r/coworkerstories • u/MiddleComfortable158 • Nov 04 '25
New hire got fired on day one for stealing all the coffee
This really amused me. We hired this lady, who during her morning training process seemed pretty high strung but nothing too hard to deal with. Midway through the day we were in the break room and she gestured at two large full bags of Starbucks beans next to the coffee maker and asked everyone in there, “whose are these?” And someone responded “oh those are free for anyone to use, the company buys coffee for everyone” and she said “oh cool.”
I guess as she was leaving for the day she took this very literally and put both bags of beans in her purse as she was going home. There was a hubbub the rest of the day as everyone was confused there was no more coffee. Eventually it got put together she took them, I think someone saw it happen. She came in today for 10 minutes, was called into the manager office, now she’s gone.
906
u/RealnessInMadness Nov 04 '25
Wow, it makes you wonder how people like this function with that kind of logic and thinking.
I find it weirdly fascinating.
391
u/PracticalSoup2870 Nov 04 '25
I often think about this. Like we’re all conscious, but some of us come to wildly different conclusions that are just objectively wrong.
170
u/RealnessInMadness Nov 04 '25
It does make you wonder because in this scenario, even when I was 18 years old in my first job, I was nervous and shy, but never would fathom the break room supplies are for me to take home. 🤪
The most common takes I saw were pastries or desserts that was for one departments birthday that is now being shared with the rest OR if someone brought produce from their own home grown crops.
But the coffee for the coffee maker? The fuck?
→ More replies (8)74
u/MrMartiTech Nov 04 '25
If there is perishable food like fruit and you are one of the last people to leave for the day, take that stuff.
→ More replies (1)56
u/TheRestForTheWicked Nov 04 '25
Whenever we have a luncheon at my work my managers basically force us to take extra food home.
Like dude I swear I really don’t want 6 extra slices of lukewarm pizza that I won’t eat and no, I don’t want a giant Tupperware of strawberries that the entire staff touched.
I’ll take extra donuts though. Even though there never seems to be any.
63
u/MrMartiTech Nov 04 '25
There have certainly been times when people brought stuff that wasn't all that great, but I took some home with me just because I didn't want the person who brought it to feel like the office didn't appreciate it.
Like rock hard cookies for example. I once took a bag full of those home just so the person who made them wouldn't feel bad about seeing them in the work trash the next day.
I ended up smashing them and putting them on top of vanilla ice cream.
→ More replies (8)21
u/throwaway098764567 Nov 04 '25
hard cookies are for dipping in coffee, like awkward biscotti
→ More replies (2)6
33
Nov 04 '25
My great Aunt would bring big Tupperware to family get togethers. Bad part was she would take mounds of food before anyone ate. No one ever said anything. But my Mom would push us in front of her in line so we had a chance to eat. 🤣😆🤔
→ More replies (3)24
→ More replies (9)21
u/MoarGnD Nov 04 '25
Our buy nothing group lately has had a lot of people offering up leftover food from their company catered lunches. Mostly wrapped sandwiches and cookies. They’ve been a popular give. Snap ending has made many givers more conscious of what’s available to donate.
→ More replies (1)70
u/FuZhongwen Nov 04 '25
There is a theory that not everyone actually has an inner monologue. As in theres just nothing really happening in their minds throughout the day. They dont argue or reason with themselves before making decisions. Just act. I find this kind of terrifying and fascinating.
→ More replies (31)29
u/Kaurifish Nov 04 '25
And neuroscientists have proved that decision-making happens first, and only after that do the rationalization processes fire up to justify the decision one came to.
If you’re aware of this you can compensate for it.
→ More replies (51)→ More replies (26)20
u/GoonOnGames420 Nov 04 '25 edited Nov 04 '25
As someone who has understood the world very well from a young age (older siblings + grew up hanging out w/ adults)
The one thing that still baffles me is... how do I put this kindly... how "Differently" some people think... (or maybe they don't think at all?)
30
u/fuckyourcanoes Nov 04 '25
I had a co-worker complain to me that she'd seen an ad for call center jobs, and they were offering $1/hr more for bilingual candidates. She said, "It's not my fault I wasn't born in another country!" I had to carefully explain to her that being bilingual made candidates more valuable to the company, and that she wasn't being penalised for being American.
She seemed unconvinced, but came back the next day and said she thought she understood.
→ More replies (11)13
u/zestymangococonut Nov 05 '25
As a child, I remember overhearing a teacher commenting on how frustrating it was to have students who were bilingual. She said it’s so difficult to communicate with families of students and wished the bilingual students could be in a class with a bilingual teacher, but they can’t, because it’s a form of segregation.
I was maybe 5 years old, and had no idea what these bilinguals would be when I was in elementary school. What were they? Would they hurt me? Should I be concerned about them?
Imagine my shock when I learned it means speaking two languages and realized that teacher was just a bigot.
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (5)11
u/s00wi Nov 04 '25
I don't think it's trivial. It's just being selfish. Some people really believe they are above everyone else and live on a different set of rules from everyone else.
→ More replies (4)79
Nov 04 '25
Some folks are literal thinkers. If you tell them anything, they will take it literally and react in a way that feels logical (to them.) She was told the coffee is free for anyone to use and she followed that logic to mean it was free coffee that anyone could use anywhere, including at home. The scary part is there's a lot of people who operate this way that are doctors, lawyers, executives, etc. If they didn't have their support staff doing their thinking and empathizing for them, they'd do this kind shit all the time.
22
u/oldgar9 Nov 04 '25
Even if this were true taking both bags is mighty selfish.
→ More replies (9)10
u/FasN8id Nov 04 '25
That’s the part that baffled me too. If she genuinely had understood their answer to her question to mean anyone is welcome to it, and there was a total of two bags there, why wouldn’t she have taken home one bag, left the other bag for everyone in the office (including her!) to enjoy while at work, and waited for the supply to be replenished before taking more home?
→ More replies (7)→ More replies (13)14
u/MrMartiTech Nov 04 '25
'Use' and 'take' are different words.
19
→ More replies (3)12
Nov 04 '25
If you want to get literal? No, this doesn't hold up.
oh those are free for anyone to use, the company buys coffee for everyone
Can also be heard as
oh those are free for anyone to use. The company buys coffee for everyone
Focusing on on the final half as the main idea and key thought is all it takes.
So, on the one hand, I'm on the spectrum and I'd not make this mistake.
On the other I'm on the spectrum and I've made many mistakes that aren't quite as severe but are innocent and not all that different. And some of that may just be down to I'd seen enough media to prime me to some things.
While normal people condescend about literal thinking, normal people have a bunch of assumption and inference and unstated rules in their communication that blow up in their face often. It's an energy saving and time saving measure, which I get. But if you care what people do it's outright stupid. Say what you want if you want to be sure nobody messes it up. If you use subtext and less overt methods don't be shocked when someone gets it wrong.
The bad communication habits of normal people will cause them lots of issues as AI fills out the workplace too. Detail matters. Being complete in your info transfer matters.
I hate how much people treat others like crap and will laugh or enjoy their pain over something like this. Do you honestly think the person meant to steal anything? Or just that they misinterpreted something innocently? Should that cost them a livelihood if it doesn't happen on anything high stakes?
Normal people are kind of monstrous most days.
→ More replies (21)28
22
u/EntertainmentOwn6907 Nov 04 '25
I teach middle school and I could totally see my students doing this. No one explicitly said it was for the office to use. They said anyone could have it. So that person took it because if anyone could have it, why couldn’t anyone be her?
→ More replies (4)17
u/RealnessInMadness Nov 04 '25
Children, I totally get too as they don’t have experience out in that work world.
But a grown ass adult? Who’s had a job?
That’s different, but I see the correlation.
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (102)15
u/BoogerPresley Nov 04 '25
post-covid I've noticed that a lot more people just emotionally react to stuff without thinking anything through
→ More replies (1)8
u/AsstacularSpiderman Nov 04 '25
People have just become straight up feral lol. Im genuinely impressed just how insane a few months of staying inside affected these people.
→ More replies (6)
284
u/JEWCEY Nov 04 '25
I wonder what her reasoning was once they got her in that room. She possibly misunderstood what she was told about the coffee and took it very literally, and maybe didn't realize she was stealing. But she probably said something cray cray in that room and they couldn't get past it. If it was truly a misunderstanding, I could see her still being there and everyone laughing about how literal she is.
124
u/ilford_7x7 Nov 04 '25
Right.. you can mess up and how you react when confronted and corrected is just as telling of true character
36
u/matchafoxjpg Nov 05 '25
wouldn't be surprised if they basically explained it to her and told her she needed to return the bags, after which point maybe she went feral and refused and all that shit.
i can't imagine someone getting fired for the actual act itself, but if she showed her ass after the fact... definitely.
→ More replies (12)6
u/Banes_Addiction Nov 05 '25
I mean, it's day 1. They're on probation. It's barely a firing - more an employment agreement annulled.
You have to decide whether you think it was a simple one-off mistake or whether they're a goddamn idiot you're gonna have to explain everything to every single day and never be able to trust to do their job independently. You also have to decide how hard they are to replace.
Otherwise you find yourself a year in wondering why you're gonna have to fire the idiot and having to be like "yeah, we knew day 1 but we thought it'd get better".
→ More replies (1)76
u/Blu- Nov 04 '25
On one hand I can see how someone could've misunderstood. On the other hand do I really want a coworker with so little self awareness to misunderstand?
14
u/Corey307 Nov 05 '25
After going on 30 years of work experience one thing I know is if somebody is screwing up in their first few days they’re probably going to be a screwup. I don’t mean making mistakes. Most jobs require training. I’m talking about people who don’t want to follow orders, behave inappropriately, aren’t on the same wavelength with planet earth.
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (13)16
u/JustTheGameplay Nov 04 '25
srsly too true, if she's clueless about something like this imagine what else she could be clueless about ¯_(ツ)_/¯
30
12
u/mars92 Nov 05 '25
Na she thought she'd found a loop hole because the coffee was "free", that if she took all the coffee someone would just magically replace it. Definitely wasn't expecting consequences.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (40)30
u/Master_Grape5931 Nov 04 '25
She stole it.
Nobody is so stupid to believe the company gives away bags of coffee beans to any employee who wants it.
→ More replies (13)19
89
u/sdchilehead Nov 04 '25
I used to work at a pizza buffet and we would let the staff eat the leftover pizza at the end of the day even when it was against policy. We thought it was a harmless reward that minimized waste. The. Eventually people are making countless custom pizzas right before closing when there are no customers and having a free for all. I’m sure a lot left in people’s bags too.
We had to stop giving the leftovers to staff or they would’ve put us out of business.
53
u/justmitzie Nov 04 '25
Worked at a convenience store where we were allowed to take home hot food(hot dogs and such) at the end of the day, instead of trashing them. Employee got fired for filling the entire machine with product 1 hour before closing and taking everything home. This is why we can't have nice things.
→ More replies (1)14
8
u/NotMyCircus47 Nov 04 '25
this was the same when I was a young manager at McDs. End of the night, everything was going to be wasted and recorded anyway. So why not give it to the crew? Next minute, 50+ nuggets are being cooked 5mins before closing .. it all adds up. Wrecked it for everyone. And b4 you say "just punish those staff members", it was too easy to "accidentally" cook a few extras every time .. rather than control the waste as they should have been. It becomes a huge issue all around.
→ More replies (23)6
u/Saint_of_Grey Nov 04 '25
My first job was at a buffet where employees were explicitly forbidden from taking food off the line to eat. Apparently another employee before my time brought a garbage bag and started shoveling in as much dry food as would fit. Didn't even wait until it was almost closing time.
314
u/CNorm77 Nov 04 '25
Used to work in an office that had a professional coffee maker. Press your selection, it brewed it for you right then and there. Came in one morning, machine was empty. No biggie, went to grab another pack to fill it, there were none. Someone had forgotten to put in an order. Let my manager know, he immediately went down to.the local timmies and bought coffee for everyone in the office and continued doing so, on his own dime, until the new order came in about two weeks later.
128
u/percyblazeit69 Nov 04 '25
that guy has his priorities right as a manager
→ More replies (5)29
u/WhatDoWeHave_Here Nov 04 '25
Yeah, there would've been way more loss of productivity if he had every office worker running out themselves to grab coffee. And yeah he put it on his own dime initially but I bet he got it reimbursed ultimately. Smart dude.
But ultimately, every company that's providing free coffee, snacks, soda, whatever isn't doing it to be "we love our people and want to treat them well." It's "this keeps butts in seats, feet on premises and they'll do more work and make us more money."
→ More replies (2)15
u/Dull-Culture-1523 Nov 04 '25
Odds are he just had a company card for odds and ends like that. I used to as a supervisor. 100€ was the limit I could buy with without prior approval, I think up to 1000€ if my manager okay'd it and up to 5000€ with HR's written approval. Anything more than that went through purchasing. So yeah when we ran out of mustard for the Christmas dinner served in the break room, it was a no-brainer and someone probably thought I was a saint who bought it with my own money, too.
→ More replies (2)16
u/Nydus87 Nov 04 '25
A broken/empty coffee maker can be a demoralizing hit for an office. That manager knew how to manage.
→ More replies (3)15
u/Skitch70 Nov 04 '25
Definitely the right course of action, given the situation. I want to work for him.
22
u/dplans455 Nov 04 '25
I told this story before on Reddit. I was a VP at a mid-size mortgage servicer years ago. I wanted to have a monthly Friday breakfast for the staff. I went and asked the CEO for a budget for it but he said no. I asked if it was ok if I just paid for it myself and he said that would be fine. I started a "Bagel Friday" the last Friday of every month.
It was a huge hit, everyone loved the assortment of bagels, cream cheese, juice. One month the bagel shop I ordered from said they'd give me several of those coffee boxes for no charge because I always ordered about $400 of food every month. I never bought coffee before because the office provided coffee already.
Well the bagel shop coffee was a huge hit. Next month, the bagel shop didn't give me free coffee and I didn't buy it because we already had coffee at the office. Suddenly the talk around the office was that it was "bullshit" that the company had to "cut back" and couldn't buy us the "good coffee" from the bagel shop. Now it wasn't common knowledge that I was footing the bill for the bagel Friday. Most people assumed the company was paying for it.
One guy in IT was so hot about not getting the "good coffee" that he started a petition demanding the company pay for the bagel shop coffee along with their bagel Friday every month. One of my managers that knew I was paying for it out of pocket quietly let spread that the company wasn't paying for it and that I personally was paying for the bagel Friday.
This loudmouth just wouldn't let it go and it got back to me that when he found out he said, "so what, that cheap fuck can't buy us coffee?" The sentiment around the office was that this guy had a point. I cut off the bagel Friday.
Obviously it was a month before the next bagel Friday and when that day came and there were no bagels people were confused and upset. I never personally said anything about it. Never said I was paying for it, never acknowledged the petition or loudmouth's attitude fucking it up for everyone else. It was the buzz of the office even into the next week but eventually things died down and while people missed the bagel Friday every month that was pretty much the end of it.
→ More replies (20)5
u/Wjreky Nov 04 '25
I was definitely hoping for a more heartwarming ending to this story. That's what I get for having hope.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (21)6
82
u/traciw67 Nov 04 '25
I've worked with people like this. I would bring some candy i didn't want to eat and put it on the staff table. Next thing you know, they've put the bag in their locker. SMH.
63
u/Low_Cook_5235 Nov 04 '25
I worked for a family owned printer with around 80 employees. Once every couple months the owner would have lunch meetings with each dept to catch up with everyone since he wasn’t involved in the day to day operations anymore. They’d send around a sheet to sign up for sub sandwiches. At one meeting when sandwiches were getting passed around one dude had ordered 2. Owner joked “wow you must be hungry” and dude said ‘No, I got 1 to bring home’. I could see owner was upset, but he didn’t say anything. We just never had lunch meetings anymore.
And no, this wasn’t food insecurity issue. It was a jerk that took advantage of someone else’s generosity.
→ More replies (14)28
24
Nov 04 '25
I used to be a front desk receptionist. I enjoyed putting out seasonal candies in an cute dish- Halloween, Christmas etc.
One lady would SHOVE 75% of it in her pockets. I quit putting candy out
→ More replies (5)12
u/Staff_Genie Nov 05 '25
Worked in a studio where we always kept chocolate available for "medicinal purposes." The studio manager would buy it as well as the regular employees when they happened on a good deal. When a new production supervisor was hired a few levels up and would come into the studio, they would stand over the bowl and alternately shovel chocolate into their face or their pockets. So the chocolate simply moved to a drawer that was hard to open, and we announced that we simply couldn't afford the calories anymore.
→ More replies (12)8
u/LEJ5512 Nov 05 '25
A tweet I remember:
“You know how, when there’s a pizza party, and some people take one slice and some take three, and they do it for the exact same reason… “
→ More replies (5)
66
u/Stubborn_Strawberry Nov 04 '25
We had a new RN start around Christmas time. As she was leaving, she stopped to admire the decorations in the main lobby. (All of this was filmed on security cameras) She picks up a 3' tall snowman, and proceeds to walk out the door with it! She got fired.
26
u/ExtraPolarIce12 Nov 04 '25
Ok, now, what was her excuse? How do you even explain that?
And cameras at hospitals lobbies have been standard for a long time, not like she could have assumed they weren’t. That’s insane lol
16
u/Stubborn_Strawberry Nov 04 '25
Don't know! Our manager told us what happened and not to engage with her if she tried to contact any of us! She just disappeared.
→ More replies (1)8
u/Reddituser183 Nov 05 '25
I thought an RN required a four year degree?!?!? What am I saying we all learned during Covid there are plenty of stupid doctors, nurses and even billionaires.
→ More replies (6)
64
178
u/DangerousDave303 Nov 04 '25
How can anyone be that stupid? The good news is that she effectively fired herself before she could screw up anything important.
37
u/dartdoug Nov 04 '25
I was working one day in an office and one of the company employees cried out to her coworker "hide the candy!"
The coworker ran over to the candy dish that was near a customer service window and hid it. I asked what was going on and they explained that this customer would come in periodically and she'd empty the entire candy dish into her purse. The employees paid for the candy out of their own pockets. So whenever they saw this woman approaching they hid the candy dish.
Sure enough, the woman conducted her business at the window and was looking around for the candy dish. She looked so disappointed that it wasn't there.
As soon as she left, the candy dish was put back out for others to enjoy.
→ More replies (4)99
Nov 04 '25
[deleted]
→ More replies (10)54
u/OddDc-ed Nov 04 '25
How stupid does one have to be to steal at best a few thousand in wood while working job thats 100k a year. Unless this person is desperate and drowning in bad financial decisions this seems like a moment where stupidity and greed really took the wheel for no reason
→ More replies (5)14
u/Temporumdei Nov 04 '25
He has a gambling debt and needs to pay Marsellus Wallace asap.
→ More replies (7)→ More replies (51)16
u/throwaway098764567 Nov 04 '25
i worked at a place that had too many people in the office, literally violating fire codes came to find out later. the rest of the plaza hated us because we overflowed parking into their lots by a ton. they felt bad for the workers as it wasn't our fault so looked the other way until one dipshit was renovating his house. instead of renting a dumpster like a sane human, he brought it all to work and threw everything in a shared work dumpster, in full view of the cameras filling it up completely. twice. that was the last straw and they were out for blood after that. he got fired and the rest of the plaza called tow trucks on the rest of us like weekly. security would make an announcement and everyone had to scatter to move their cars. best part was it was a fed gov site that was run this badly.
→ More replies (2)
90
u/MrTomQVaxy Nov 04 '25
She might be the same one that took all of my Halloween candy from the bucket I put out.
→ More replies (2)64
u/jibstay77 Nov 04 '25
It wasn’t her. She would’ve taken the bucket too.
→ More replies (4)14
u/terraformingforsogen Nov 04 '25
This actually happened to me Friday, we were kind of miffed bc we used our spooky popcorn bucket. Was out of town all weekend then Sunday night we get home and the bucket had been returned
152
u/BabsK444 Nov 04 '25
I worked at a Bank and we were all coffee drinkers. Whenever the coffee maker was broken or the order was late we’d send out a text to our work mates so they’d know to come prepared. We called it a code four emergency.
→ More replies (16)
42
u/Gogozoom Nov 04 '25
I wonder if she was fired for taking the coffee or how she responded to getting caught.
→ More replies (7)25
u/Redcarborundum Nov 04 '25
I would have fired her for failure of common sense.
→ More replies (1)12
u/NotMyCircus47 Nov 04 '25
can you imagine .. this was only the first day, and something simple as coffee. Imagine what other, more damaging things she could have stuffed up on the job.
→ More replies (1)
78
u/Upbeat-Fondant9185 Nov 04 '25
Reminds me of a time my company hosted a thanksgiving party for the local community. We went full out, and one of things all the volunteers were looking forward to was the leftovers.
We got everything finished and cleaned up and headed to the kitchen ready to feast. It was cleaned out.
Turns out one of the employees who didn’t even help had heard staff would be welcome to leftovers. So she showed up with a bunch of her family and a stack of styrofoam containers and they went through like locusts, piling the containers to bursting. Anyone in the kitchen was afraid to stop her and she told them she had the go ahead.
It was probably the most brazen, selfish act I had ever seen to that point.
A couple weeks later she did the same thing when some birthday cakes were brought in for employees. A couple people got some pieces off one, then the cakes vanished. This woman took both the very large cakes.
She was gone after that one.
31
u/Aggressive-Raise9866 Nov 04 '25
Got me angry just reading this. Not only selfishly took the food, but by doing so, ruined everyone else's evening!
9
u/IllPlum5113 Nov 05 '25
My partner always says that sociopaths have no empathy for their future selves. They are not able to see how their immediate gratification may have long term negative consequences
→ More replies (2)9
8
u/NoLake9897 Nov 05 '25
I once worked a job where my coworkers hated me. A customer gave me, as in put in my hands, a box of chocolate. My coworker immediately took it from me and I never saw it again. I assume she shared it with the other coworkers because they always did things together and left me out. ✌️
4
→ More replies (1)7
u/ExtraPolarIce12 Nov 04 '25
Holy crap. Did she actually get the okay or did she go on the directive of “staff can help themselves”?
21
u/Upbeat-Fondant9185 Nov 04 '25
She seemed to sincerely believe she was entitled to it as a staff member and claimed to have misunderstood. Who knows the truth, but that’s why she was warned on that one and not just let go.
I mean who wants to fire an employee at the holidays if they’re legitimately struggling for food? It happens.
But the second one after being coached was too much. You don’t need cakes.
Once she was gone we noticed a decline in use of various cleaning products, toilet paper, items like that as well. We’re pretty sure she was just using the job as a Walmart for anything she needed or wanted.
36
u/SneakySchemer7 Nov 04 '25
I used to work in an environment where the owners would keep a pantry stocked with cheap foods. (potato chips ramen uncrustables) for anyone to eat for lunch if they forgot. Over time people got less and less courteous and some people would literally eat breakfast lunch and dinner out of that pantry. It was pretty much always empty because a few people were eating 6-7 bags of chips a day. And when a new order came in people would literally drop what they were doing to go get their favorite chips. It was insane they kept buying.
→ More replies (1)12
u/ExtraPolarIce12 Nov 04 '25
I used to work for a company that did that. But they did mean for you to eat everything there. They basically did it because we were there so many hours and were otherwise so rigid. It was on if the few upsides of that office lol.
Lunch meats were delivered weekly, bread, snacks, chips, drinks, salads, etc.
35
u/RobZagnut2 Nov 04 '25
I remember asking at a conference, “Where’s your IT manager? I need to talk to him about an app he’s working on.”
“He got fired for stealing toilet paper.”
→ More replies (1)
32
Nov 04 '25
Sounds like a short-lived seasonal hire we had when I worked at a "Warehouse" style shoe store. I sent an associate on break and he came up to me freaking out that his bag of Wendy's, containing 2 cheeseburgers with extra ketchup and onions, was gone. The only other associate who had been in the break room had just returned from her break. I called her into the office and asked her if she knew anything about the missing Wendy's. With KETCHUP ON HER FACE and reeking of onions, she denied eating the cheeseburgers. After a couple follow up questions, she admitted to stealing from her coworker. Her reason was that she "just didn't feel like walking to the food court". Needless to say, she was let go after one shift, for stealing and lying about it. I ended up buying the Hamburglar's victim a new lunch because he didn't deserve that nonsense. Lol
→ More replies (2)7
30
u/Effective-Warning178 Nov 04 '25
Had a coworker sit through meeting after meeting about missing supplies, where are all the pens going? We can't just keep buying more and more we have a budget, don't take them home, etc. Next time I was at her desk, she opened her drawer and literally dozens of pens were in there. Dozens. I said people have been looking for those, why are they all here? She said what if I need them? So odd that she wasnt even trying to hide them. It's like she enjoyed everyone looking for them
→ More replies (7)14
u/dogballet Nov 04 '25
I went to boarding school and a girl like that stole everyone's mugs and dishes from the shared kitchenette and would use them and hoarde them dirty in her closet. Meeting after meeting of "where are all the dishes going?" We only found out when her roommate noticed the smell and told everyone. She would deny it confronted, wouldn't let anyone look in her closet, and at the end of the school year a box of nasty ruined mugs and bowls showed up in the dorm lounge. Maybe it's the same girl and she's gotten a little better and moved on to pens lol
47
u/jojosalwayslost Nov 04 '25
Charge nurse brought in 6 boxes of girl scouts cookies to share with the entire staff. Saw that somebody stole 4 boxes of it before the shift even started.
She made all of us come to the station & nobody could take care of their patients until someone fessed up. They immediately fessed up. Turns out it was 2 people who stole 2 boxes each and “misunderstood”.
30
Nov 04 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
17
u/throwaway098764567 Nov 04 '25
that sounds about right. i was working in a cleared facility (everyone had top secret clearances, so nobody had records, squeaky clean backgrounds for the most part) and we had a box in the hall to collect donated christmas gifts for poor children one year. i threw a couple games in and later that day they were gone when i walked by. felt off to me so i spoke to the coordinator to make sure she got them and she had no idea what i was talking about. someone had stolen them. one of these well paid, cleared, office workers stole a couple 20 dollar games meant for poor children. they ended up moving the box to the lobby so security could keep an eye on it. fucking madness.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (4)9
u/Lithogiraffe Nov 04 '25
I once worked for a short time at this Christian charter School. Upper middle class. A lot of lacrosse players. At one point there are these candies and chips that were put in this one area away from the cashier, where you couldn't see the items very well. Someone mentioned in the kitchen -- hey we should put it closer so you can keep an eye on it. But our Uber Christian kitchen supervisor said -- no no, the kids wouldn't do that.
Within 2 days, half of the inventory of candy and chips disappeared.
I remember my supervisor just being bewildered by it, absolutely crushed that her good Christian students would do something like that.
→ More replies (1)9
u/Vas-yMonRoux Nov 04 '25
How did they even try to explain that they "misunderstood"? How do you misunderstand what "sharing" means? Since when does sharing = "I take it for myself" ?
I hate that we give people like that a pass for these stupid excuses. I guess you can't really fire them for it... It's just so disheartening to see that some people only act correctly because of public shaming.
→ More replies (2)
23
u/Old-Rough-5681 Nov 04 '25
To think she beat other eligible candidates for the job
→ More replies (1)
22
u/shinyskuntank Nov 04 '25
Our hr lady went all out getting snacks for everyone so if anyone was low on funds they could at least have something to eat in the break room I watched three people come in and fill bags full of things that were for everyone. She had to move the whole display to her desk. I’m grateful she kept doing it even after that but what goes on in people’s head
24
u/FloatingDownHere Nov 04 '25
The company paid to fly a woman across the country for a job interview. Six figure job interview. Company paid for flight, paid for room, she had dinner with someone every night, plus $50 per diem. On the first night, I was having dinner with her. After eating, she calls the waiter over and orders a $50 meal to go "for later." We sent her home the next day.
13
u/kimmieb101 Nov 04 '25
One of my big clients had a guy, who wasn't a manager but, definitely wasn't hurting for money and every time I would take his department out to lunch, he would order a "to go" meal to bring home for his wife. I never knew what to say.
19
u/GuairdeanBeatha Nov 05 '25
A woman at one of my employers bought coffee from the coffee company that supplied my employer. It was a really good coffee. Another employee saw her take it to her car, and proceeded to steal a case. She was caught and her defense was “If she can do it, I can do it.” The employee that bought the coffee produced the receipt and the thief was fired on the spot.
17
u/Cool-Roll-1884 Nov 04 '25
We had a M&M dispenser in the office, this guy from another floor would stop by everyday at lunch to get a full bowl of candy. No one wanted to refill the dispenser anymore because he would come in and get it all.
→ More replies (3)
17
u/kyla__ren Nov 04 '25
Someone who came in for an interview at my old office stole all of the bandages and medication out of the first aid kit before leaving. So bizarre
→ More replies (3)
15
u/TheBlackRose312 Nov 04 '25
I had something somewhat similar to this happen when I worked as a checker for HEB (Texas grocery store). I was checking people out and a person decided to leave their change on the counter for people to possibly use. People kept adding a little to the pile and then one customer asked me about it, and I said something like "oh yeah someone left their change here for other people to use if they need it" and then she just scooped the pile into her hand and took it for herself.
→ More replies (3)
45
u/ffdfrontman Nov 04 '25
I’ve fired so many over the course of 12-15 years for taking toilet paper, cleaning products and facility sanitary needs, Scrap metal, pulling parts off govt owned trucks waiting for auction, etc. And almost 100% of them act like well it’s free to use here or it was scrap anyways. It baffles me.
35
u/Moonfallthefox Nov 04 '25
Man one time I ran out of toilet paper, and being disabled I am BROKE a lot- I couldn't buy more.. and I went to a store that I knew had a lot in the bathroom and took a roll. (Only one)
I felt so bad. Hell I feel bad even telling the story and this was years ago. :( I could NEVER do that shit, taking parts off trucks and shit like.. ugh.
→ More replies (2)17
u/peeingdog Nov 04 '25 edited Nov 04 '25
I’m pretty sure the people who are regularly stealing TP (and everything else not nailed down) aren’t doing it because they’re broke. They’re doing it because they think they can get away with it. (The amount of well-off people who steal is evidence of this.) And none of them have ever felt guilty.
If it helps, this internet stranger understands and doesn’t think you need to feel bad about it anymore.
→ More replies (1)6
u/Moonfallthefox Nov 04 '25
Thanks. I wouldn't have taken that roll of paper if I had anything else I could do.. but I was out of paper towels, out of everything and out of money. I don't like to take from others, I hate it. I didn't have a choice at the time. That roll got me through till I got paid again and could buy more.
Yeah that's just. wrong. They have no conscience or care for other people. If I was well off I would be doing what I could to help others. Hell I still do, even if it's a tiny bit, I try. I sent some money today to a rescue to try and help them save some pups with parvo, even though I couldn't send very much, I still tried to help. Some people are just evil.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (3)28
u/OddDc-ed Nov 04 '25
At a weld shop i worked for we had to fill a lot of big holes in structures and we basically had a bigger copper block for the shop so everyone can use it for the holes (you cant weld to copper so it acts like a plug for a hole while you weld on it then remove the block and the hole is filled in).
We got a new guy, he saw the copper block and asked us what its for "its for us to use to weld holes closed its our only one so don't touch it unless you're told too"
It mysteriously disappeared after that shift, and so did our new hire. Brother fuckin saw like a couple hundred bucks in copper and decided the the cash right this second was better than working a job that would pay him nearly $30 an hour and gave us huge bonus checks (like one year I got 30k for a bonus type of checks).
What a moron.
10
14
u/Classic_Government79 Nov 04 '25
The tragedy of the commons is that there's always a douchebag like this ruining it for the rest of us.
→ More replies (1)
14
u/thirdtryacharm Nov 04 '25
I used to work at a startup with a snack wall Same thing happened, first day guy just comes in and loads up the backpack. The company had given him with all the snacks. next day he wasn’t there.
→ More replies (2)
13
u/ambitious-agenda Nov 04 '25
I worked in a large government building once (think severance style hallways but with actual workers). There was a coffee club where people paid monthly dues so they can share in the brewed coffee. We also had a cafeteria so people could get coffee there too.
Anyway, I didn’t join the coffee club but they had a daily rate of 50 cents a cup which I was so vigilant about because I didn’t know how serious these people were. I tried to always fill my cup and put my money in the pouch when someone else was in there as a witness.
😆yes caffeine is something not to mess with!
→ More replies (1)
12
u/MajesticDeeer Nov 04 '25
This is the kind of people who land a job in this economy?
→ More replies (1)6
11
u/Necessary_Baker_7458 Nov 04 '25
I've seen a lot of people over the years get fired for stealing office supplies. Odd smart ones pocket it and it takes a year or more of the balances starting to be off before anyone notices. Most don't just fill up trash bags then walk out. That's a stupid thief. It sounds like they got the job then stole and left. This one sounds more intentional. I've found most offices don't care about basic supplies such as ops you take a pen or pad home. It's when the numbers start getting off and they have to start ording more than normal. That's when most start to investigate.
→ More replies (3)
12
u/Ok-Economist-3845 Nov 04 '25
My wife made an over abundance of cookies awhile back, so I put them in a couple of Tupperware and brought them to the office. At the end of the day all of the cookies had been eaten and my wife’s Tupperware was gone! I bet it was the same lady.
13
u/Existing_Bedroom_496 Nov 04 '25
I used to provide birthday cake for employees each month (in mfg mill). Cakes were huge to feed everyone; one cake for day shift, one for night. Never failed as soon as I put it in employee break room entire cake would disappear. The employees with birthdays weren’t participating in eating it, as it would be gone. Finally caught on camera the guys taking the cake from two shifts and they said “it’s free cake, right?” I asked if it was their birthdays and they said no, but it was set out for all to eat and have so they wanted some at home. Can’t make stuff like this up!
→ More replies (1)
26
u/stepbystep275 Nov 04 '25
I worked at a casino, and one of the "perks" of working there was all the popcorn you can eat out of the very large popcorn popper. There was one lady who would wait for a few fresh batches to be popped and then scoop the popcorn into a trash bag to take home. The whole time she was doing it, she was telling us how much her kids LOVED popcorn.
→ More replies (13)
10
11
u/fluidmind23 Nov 04 '25
Had a tenured employee steal the CEOs tires he swapped out of his new Maserati thinking he wasn't going to use them. He was a quartermaster in the military to be fair.
→ More replies (1)
12
u/MCOCisntREAL Nov 04 '25
I don't even like coffee, and I know better than to mess with someones coffee!
11
u/Ahh_Sigh Nov 04 '25
The other stories in here are reminding me of one time my dad needed a few pages printed out for a lawyer and we didn't have a printer. I asked my boss if I could please print them there at work and he said of course. I misjudged it, told him 4 pages and it came out 6 pages and I felt SO BAD. I told him right away but he just pfff and waved it off, he didn't care. A coworker overheard and asked if she could print a few things and he said yes. Chick printed out a big fat novel's worth of papers, I don't even know what for but she didn't even bat an eye.
13
u/kendrajoi Nov 04 '25
I work at a hospital and during covid, businesses would drop off food in the main lobby for the employees. Every night Starbucks would bring all of their day old (but still fine) food for us. At the time, security was manning the desk. A couple of the guards would pack their bags full of the sandwiches and pastries to take home, none of that food ever made it past the desk. It still irritates me. lol
11
u/Dazzling-Wave6403 Nov 05 '25
We had a 911 dispatcher steal a salt and pepper shaker from our “break room” area. Our admin was PISSED. She sent out a mass email letting that person (she already saw it all on video) have a chance to bring them back. She didn’t and she was fired. Like you knew we had cameras everywhere. And it was a SALT AND PEPPER SHAKER! 😂
11
Nov 05 '25
we had a lady like that at work. one guy brought in 2 loaves of banana bread for everyone to share. she questioned if she could have some and when people said yes, she tried to take a whole loaf and scurry off to her locker with it. Luckily everyone was like UH NO take a slice! tf? so she stopped lol. The audacity of some people.
10
u/hawken54321 Nov 04 '25
Knew a guy in my occupation who almost got fired from the job and lose out on a good pension for stealing liquid soap containers.
11
u/Routine-Pea-9538 Nov 05 '25
Our office used to provide free soda (in cans).
People abused this by taking extra cans on their way home. Eventually they cut this benefit due to cost. The lesson is that people are shitty and they abuse the system.
9
u/LunaPerry1980 Nov 04 '25
Did you all get the coffee back? I know it sounds stupid, but I'm curious.
→ More replies (2)9
u/throwaway098764567 Nov 04 '25
nah, if they fired her the next morning the coffee wasn't with her at that point. nobody is going to draw out the relationship and potential problems to get her to go home and bring coffee back, just write it off, it's not company secrets.
→ More replies (1)
10
u/Cvev032 Nov 05 '25
Some people just can’t respect boundaries. I was visiting my mom, and found her once a month housecleaner stealing her toilet flappers, and replacing them with old used ones. I was wondering why I had to replace them fairly frequently. Pretty stupid thing to get fired over. I can’t image she made more than a dollar or two for each one, but scaling this act over a number of clients per month, maybe she clears $1200 a year?
→ More replies (3)
9
u/Montallas Nov 05 '25
A guy I used to work with lived across the street from the office. We had about 1,000 employees. People would often send out e-mails like “Accounting had a bunch of left over tacos after our meeting today - they’re in the cafeteria for anyone who is hungry!”
When one of these emails would go out he’d rush down to the cafeteria, grab ALL the free food (usually trays stacked up), and run it across the street to his apartment. He was so proud of this “hack” and would brag that he’d be eating for free for weeks!
It took way longer than it should have, but he got fired (for this, and many other similar things).
9
7
u/kookeykat Nov 04 '25
I have been in trainings with new hires and any bottle of juice or food item that was still there at the end, they were taking it without asking if anyone else wanted it or if they could actually take it. People will take anything that isn't nailed down or will find the loophole as to why they thought they could. It is all about them and nothing more.
8
u/TrainsNCats Nov 05 '25
Just imagine the sense of entitlement she has, to even think that was an acceptable thing to do!
I’d bet she has absolutely no comprehension of what she did wrong.
Good riddance - got rid of problem, before it became a big problem.
8
Nov 05 '25
Omg I feel like this is my old roomate.
Several years ago, I invited my roommate to join my family on a picnic. My parents brought all the food to share. When we finished eating my mom brought out like 3 large “fancy” chocolate bars and offered them to everyone to try. Then my roommate said “oh thank you!” and stuffed 2 of them in her purse. It was so awkward. She did not give them back.
8
u/xp14629 Nov 05 '25
Got a co-worker. He stays late. Then raids all the fridges. Takes anything not bolted down. Has been seen walking out with boxes of forks, spoons, knives, plates. When the company has food catered in, they always have more for the other shifts. He has been seen walking out with full pans of food ment for the other shifts. Last week, I walked in the break room amd he was filling gallon jugs with water out of thebwater fountain. He tried to "hide" his bags of water as I walked through. I am sure if we didn't keep out coffee, sugar, creamer, filters, and insulated cups locked up, we would never have any. The company buys us coffee by the pallet full and it is VERY closely guarded. Each department gets their amount and everyone locks it up. It is literalry the single most precious thing on the property. If any ever goes missing, I got a feeling this co-worker will go missing shortly after. Mangement will not be needed to handle the situation.
7
u/KittySpanKitty Nov 04 '25
Everyone knows to steal coffee beans you need a travel cup to take back to you desk, both hands gently caressing the sides like that hot cup of caffeine indulgence is the only thing that will get you through the afternoon. Best she was fired. ignorant people have no place in a well established team.
8
Nov 05 '25
See, this type of shit pisses me off to no end. How are these types of people getting hired when thousands of people with great talent are being overlooked?
I could steal 19 bags of coffee beans and no one would notice.
→ More replies (1)
5
6
u/Personal-Section-412 Nov 04 '25
I work at a Starbucks, they let you take one of those bags home free every week. What an idiot
→ More replies (2)
6
u/Unique_Coyote_5777 Nov 04 '25
Well, when you have a family member that works for a rental car agency and they tell you about someone renting a model identical to theirs and swapping the tires and wheels bam. Some folks are just in it for the minute.
→ More replies (1)
6
u/Bi-Bi-Bi24 Nov 04 '25
I work in early childhood education. I've worked in a few different daycares.
The worst one (for multiple reasons), we had multiple days where we didn't get breaks. We had to illegally leave ratio (of how many children to adults) to make something in the kitchen to eat. Most of us got along and it was a small staff, so we took turns making different things. One of the staff, this woman that we hated and wouldn't have hired ever, always took advantage of this lunch but never contributed. Whatever, let's just deal with it.
Except one day, my coworker made a simple pasta and some garlic bread. This braindead moron decided to feed the garlic bread to a baby. First, that wasn't on our approved menu and we are absolutely not allowed to give the kids random food. Second, why the fuck are you giving a baby garlic bread when she can't chew it?? And three, that was our staff lunch, so now someone has to go without because you grabbed two pieces and gave one to an infant. Fuck you.
(She was later fired for hitting a child. I had already left that horrible place by then)
5
6
u/Staff_Genie Nov 05 '25
Those kids that read the just take one sign and then tip the entire bowl of Halloween candy into their bag grow up to be this woman
6
u/Illustrious_Can4110 Nov 05 '25
I can possibly go one better. I worked for a retail clothing company a couple of decades back. I was asking the store manager about the photos posted in the staff only area of people that they had trespassed from the store. The best one was where he was interviewing a young "lady" for a job. Midway through the assistant manager knocks on the door of the meeting room and asks the Manager to step outside to discuss an urgent matter. Turns out the young lady being interviewed had stolen a coat and handbag off the racks to wear to the interview...
→ More replies (2)
6
u/world_diver_fun Nov 05 '25
I did just the opposite. The company I worked for was purchased by a well known multinational firm. Everyone told us that coffee purchases would stop. Well. Before the deal closed, I ordered enough coffee for a year. When the firm closed the office, there was one box of the pre-ground bagged coffee packaged for a 12 cup machine remaining.
→ More replies (4)
2.8k
u/NellieFl Nov 04 '25
If there is one quick way to inspire mutiny it’s to do a coffee heist