Tuesday 8 November 2005

That's private milk

I have boxes of cereal on my desk at work. They're for snacking. I used to buy my own milk to use with them, because I go through more milk that way than my coworkers who just have a bit in coffee. I labelled these private bottles of milk with my own name to make sure people knew that this was not their milk. The problem arises when we run out of office milk. Someone makes their coffee then goes to the fridge for the final touch - the dash of milk - only to discover that there is none left. But wait, there's some over there. It's got someone's name on it, but I'm only using a little bit, and he won't mind.

Multiply that little bit by everyone in the office, times two cups of coffee per day (average) and my milk disappears completely in little bits that I "won't mind giving up". So now I don't bother buying my own milk.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I have considered labelling it differently to deter people.
PPS - Something like "Spider poison" should work well.

3 comments:

Erin Marie said...

Or you could paint it with something that makes people's hands smell bad. Or one day take in something that looks like milk but tastes disgusting so that people drink it and then never drink it again because it's so disgusting.

Of course, this means that your co-workers will think that you're some kind of freak, but I think it's a risk you should be willing to take.

Pstonie said...

You could leave a note on it saying "I spit in this." That'll work until you get to it one day and find a reply: "Me too."

Because no one will mind if someone put some saliva in their spider poison.

You could eat breakfast at home. Or just skip it, like I do.

John said...

Ah, the joys of food security. I like the "revolting substance" idea, but the potential drawback is that someone could open it, decide that the milk is off, and throw it out.

I don't know who's doing it, and it's not really feasible for me to wander around the office inspecting everyone's hands to see if someone is stealing from me.

I do eat breakfast at home, but occasionally I like to have a snack at work while I mull over some problem. Cereal is my current standby for these purposes.

On the whole, probably the stealthy container is best. I'll buy a thermos flask to hide my milk, and people will never even find it. I'd say I've considered this before, but nobody would believe me anyway.