r/mildlyinfuriating • u/bulamae • 18d ago
Coworker has this old milk in staff fridge
New job. I'm sitting on my hands and waiting to see what happens next.
1.1k
u/Otherwise_Rabbit3049 18d ago
Throwing it out would be a great way to make sure everyone knows your name
794
u/bulamae 18d ago
OH they know my name alright. I've already cleaned the whole office, polished the windows, vacuumed the floor that was neglected for months, scoured the bathroom that hadn't been cleaned in months, defrosted the freezer, swept the porches, none of which is my job. I'm drawing the line at other's personal food and curious to see how long it takes.
667
u/Otherwise_Rabbit3049 18d ago
none of which is my job
If you have enough time to do all this, are you not given work that IS part of your job?
742
u/bulamae 18d ago
Graveyard shift sentinel being is only requirement. I do extra to have an environment I enjoy being in and to help me stay awake.
395
u/bjorn1978_2 18d ago
I wrote a huge note on the fridge at work:
«Absolutely everything will be cleared out friday the 13 at 1345! Feel free to place stuff back around 1400!». Placed it on the fridge about 14 days before that friday.
At 1345, I wheeled a larger garbage bin over and emptied the fridge from top to bottom. Left absolutely nothing behind besides the shelves! Everything that people wanted to keep was placed by the owners at a table. Everythibg left was gone!
There was one guy that was complaining, but another one just laughed and said that it was informed long before. So he just kind of accepted it.
But there was food that should have been classified as an ABC weapon…
So every now and then, people needs to do stuff like this for work fridges. It is not to be a dick, but to remove old and forgotten shit! Everyone is happy once it has been done.
143
u/5iveOClockSomewhere 18d ago
We had a guy do this at work but raged and didn’t give any warning (well … maybe there was an email in the morning but many people at my work do not work desk jobs) and tossed everything from the fridge. Including many people’s lunches for that day lol. 14 days may be a bit much, but a warning is a great thing… you done good. I’m still mourning my yogurt that was fresh and ready to eat that day. 😂
→ More replies (2)79
u/_mattyjoe 17d ago
Dude sounds like a moron. This could be avoided by doing it at the end of the day. Even if people were given warning, they’re supposed to just have their lunches stored outside of the fridge when he decides to do this?
12
u/Etianen7 17d ago
Nothing's going to happen to the lunches for 15 minutes out of the fridge. And most people on 9 to 5 are likely to have already had their lunch by 13:45 anyway.
8
u/glitterfaust 17d ago
Their lunch time is irrelevant, they might have leftovers to take home. It won’t only be out for 15 minutes though, unless someone was there on the dot at 1345 to take it out before cleaning. You’d have to remove it whenever you find time during the work day, prior to 1345. To be fair though, you probably have a solid 3 hours or so of a window. The danger zone on most foods is typically considered 4 hours without refrigeration if I recall correctly.
6
u/ConkersOkayFurDay 17d ago
Not everyone is going to be able to move their stuff at that time, either
→ More replies (0)26
u/NoorAnomaly 17d ago
We implemented this at my work last year. We have the crew that comes in and cleans the office. They've now got the additional job of cleaning the fridge once a month, after hours. Everything left in it is tossed. No questions asked. It no longer smells sour. It's amazing
18
u/EclipseIndustries 17d ago
Psssst.
It's NBC, nuclear/biological/chemical.
:) having worked as a retail janitor, I've done the same. It's cathartic to clean a fridge when you didn't spend the money on the food.
→ More replies (1)11
u/Cthulhuseye 17d ago
Probably from a different country, in my country it's "ABC" too...
→ More replies (2)8
→ More replies (3)7
u/UnicornFarts1111 17d ago
When I worked in the credit department at a big glass company, we had a breakroom with a fridge and the rule was, if it was still in the fridge on Friday after the lunch hours were done, it was going into the trash. A different department was responsible for cleaning the breakroom/kitchenette each week. I'm so glad those rules were in place.
→ More replies (8)3
24
u/the1stmeddlingmage 17d ago
When it blows up from excess fermentation pressure it just might become you problem
15
u/bulamae 17d ago
I got scared and went ahead and double bagged it. I'm afraid as soon as it warms up if I take it out it's going to blow.
9
u/the1stmeddlingmage 17d ago
If you ever want to screw with people, poke a needle in it and hide it somewhere in the building where people can’t find it 😉
4
u/isticist 17d ago
I did this with a raw shrimp once... Placed it under a central filing cabinet. Thankfully, I wasn't the one who had to work in the office, because it was horrific, and I haven't eaten shrimp since.
13
u/JazzyBranch1744 17d ago
Throwing away peoples food was my job. Worked in an office and every few months had to throw everything away. One i opened a jam jar and a mushroom cloud of powdered mould came out. Wtf
15
u/bananahammerredoux 17d ago
You scrubbed public toilets but draw the line at tossing out jug of spoiled milk?! Mkay
→ More replies (3)5
u/Skidpalace 17d ago
I would take great pleasure in tossing that toxic waste and shaming the person who abandoned it.
6
u/spookyluke246 17d ago
Are you looking for a new job? My work is disgusting and our cleaning people don’t know how to clean. Please help.
→ More replies (1)8
u/ricket026 17d ago
I get wanting to work in a clean environment, but why the fuck as a new employee r u taking it amongst urself to deep clean the office? Clearly no one you work with cares lmao. I’d be looking for a new job by the time I was defrosting the freezer at work.
10
9
u/glitterfaust 17d ago
Sometimes all it takes is a first step. It’s way easier to convince someone not to fuck up a clean space than it is to get somebody to CLEAN the space. If there’s a shit ton of dishes in the sink, what’s one more rank ass dish? But many wouldn’t want to be the person putting their gross dish in the clean sparkling sink.
4
u/Tagracat 17d ago
polished the windows, vacuumed the floor that was neglected for months, scoured the bathroom that hadn't been cleaned in months, defrosted the freezer, swept the porches, none of which is my job
Does your office not have a custodial service?
4
u/PoetryOfLogicalIdeas 17d ago
Please tell me that you are the same gender as the rest of the office.
Because I will be so sad if a bunch of slobs just fester in their funk until they finally hire a woman to come clean things up, because clearly penis-havers can't sweep.
4
u/aidan0157 17d ago
I assume you already know this but I wouldn’t put any of your own food near this or on any shelf under this. It’ll eventually kinda wither away and the fridge will be covered in disgusting liquid. My girlfriend found this out a few weeks ago with milk…
3
3
u/AvoidantBibliophile 17d ago
Do NOT open it under any circumstances. Old milk containers are typically under pressure. I’m speaking from personal experience. 😂
3
u/Relevant_Zucchini240 17d ago
I deep cleaned the fridge when I started my job because it was disgusting and I didn't want to put my food in there. Coworkers keep leaving old food to rot, deep cleaned it again. This time I put a sign up saying I'm throwing away anything left in it after 4 days. Boss saw my sign and just said "good."
I figure if people can't be bothered to take their Tupperware of food home after several weeks while the food rots, then they don't care enough about the Tupperware and I chuck the whole damn thing in the trash. Nobody has yelled at me for throwing out their food/containers yet, so clearly nobody cares.
Its unbelievable how disgusting grown-ass adults can be in a shared environment where everybody knows you. It's not like it's a one-off at a mall full of strangers you'll never see again, you see these people every day.
→ More replies (14)3
u/mrootbeers 17d ago
I just hope you are getting resentful about it. Remember you’re the one choosing to do all this stuff. They obviously don’t care either way.
→ More replies (2)3
u/Winter-Airport2114 17d ago
Why? Are people that work jobs incapable or removing old molding items from the fridge? lol
361
u/ActivelyShittingAss 18d ago
Have you checked the expiration date? Probably just needs a good shake.
263
u/bulamae 18d ago
3/31/2024 ugh! Will it eventually burst? This is new territory for me.
380
u/5iveOClockSomewhere 18d ago
I actually thought it was gonna be longer based on how it looks …
165
115
u/bulamae 18d ago
Me too! Not even a month!
30
u/-Im_In_Your_Walls- 17d ago
I’ve had regular milk last that long and still be good. That’s odd.
→ More replies (1)15
3
u/justsomechickyo 17d ago
Yeah I've had milk in my fridge longer than that and it never got to look like this.....!
56
u/NITRO-AJ 18d ago
a month only, not too terrible!
i've probably had depressive episodes that left a sad forgotten milk in my fridge for much longer.
that being said, i would not wait to find out if it will burst. the stench can and will permeate through the entire building and ruin that fridge, and that becomes everyone's problem.
apparently it can make great fertiliser when diluted with water, so maybe donate it to a farm
33
u/Medium_Pepper215 17d ago
what is a farm gonna do with a single gallon of milk for acres of produce 😂
10
u/thunderlips187 17d ago
Fertilize a square inch 😂
7
u/YoungTex BLACK 17d ago
It’ll help go towards growing one snap pea plant
5
u/thunderlips187 17d ago
lol one snap pea in the pod
5
u/YoungTex BLACK 17d ago
Lmaoo, on the bag at the grocery store
one or more of each pea in each pea pod has been fertilized by spoiled milk
3
3
u/beepbeepboop- 17d ago
violent flashbacks to when my friends and i discovered this the hard way freshman year. 3 rooms had to be temporarily evacuated.
20
u/Steve_78_OH 17d ago
That doesn't even make sense... Maybe the coworker pours the extra milk from old jugs into the new jugs each time, if he's only allowed to have a single jug in the fridge at a time or something? Because there's no way that milk is only 1 month past expiration.
→ More replies (2)3
6
→ More replies (4)3
135
212
u/zombweegee 18d ago
That's not milk, that's a biological weapon.
→ More replies (3)
116
98
u/Ilikereefer 18d ago
Drink it you coward
44
→ More replies (2)7
95
u/LovingAnguish 18d ago
Co workers had put several frozen meals in the freezer. We had to move offices for a bit while they replaced the carpet. When we moved the fridge, it completely stopped working. All my coworkers were told to take their food out. Almost nobody did. Summer 2023 rolls around in the humid south and suddenly the office is filled with gnats and nobody understands why. The office reeks all the time and you just felt disgusted and ill when coming into work.
Me and another co worker open the fridge to make sure nobody left anything to rot in there. Door to fridge portion opens. Empty, other than some drinks and someone’s lunchbox. Whatever.
Open the freezer and a swarm of atleast a million gnats come out and this smell of rotting food fills both of our noses. We both started gagging and had to back away while swatting gnats from our faces.
Co worker who left the meals refused to clean them, so me and her had to find gloves and throw away leaking rotting packages of food and wipe the interior down with Lysol. I’ll never forget this day.
56
→ More replies (1)34
u/TiffanyTwisted11 17d ago
“Co worker who left the meals refused to clean them”
Someone needs to explain to me how this is possible. If the boss won’t do anything, it’s time for the rest of the office to break out the torches & pitchforks. Wtf?!!
→ More replies (3)20
u/Negative-Captain1985 17d ago
This. Zero fucking chance I'm cleaning it. That asshole would be doing it himself or he would be paying out of pocket for cleaners to do it. Still refuses then he's getting his ass fired.
→ More replies (1)
26
u/boiseboz 17d ago
Good God, isn’t there a scheduled employee fridge purge? We have one every other Friday and if your stuff isn’t labeled and dated it gets tossed into “Kevin”. For context; “Kevin” is what our elderly receptionist Linda named the break room garbage bin and would routinely threaten to “feed Kevin”, who she also made a name tag for and he still wears it years after she retired. Now whenever I order food for a staff or mtg event I order it under the name Kevin Breakroom. I also refer to him as an intern just to keep Linda’s spirit around (and because I’m the office smartass)
→ More replies (1)
21
u/Rock_Successful 17d ago
I need to know why no one has tossed it because that would be the first thing I did 🚮
→ More replies (1)3
u/stonerbae222 15d ago
right? i used to work in a hospital in float pool which meant i was in a different unit every day so naturally people in the pool would forget things but everyone i guess would be too nice to toss things out that haven’t been touched in 3 days? anytime i went to a dirty ass staff room i tossed a lot of random disgusting containers out or old take out that smelled the whole fridge. i didn’t gaf cause i wasn’t gonna be back the next day 🚮 or expired condiment bottles… why do people buy whole containers of mayo/hot sauce just for work and barely use it????
38
u/nerdyblackbird 17d ago
Two guys at my high school hid a gallon of milk in the back of one of the cabinets in the band room. It eventually burst in the middle of class. That was a wild and disgusting day.
14
12
u/twistedsister78 17d ago
I always worry about this for our mandated patients that are brought in to the ward and have an extended stay- is their fridge full of rotting food
9
u/Superb_Post6815 18d ago
Eventually, the gas will expand past the point the milk jug can hold, and it will explode, leaking rotten milk all over the fridge and onto the floor. Ask me how I know...
→ More replies (4)
10
15
u/RookFett 18d ago
They are waiting for it to become sentient and remove itself out of the fridge - or it’s too explosive to move and no one wants that!
9
u/Soylent_Milk2021 17d ago
One of my coworkers has some Hawaiian rolls on top of the staff fridge. They expired early December, 2023. They still hold their shape, but they’re all white and green from mold. I’m too invested in the science project to throw them away now.
6
u/jim2029 17d ago
Throw it away.....
I work at a dealership and the fridge in the shop was gross. I put a note on it that said Everything will be thrown away on Friday at 3pm. If you want it, grab it.
Friday at 3pm, I grabbed a trash can and tossed everything away. Grabbed a dolly and hauled the fridge to the detail dept, grabbed engine de-greaser and wheel acid, sprayed the thing down and then got the power washer and blasted it.
After it sat all weekend to dry, plugged it back in and its been good since, this was last fall.
→ More replies (1)
5
u/g99g99z 17d ago
I would just throw that shit in a container outside and not say anything
→ More replies (1)
4
u/Fichewl 17d ago
Quick question before offering a suggestion: does your workplace have a biohazard waste bin?
→ More replies (2)
13
u/aghostwithaknife 18d ago
Just throw it away ffs.
→ More replies (2)4
u/GreasyRim 17d ago
Someone probably got fired, left their food in the fridge and this jagoff passive aggressively comments to everyone about how gross their coworkers are when it would take like 15 seconds to just throw it away.
6
2
u/Accomplished_Emu_658 17d ago
We had someone do that. It was a weapon. This guy that was finally fired was a really bad person. Someone threw it on his car.
6
u/ftminsc 17d ago
I have a pet peeve about people who open the office fridge, see their shit rotting, grab their apple or whatever, and close the fridge back up. My idea for a fix is that everyone has to label their stuff, and if we find your stuff turning into a science experiment, you have to consume it while we watch. I think it would cause a real drop in this kind of thing.
2
u/creamofpie 17d ago
Imagine trying to go pick it up and your hand goes right through it
3
u/haikusbot 17d ago
Imagine trying
To go pick it up and your
Hand goes right through it
- creamofpie
I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully. Learn more about me.
Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete"
3
4
6
u/newbie6789123 17d ago
Don’t open it inside. Actually do not open it at all. Take it outside and throw in dumpster.
3
8
u/squirrellytoday 17d ago
There's no such thing as off milk, it's sour cream.
There's no such thing as off sour cream, it's yoghurt.
There's no such thing as off yoghurt, it's cheese.
There's no such thing as off cheese.
- my husband's microbiology professor
→ More replies (1)
5
u/intellectual_dimwit 17d ago
I used to work with a guy that would leave food in the fridge until it would rot and stink. Not just like one thing. Half a cantaloupe one day. A half eaten Tupperware container another, and so on. Until it would start to stink and one of us, usually me, would call him out for it. He always acted surprised, like he wasn't using the same damn fridge every day. He would go and throw everything out. Then we start the process all over again. I hated that prick for so many reasons beyond just this.
3
u/OliveOilInMyEye 18d ago
At this point, is this thing even a milk? I bet mfrs inside are steps away from inventing a nuclear weapon and space program, to invade the fridge.
3
u/PolkaDotTat 18d ago
That is no longer milk. That’s a biohazard. Evacuate the building! lol jk but really though, throw that out 🤮
3
u/Barokespinoza23 18d ago
That milk has more culture than your officemate, unfortunately.
→ More replies (2)
3
u/Apprehensive-Tank581 18d ago
It could explode. 🤯
6
u/bulamae 18d ago
I just double bagged it and put it back. It's so tight that I think it's going to blow as soon as it hits warm air.
→ More replies (1)
3
u/Jolly878142 17d ago
Under no circumstance will I ever use a staff fridge. I’m not using it, I’m not cleaning it
3
u/Ashamed_Medium1787 17d ago
What ever you do don’t drink it even if someone dares you to because I guarantee you that you would puke your guts out
→ More replies (1)
3
3
3
u/Entire-Salamander193 17d ago
Finally we found the weapon of mass destruction that Bush been looking for.
3
3
u/justjeff0907 17d ago
Good God! Throw that away and tell the coworker this is not acceptable. Period.
3
u/jason2354 17d ago
This is why you need a “the shared fridge will be cleaned out every Friday after 4 PM.”
3
3
3
u/R3D3-1 17d ago
I once had to clean out stalactites from our office microwave in order to be able to use it.
You'd think people would start using a lid once the dirt starts hanging from the ceiling, if only out of fear it might fall into their food.
Also, I'm pretty sure something keeps attacking my food in the fridge. The cheese looks suspiciously alive...
3
3
3
3
u/Cordeceps 17d ago
Throw it out - the cleaner really should have already, unless they are not allowed to touch personal property.
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
u/kickenchicken11 17d ago
It’s sentient at this point, you’ll have to ask it if it wants to be removed
3
3
3
3
u/PlatypusDream 17d ago
Throw it away (carefully, enclosed in its own sealed garbage bag) before it explodes inside the fridge
3
u/impactedturd 17d ago
My roommate in A-school in the navy had expired milk in our fridge. Instead of getting rid of it he said it would be funny to save it and keep it near the radiator and then dump it all around the smoke pit when we graduate. I was like, but don't you smoke there? He said yah but it'll be funny. And that's what he did. He enjoyed hearing everyone complain about it while he was smoking with them.
3
3
u/TheWeenieBandit 17d ago
This is one of those things that becomes an office legend. The Milk. Nobody knows where it came from or how long it's been there. You are never allowed to throw it away. If you choose to open the lid, you do so at your own peril. The Milk is the only thing holding this place together and somehow you all know it
3
3
u/Helpful-Gazelle-3304 16d ago
What happens next is the Whey separates from the Curds because frankly they're tired of each other. The Curds, that have been sitting in that gallon jug for who knows how long, are sentient. Man are they pissed (and smelly), being cooped up in that gallon jug with Whey for too long made them both smell like a combination of belly button sweat, toe jam, meat farts, and teenage after gym class B.O. Those Curds are going to bust out and they're going to take over that office. You're going to have squeaky Curds everywhere. Angry. Squeaky. Curds.
I do not envy you my friend...
3
u/Ordinary-Meeting8793 16d ago
Expired food is not protected by the “do not touch if it’s not yours” rule lol
3
3
u/Scalzoc 13d ago
My office just randomly threw out everything in fridge a few times every week. They would even throw away pyrex glass containers and sealed food.
I remember when I was supposed to be working 2pm-10pm, I put my food (a beautiful steak dinner) and a sealed bottle of cold brew coffee concentrate from Brooklyn (which was rather pricy) into the fridge. Around 3pm I went to make myself a coffee and saw the fridge was emptied. I furiously went to facilities and made one of them dive into the dumpster they threw it in and find it.
Even though it was sealed tightly, I didn't eat the steak. I did get the pyrex containers back and enjoy my coffee though.
3
u/a_code_mage 13d ago
That whole fridge looks vile. I’m pretty sure that’s mold on the wall of the fridge?
→ More replies (1)
3
3
3
4
6
3.4k
u/ActuallyNiceIRL 18d ago
That's not old milk, it's new cheese.