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A photo showing an employee's efforts to stop an alleged food thief at work has gone viral on the popular "Mildly Infuriating" forum on Reddit.
"Co workers keep stealing my work breakfasts," read the title of u/dolo_ran6er's post, which received 10,000 interactions since it was posted on Monday. "Maybe this flow chart will solve the issue."
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) published a piece about how someone can address employees who food from their coworkers.
"Start by educating employees about theft, including that of food, and the employer's position on it," the organization said. "Discuss it at staff meetings and through other communication vehicles, noting that you've informed senior management of the problem."
The SHRM also recommended that employees are dissuaded against pulling food pranks that may be harmful or installing their own surveillance cameras.
The photo shows a flowchart pinned to a box containing a breakfast bowl.
"Is this yours?" read the title of the chart.
Options that read "Yes" and "No" were written underneath the title.
Someone who chose "No" was led to a message that read, "Don't touch it," while someone who chose "Yes" was led to a message that read "No it's not," which then led to the message, "Don't touch it."
"Don't touch it if it's not yours," the bottom of the chart read.
The chart prompted fellow Reddit users to weigh in with their thoughts.
"But now you can't have it either because according to the flowchart it's not yours even if it is," a Redditor pointed out.
"What have I done...," the OP wrote in response.
"I love flowcharts for this very reason," a commenter said.
Others were surprised that the message had to be left in the first place.
"It still blows my mind that people steal food from coworkers," one Redditor wrote.
"I struggle to understand their mindset really," another said. "They make the same amount as the guy they're stealing from, if he can afford lunch so can they."
A Reddit user said they leave notes on their food indicating that they licked their meal, while another suggested they put a fake roach inside the food.
u/dolo_ran6er responded to another commenter who asked if they reported the issue and said that it is not a "regular offense."
"We have a lot of temps come in and out, so chances are the person who did it is long gone by now," they said.
Newsweek reached out to u/dolo_ran6er for further comment.
This is not the first time someone shared that a coworker stole their work meal.
A boss who took his employee's lunch and gave it to his daughter faced backlash on Reddit for accusing his employee of poisoning his daughter after his daughter reportedly suffered a severe allergic reaction to the peanuts in the meal.
One video showed how an employee addressed a coworker who stole his lunches with one added ingredient, while another employee said they "embarrassed" a lunch thief at work.
About the writer
Catherine Ferris is a Newsweek reporter based in New York. Her focus is reporting for the U.S. Trends Team. She ... Read more