Hellobee Boards

I've never worked at a place that policed leftover meeting food like that. In every place I've worked, if they invited people to have the leftover food from meetings, they didn't care whether you ate some right then, packed some up for dinner, or ate some for lunch the next day, all of which I've done. The point was that they didn't want the food to be needlessly wasted and those who were at the meeting were done with it. If I were you, I'd avoid the food going forward, just to stay clear of the drama.

Weird!

When we had leftover food I always took it home!

So weird! Did they expect you to eat it there? It's not like you were taking a chafing dish home!

Ditto to the rest of the crowd. This is absolutely strange of them to care so much about whether you ate it then or took it home. Especially considering the time of day when most people have already eaten lunch.
It's annoying, but I'd probably refrain from partaking anymore just because it seems like there's no way to win there.

We have a ton of events with food at my workplace and I'm on the planning committee. When it's leftover - all we care about is that it gets eaten. Once the event is over, it's first come, first served and you do what you want with it.

I work in a school, and no one would "confront" the person, like the secretary did to you, BUT there are some petty people who get angry about a situation that happens every week. On Fridays in our school, it's "pizza day" in the cafeteria and since I work in a very small school district, we actually have a local pizza place that delivers the pizza (so it's good pizza, not your typical caf pizza). Anyway, they order based on the number of students total, but there are always kids absent, usually 10-15 students a day. SO there are usually 2-3 whole pizzas left.

Well, the cafeteria workers tend to split this pizza among themselves and take it home to their families. There are teachers who grumble about this every week and say like, "They should be putting that down in the teacher's lounge so everyone can have some". But also, if a teacher goes down there DURING lunch and asks if there are leftovers, they are allowed to grab some. So it's kind of just needless grumpiness--like, you want some free pizza, go walk your body down there and ask for some. Otherwise, they will take it home.

But still weekly, "jokes" will be made when they see the caf workers taking the pizzas to their cars. Like "must be nice not to ever have to cook on a Friday after working all day", that kind of thing.

I think the etiquette is that the food is for the people in the building. In 21 years, I've never once brought food that was leftover from a meeting back to my home. If I want it, I get a plate and eat it there, but to put it in a Tupperware to bring it home, I can see why this caused a commotion.

They are crazy. When stuff like that it's announced, it's first come first serve! I mean, there are always hoarders that take way more than they really should, but then again, it's free for all so there really aren't any rules to this. I'm sorry you got reprimanded for something so insignificant!

When we have extra food, we are encouraged to take home perishable stuff that might go bad overnight or over the weekend, but anything like that (chicken tenders/rice) isn't supposed to go home. So I've packed some but left it in the fridge for lunch the next day. It's a little weird that you made that comment that you don't have to cook for your kids because of the free food. I can see how that rubs people the wrong way.

Moral of the story: if you're doing it, keep it on the DL. No one can say you are packing it to take it home to your kids if you don't mention it.

Honestly, I would think it was kind of weird and rude if I saw somebody doing this. The food is for an afternoon snack for employees, not to take home and feed your family. Maybe if you waited until, like, 6pm when everybody had had a chance to get some and it was going to be thrown out it might have been ok but it doesn’t sound like that’s what you did? I definitely wouldn’t complain about it, though.

Maybe next time put it on a plate, take it back to your desk, and then put it in the Tupperware subtly?

@RonjaL7: This is petty with a capital P. I can't stand when people create fake drama......over some chicken tenders?! Your receptionist needs to find something better to do if her life is so boring she is getting up in arms about 3 chicken tenders and some rice.

At first I was going to say this is odd and kinda going against office etiquette. I was assuming it was something like cookies, fruit, juice, etc that could be left out or even saved for employees for the next day.

However, if its perishable food like chicken and rice, I assume thats perishable and it needs to either be eaten, taken or thrown out by the end of the day!

We throw out so much food at our office because people will just let things sit out on a table until long past when it should have been refrigerated. People take food home all the time and no one bats an eye.

That's so petty. There are so many times where around 5pm i go to the lunchroom and there is still leftover food just hanging out there. Who really wants to touch it after it's been sitting out at room temp for 5 hours?

@Corduroy: The same at my company. If we have a catered lunch, the admin assistant is always running around asking encouraging people to pack some food for dinner.

I would find it weird to see someone loading leftovers into a tupperware because food at work is a hot commodity around here, and as an employee, you're lucky to get some.

That said, culture is different wherever you go. It sounds like you're learning about the culture at your workplace, and in general, I'd be inclined to adapt what you're doing in this case.

I wouldn’t take food home (I’m honestly not even sure why?) but I cannot imagine caring that someone else did nevermind caring enough to confront someone or report it to HR. That’s bonkers.

no one would bat an eye at this where i work. It's kind of assumed people may take the leftover food home. The only thing that wouldn't fly is if there was say a line of people waiting to grab some leftovers and the person in the front took it all

I really don't understand why people care about things like this. Why does it matter where the food is being eaten? It's leftover food that's going to be thrown away otherwise. I've never heard of an unwritten rule that leftover food needs to be eaten at work and not taken out of the building. Seems really petty to me.

Agree with many others that it seems ridiculous. Leftovers are leftovers. Up for grabs, means up for grabs!

I will say that I know someone who occasionally grabs snacks from her department snack cabinet for her toddler to try at home. I think that's weird because that could still be used by an employee.