Is it ‘peak pettiness’? Picture of padlocked milk in the office fridge sparks controversy

Some people go to extraordinary lengths to stop colleagues from stealing their food and milk from the office fridge. Picture: Pexels Polina Tankilevitch

Some people go to extraordinary lengths to stop colleagues from stealing their food and milk from the office fridge. Picture: Pexels Polina Tankilevitch

Published May 19, 2023

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Some people go to extraordinary lengths to stop colleagues from stealing their food and milk from the office fridge.

One Reddit user recently posted a picture of a padlocked milk bottle at work so that no one else can have any.

In the picture, there are a couple of milk bottles with normal screw tops, but on the middle one, a worker has put a specially adapted padlock that is secured with a U-shaped bar going through the handle – meaning it can only be opened with a key.

Sharing a snap of the padlocked milk on the website, user u/Vented55 asked users: “Peak pettiness or justifiable security in the office kitchen?”

Peak pettiness or justifiable security in the office kitchen?
by u/Vented55 in CasualUK

And it is safe to say that opinions were mixed, with some people commenting that they were a little baffled by the move, while others were all for it.

One user wrote: “It’s kind of both at once. 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. A 12-hour shift with no food ain’t a joke.”

A second user wrote: “For the cost of milk, it still amazes me that some employers don’t just provide it… surely having your workers waste energy with such (necessary) nonsense has to be more costly than a few quid on milk.”

“I find kitchen politics to be so strange. It’s so straightforward and rules should be in place, but we like to mock each other for expecting basic respect, like imagine having to go to these lengths?” commented a third.