Office worker sparks heated debate after padlocking their milk in the communal fridge

An office worker has sparked a furious debate online after putting a padlock on their milk bottle in the workplace fridge.

I’m getting flashbacks from Summer Heights High when Mr G warned his fellow employees that if they touched any of his food, it would become a police matter.

Office kitchen etiquette is usually a contentious matter. Whether you don’t empty the coffee machine properly or leave your sandwich in the fridge for three weeks, there's always that one person that ruffles the communal feathers.

One person has done this in their workplace and fired up a heated debate.

After leaving their milk bottle in the work fridge with a padlock, many Reddit users have scolded them for this ‘extreme’ measure.

Along with the picture of the sealed-up milk, user u/Vented55 posed the question: Peak pettiness or justifiable security in the office kitchen?

One user 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 savagery of the human race knows no bounds.”

While another remarked: “The company should just buy communal milk that everyone can use.”

However, many came to the employee's defence, as one person commented: “100 per cent 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.”

Nick Sinclair / Alamy Stock Photo

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.”

While one user even disclosed how they got revenge on a particularly greedy coworker stealing lunches.

“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,” they wrote.

I mean, well played, well played.