By Charlie Herbert

"Peak pettiness or justifiable security?"

There are many sources of potential conflict in the office, but perhaps none greater than the communal fridge. Whether it’s stuff being left in there for days and stinking the place out, or accusations of food theft, all sorts of arguments can arise the office kitchen. One office worker has gone to pretty extreme measures though to ward off any potential thieves, by protecting their milk under lock and key. They decided to padlock their milk to make sure that only they will be able to access it when required. It’s a drastic move that has prompted plenty of debate after an image of the padlocked milk was shared on Reddit, with a caption asking if it was “peak pettiness or justifiable security.” Several were more surprised by the fact that the company this employee works for weren’t providing communal milk though. One person wrote: “It seems like such an easy thing for the company just to buy the milk for everyone to share. That always worked for us, and when I worked in the public sector, at most, each group organised it so the fridge wasn’t just milk. This all looks so painful.” Another said: “The company should just buy communal milk that everyone can use.” Meanwhile, a third simply commented: “The savagery of the human race knows no bounds.” Many came to the worker’s defence though, as one person commented: “100 percent justifiable. People will drink right out of your milk container and no one respects other people’s items in the communal fridge. “I haven’t used the communal fridge in 20 years, all it took was seeing one grubby person rooting through everyone’s lunch bags one time and I was out. Cooler bag + reusable icepacks. If it can’t go in my cooler bag, I don’t need it.” Another said: “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). As someone who used to buy two pints of milk every week, only for it to be completely empty by Wednesday morning, I totally understand the rationale.” They added: “I vote not petty.” Some shared their own tales of office kitchen drama, with one person recounting how they got revenge on one colleague who stole their food. They wrote: “Having had someone steal my food at work, I totally agree. Once bought some chilli spray a few million on the Scoville scale and sprayed it on the underside of my sausage roll ‘lunch’. While I don’t know who did, I do know that someone got a surprise.” A worthy outcome for the food thief.