'Petty' office worker who padlocks their milk in communal fridge sparks debate

One man’s ingenuity is another man’s pettiness, according to a debate that has been raging on social media.

The dispute centres on the drastic measures taken by one office worker to protect a treasured belonging from thieving colleagues.

We all know the pain of gasping for a cuppa, or making a bowl of cereal, only to find there’s no milk left in the fridge.

So to avoid such torture, the worker fixed a lock onto their bottle of Tesco semi-skimmed.

We can only imagine the resulting whispers in the communal kitchen, but most internet commentators condoned the move.

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A photo of the clever fortress was shared to Reddit last week under the headline: “Peak pettiness or justifiable security in the office kitchen?”

It racked up 15,000 upvotes and 2,100 comments in five days, as users shared their tales of workplace food swipes.

“It's kind of both at once,” one commentator wrote in response to the caption’s question. “If people didn't take what's not theirs there would be no need. I wouldn't go that far with milk but people lost food at the last place I was at. 12-hour shift with no food ain't a joke.”

Another reminisced: “[I] worked at the Transport for London HQ for 5 years. I was f**king amazed at how many people's lunches went missing from the fridge.”

A third recalled: “I once worked in a factory where the boss said if you want tea/coffee you gotta supply your own. Not a happy workforce. A week later I caught the t**t red-handed taking the foil off my milk.”

A fourth said: “As someone who used to buy a 2 pints of milk every week, only for it to be completely empty by Wednesday morning, I totally understand the rationale.”

And a fifth wrote: “I'm always happy to share my milk in the office, but the amount of times I have found that MY milk which I bought is completely empty with no replacement offered/available makes me feel this is completely justified. Nothing worse than making a cuppa only to find that someone finished the milk and left you high and dry (of milk).”

Others suggested defending your milk from thieves is no different to locking up any other personal items.

“It's not any more petty than using a locker to store your belongings, or locking up your bike. It's not petty to stop people from stealing your stuff,” said one.

“Exactly. We really need some people to have a change of attitude about stuff like this,” agreed another. “ It's not ‘petty’ to lock your stuff away to prevent it being stolen. I think this c**py attitude comes from a lot of people who are annoyed they can't just steal stuff any more.”

Meanwhile, others admitted to going to similar lengths themselves.

“I bought an Udderlok for my milk at work and it worked fine for a few weeks,” one said. “But then I think some thief took it as a challenge and pretty much ripped the carton apart to steal the milk.”

All this is enough to make anyone want to just work from home.

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