Life and warfare around the office refrigerator

[isilzha]

Who moved my cheese?

Life and warfare around the office refrigerator

By Charles Leroux | Chicago Tribune correspondent

July 15, 2008

In ancient mythology, Pandora's box held all human evils.

In modern mythology, other sorts of evils—mold, suspicious liquids, an unrecognizable lump of something way in the back—are held in the office refrigerator.

"People spend so much time at work now," said Maria Malayter, assistant professor of applied behavioral sciences at National-Louis University. "Is it your second home where you drink milk right out of the bottle, or do you monitor your behavior to fit the culture of the office?"

It seems that many office fridge users don't do much self-monitoring. Real estate broker Paula Nichols, with Chicago One Realty, recalled a former office where the refrigerator was chronically backlogged with forgotten food.

"The office manager would send memos asking people to clear out their stuff," she said.

"But they wouldn't, so she'd get stuck doing it, except when it got really bad and she'd call maintenance. I never even looked inside. I knew better."

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Top 10 fridge complaints (Tribune photo illustration by Geoffrey Black / July 15, 2008)

[ibcheft]

I am afraid if I was an office manager, and the ice box looked like that more than once, the second time it would be gone. All I would put it would be cooled vending machines where they could purchase their cold food on site.

[isilzha]

Cleaning it out should be done on Fridays I should think. Who would want to leave something in there over the weekend? Of course I couldn't see myself leaving anything in there at all... I have trust and germ issues.

[ping]

That looks like the fridge at my office. I try to avoid it at all cost because any food I put in there either gets stolen or lost in the mess.

[Food Network Fan]

I would either invest in my own small fridge if I had to eat at my desk a lot or get some of the cold packs and a small cooler I take to and from work every day.

[BerryBaby]

We had a business and every Friday I would clear out the fridge. I'd make one announcement that it was going to happen and if you didn't respond, it was gone.

We always had people stealing milk or cream for their coffee. It got to the point where I almost had to put a camera in there to catch those theives! Found out who they were and that was the end of that.

Had everyone label their food as well. Especially when they would bring in yogurt that was the same and people started blaming each other for eating their yogurt. Once the labeling system got into place, that all stopped.

I'm happy I'm retired. Just have to clear out our fridge and I do that every Sunday. So easy!

[cyberdoc]

Actually, believe it or not, our office fridge stays pretty clean. I suspect Momma Debbie (Our boss) would have us all publicly flogged if we did not keep it so.