not just my coworkers, but the deliverymen and salesmen who she had invited to the party. My manager didn't talk to me much after that and she never offered me food again. Instead, I had to run the register whenever she brought food for everyone else to eat.
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Old 09-06-2013, 06:06 PM
 
Location: Alaska
5,193 posts, read 5,724,325 times
Reputation: 7676
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jkgourmet View Post
When I was a firm administrator for a CPA firm, I discovered that one of the tax staff had brought in his own little mini-fridge and hidden it under his desk.

When I asked him why, he replied that he was a vegetarian and didn't want his food "contaminated" by the food in our large, office fridge. Additionally, he had put a lock on the thing.

I reported this little dilemma to legal at headqufarters so that they could deal with it. Always helpful, they told me to grab a partner to serve as a witness and ask (read: demand) that he unlock and open the fridge. After a few minutes, he complied.

It was filled with beer.

I was astonished when the partner laughed, told him to take the beer and the fridge home and we'd see him tomorrow. I was less amazed when he was fired a few months later for doing crappy work.
LOL!

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Old 09-06-2013, 06:17 PM
 
Location: Alaska
5,193 posts, read 5,724,325 times
Reputation: 7676
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vectoris View Post
These stories are great!! I haven't worked in an office for decades but still remember the pot luck parties and the daily aromas and odours of all the different types of ethnic foods being heated up at lunchtime.

....

Then there were the nightly fridge raiders. These were usually programmers and journalists working into the early hours of the next day. They had no qualms about helping themselves to food belonging to others. A small jar of breast milk was strategically placed by one offended woman, and yes, we all got a chuckle when it was almost gone the next day.

Ahhhhh, those were the days!

Oh my - that is hilarious!

Was the 'baby' ever identified?

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Old 09-06-2013, 08:53 PM
 
491 posts, read 1,165,617 times
Reputation: 291
Co-workers (unidentified and unrepentant) taking other people's food (clearly marked with their names and the date) from the communal fridges? Check. They didn't even have the decency to leave our Tupperware containers in the sink for us -- they got rid of all the evidence!

People who show up out of nowhere when they get the slightest little whiff of any food -- cupcakes, chips -- even when they work on the other side of the room and rarely if ever have any contact with us? Check. The worst is when we bring in food for an occasion -- someone's last night, a birthday -- and the "other-side-of-the-roomers" don't even think to ask "What's the celebration for?" and don't congratulate the birthday person, don't ask if they can take something and don't say thank you. I now usually bring in stuff only on my weekend day, when those types are not around. I just don't feel like feeding the entire company, thank you. I'm not selfish, I just expect better manners all around.

At a previous place of employment, the boss posted a sign that said "No smelly food." When you're working in tight quarters, I don't think it's such an imposition to eat your fish on one of your days off. I don't want to smell it, and I don't want anything I might bring in to offend anyone else. Think about sitting next to someone who had microwaved salmon every day at her desk (yes, she had no qualms -- it was her right, yes, but some consideration would have been nice).

One other thing: When you folks have potlucks at work (we have them frequently on holidays that we have to work), do you see people pitching in to clean up where the dishes were set up? Or do they think that the office-cleaning workers are eager to take care of it?

Thank you for letting me rant -- I'm not mean-spirited, really, but this stuff just shows how ill-mannered some people were brought up to be.
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Old 09-06-2013, 09:01 PM
 
Location: In a house
13,250 posts, read 42,643,690 times
Reputation: 20198
I picked up a frozen single-serve tuna-noodle casserole thing from Smart Ones - it was on sale for $1.75. Had no idea it would reek SO strongly of - well - tuna-noodle casserole. It was like they added essential oil of tuna-noodle casserole, because they didn't think it'd smell enough like the real deal to convince anyone and had to enhance it.

I never brought another one of those to work again. It didn't taste too offensive, as frozen lunches go. But man that smell - I'm just glad I still have my job
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Old 09-06-2013, 09:01 PM
 
Location: League City, Texas
2,919 posts, read 5,914,428 times
Reputation: 6259
These are great! Years ago, a co-worker had a plate of baked chicken & veg. She left it in the break room while she ran to get a cold drink. After returning after a minute or so, she found her chicken, still on the plate, right where she left it. But someone had removed all the chicken skin.
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Old 09-06-2013, 09:09 PM
 
Location: Lemon Heights, Orange County, CA
805 posts, read 1,553,088 times
Reputation: 1303
A number of years ago I was warming up a steak in the microwave when (I'm a white female, yes, it is relevant) a black male co worker strolled in and asked what I was heating. I told him a steak, to which he replied "seriously? I thought white women only ate pasta salads"! He was totally serious and it was bloody hysterical.
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