Rude manager!

[DaeOne]

This is on behalf of my niece, Nicki, who works in a restaurant. Yesterday was the birthday of one of the day managers. As everyone likes him, they all chipped in and bought him a cake, cards and small gifts. (He is a nice guy.) "Rex" wanted to wait till after the lunch rush to slice his cake and share it with everyone, as the day and evening shifts overlap about that time. No one would feel slighted if he cut it then. 

"Lucy", a lower manager, under Rex, grew tired of waiting. She went in the back, and proceeded to cut herself a nice chunk of cake, and eat it in front of two servers, one of whom promptly told Rex he needed to check his cake out. 

Rex was crushed! When he questioned Lucy about it, she claimed it was one of the two servers who saw her do it! Kierra was very upset, and told Lucy she didn't appreciate being called a thief. Of course, Lucy tried to laugh it off. 
Rex left, (it was the end of his shift, and he was waiting a little longer to share his cake), and took his cake home with him. No one, other than Lucy, got a slice. 

Perhaps Rex overreacted, but I am so shocked at Lucy's behavior. Talk about uncouth! Makes me wonder what is missing from her life. 

[behindbj]

What's missing in Lucy's life?

If that's the way she normally behaves, I would say...friends?

behindbj

[Verruca]

I am aghast.  I can't imagine anyone thinking it's okay for them to have a slice of birthday cake before even the birthday boy/girl has had a slice, and then lying about it!

I don't think Rex overreacted, although it would have been nice for him to share the remainder of the cake with the others.

[Bijou]

This is on behalf of my niece, Nicki, who works in a restaurant. Yesterday was the birthday of one of the day managers. As everyone likes him, they all chipped in and bought him a cake, cards and small gifts. (He is a nice guy.) "Rex" wanted to wait till after the lunch rush to slice his cake and share it with everyone, as the day and evening shifts overlap about that time. No one would feel slighted if he cut it then. 

"Lucy", a lower manager, under Rex, grew tired of waiting. She went in the back, and proceeded to cut herself a nice chunk of cake, and eat it in front of two servers, one of whom promptly told Rex he needed to check his cake out. 

Rex was crushed! When he questioned Lucy about it, she claimed it was one of the two servers who saw her do it! Kierra was very upset, and told Lucy she didn't appreciate being called a thief. Of course, Lucy tried to laugh it off. 
Rex left, (it was the end of his shift, and he was waiting a little longer to share his cake), and took his cake home with him. No one, other than Lucy, got a slice. 

Perhaps Rex overreacted, but I am so shocked at Lucy's behavior. Talk about uncouth! Makes me wonder what is missing from her life. 

I remember one woman I worked with who was always the first go dive into anything anyone brought in to share and had the gall to cut into someone's birthday cake.  People really were put off by that behavior, so Lucy is probably not too popular right now.

[willow08]

Believe it or not, this became a problem for me at my previous workplace. I decorate cakes on the side and I frequently brought in "practice" cakes to share with my co-workers. (Because I did NOT need that much cake in my house.) All was well and good until I started bringing in birthday or shower cakes for specific individuals. If I stored the cake in the breakroom, no matter how clearly marked it was, people would cut themselves a slice before the scheduled birthday party or shower. there's nothing like toasting someone's birthday over a cake with a big chunk missing. (Edited to add: People would also cut pieces to take home to their families before the intended person could enjoy the cake, which I thought was sort of cheeky.)

After a baby shower in which HALF of a 12-inch round cake was missing, I made little notes to stick on the boxes stating that these cakes were not practice cakes and they were meant for a specific celebration that afternoon, to which everybody was invited and could enjoy cake. One afternoon, I caught two people from another department cutting into a birthday cake, knowing they had to have moved the note out of the way to open the box. I asked what they thought they were doing. Didn't they see the note? Well, yeah, they said, but they were going to be busy later that day and wanted a piece of cake NOOOOOOOOOW. I took the cake and started keeping them in a cool recess under my desk.

[IndianInlaw]

Oh for crying out loud!

I thought it was bad when coworkers would grab up cupcakes before serving time, but CUTTING the darn thing?

[Chocolate Cake]

Lucy is a worm.

Rex, on the other hand, made the mistake of punishing everyone for one person's act when he took the cake home. 

[Yarnspinner]

It's unfortunate Rex took the whole cake home with him, but I CAN understand his anger.  It was kind of mean to punish everyone else, but it is understandable.   Lucy isn't rude.  Or she isn't JUST rude...she's rude, selfish and greedy.  Oh, and a piggy.

One of the "events" held at my place of business is a yearly luncheon the staff caters for themselves.  Some folks make elaborate casseroles and others make elaborate desserts.  And what inevitably happened for many years was that certain senior (read: upwards of 70 years of age) staff as well as retired staff would come in before the event started, ladle up plates and plates to bring home for spouses, kids, puppies, visiting martians and the rest of us got zippedy. 

We had to start charging for each plate.  Then we started charging  twenty five cents per dessert because the same four or five women would then load up plates of brownies, cookies and cake. 

When they left, we enjoyed a few years of having plenty.  But one year a staff member brought in her famous chocoolate brownies.  there were close to five dozen in the plastic container she brought.  When we opened it up to set the brownies out, there were less than a dozen.  We've always had two suspects:

1) the guy who came into fill the soda machines was there
2) A staff member who has a frightful chocolate tooth and loved those brownies was also there.

Brownies were gone after they left.  Big money is on the staff member who developed a beastly stomach ache shortly before the luncheon and had to go home.

Karma?

[DaeOne]

I'd lay money on the co-worker as well. Karma does bite, doesn't it?

DH has a co-worker (unknown, as of yet) who steals lunches from the lounge fridge. DH's lunches haven't been stolen, as I put out the word he is on a special diet, and I would be angry.

I think the co-worker may have moved, as nothing's happened for a few weeks.

[HogwartsAlum]

I guess I'm lucky...I have not had the stolen lunch problem ONCE since I've been here. 

The only thing is that when we get Christmas stuff from vendors, or someone brings something in, often there is not enough to go around.  Sometimes, people on the first break will hog whatever it is so people on the second break don't get anything.

[Phoebe]

I've been at my job for more than 13 years now, we've had a lot of turnover in employees (law enforcement, lots of transfers in/out), and this has ALWAYS been a problem.  There's always a few people who will literally push people out of the way at our annual holiday luncheon so they can be first in line.  Always a few who, instead of taking one cookie or brownie, walk off eating one and carrying away four or five more wrapped up in a napkin in the other hand. 

The kicker, though, was a few years ago when one of the officers came into the breakroom to get his lunch from the fridge.  Someone had opened his bag, unwrapped the sandwich to see what kind it was (apparently didn't like tuna 'cuz it was left in the bag), and took the fruit and soda that were in it!  There's no way it was mistaken as the thief's lunch, as it was all obviously well-handled and opened.  We had our suspicions that it was the same woman who'd come in and walk off with someone's unfinished lunch if the owner of said lunch left the room for a minute.

[Joannie81]

Where I used to work as receptionist we had a big problem with food being stolen out of the staff fridge.  One time, someone stole a frozen dinner and put the empty container back in the freezer with a fork!  Another person said that they went to get the sandwich they had and there was a single bite taken out of it!  These were only 2 occasions, but there were several more.  I heard about them, because staff members would come up to me to see if I had seen anyone taking the stuff.  They finally caught the people responsible.  They were the 2 cleaning staff.  These ladies would come in with fast food and eat it and then later they would "clean" out the fridge.  They were fired.  I was off that day, but I was told that they did not go quietly.  New cleaners were hired and the problems with the food thefts stopped.

[Rach]

I'm always shocked how much this apparently happens 

Greed, disregard and disrespect of others like that makes my skin crawl. I probably care to much about what people think of my behavior, but these people must no care at all! Yuck.

[RegionMom]

Reminds me of the "Friends" epsisode where Ross tries to throw a party to meet tenants in his new bldg., but another one was already planned and Phoebe goes with his to that one.  Ross was already not that well-liked for something, but was really given the cold shoulder for eating a piece of cake before the presentation of it the guest of honor. 
As for "sampled" lunches, I recall another thread where preventative measures were mentioned, and it got pretty funny and ...bad...

I guess this thread really does...
"take the cake!"

Now we all know how that expression came to be.  Rudeness has been around for quite a while!

[Twik]

Another person said that they went to get the sandwich they had and there was a single bite taken out of it! 

I guess that was a message from the cleaners that they should start bringing tastier sandwiches?