At our office, the coffee machine is accompanied by a sign “25 cents a cup” and a small box with a slot in it. Then we all got the memo that if people didn’t start contributing for the coffee, the pot would be removed and, yes, 25 per cup meant every cup, not unlimited free refills. Seems the whole pot was disappearing every day with like 50 cents left in the kitty. :rolleyes:
People are so frickin’ cheap when they think they won’t get caught.
I have the CCJ on my desk.
Mon-Thu, it’s filled with hard, minty candies…Lifesaver spearmints, Starlites, heck, right now I’ve got leftover Christmas minature candy canes in there.
But Friday is Chocolate Friday. Then it’s filled with Hershey minaitures, Kisses, etc. People do bring in bags of chocolate to replenish. I also have the chocolate stashed, so when someone “needs” chocolate during the week, I can supply them.
I used to have chocolate every day, but it was gone by 10am. Since I’ve switched to Chocolate Fridays, instead of all week, it lasts longer.
That’s quite possible, but the CCJ owner seemed sincere that I was not the one who was a problem, and a very specific other person was. Be that as it may, I’m happy to contribute (because then I stock it with stuff I like!), and I really don’t care who gets piggish with it. That’s what it’s there for. As long as they leave me the Mr. Goodbars.
It’s this sort of thing that makes me angry beyond what is rational for that sort of behavior.
Where I work now, we have many CCJs with the candy supplied by the company. There is one at the front desk and each Admin has one. There is effectively an infinite amount of candy to be had.
We also have free soda machines and bottled water (regular and carbonated.) Finally we have a new Gartorade machine. There are a bunch of soda machines but only one Gatorade machine and it’s by a back exit. The drink machines are filled on Monday mornings. The soda machines hold out fine but the Gatorade machine was totally empty by Monday night when it was first installed. Security put up a camera and found that more than one person was putting five or six bottles in a backpack on their way out the door. If I were in charge I would fire them on the spot. What the fuck? An email went out shaming the people who did it without mentioning any names. Now the supply lasts until Wednesday morning.
Update: Well the CCJ is still intact. Ellen has calmed down and just doesn’t have it in her to hold grudges. We’ve discussed confronting Steve, but Ellen is afraid that it will embarrass him and affect their relationship. So she’s asked us (the lunch bunch) to not say anything to him for now. (Unlike a lot of us, Ellen has this need to please.)
For those who recognized the pig in them, I’m glad that my OP prompted you to take action. Some CCJ keepers like Scylla don’t really want or need donations, and they’ll let you know by waving you off the first time you try to donate. But others do appreciate donations, either direct donations of candy or a buck every now and then. It such a small thing but means a lot to the Ellens of the world.
And, of course, it SHOULD go without saying that taking handfuls of candy is just a bad idea no matter who paid for it. It’s not good for you and the rest of the staff are appalled by your bad manners.
I gave up maintaining my CCJ because I could not control who would come get candy and I was having way too much annoying traffic at my desk. And when people asked where the candy jar went, I told them I got rid of it because some people just couldn’t keep their grubby fingers to themselves and had to visit me too many times. I let them determine for themselves if they were part of the problem.
Everybody really misses the Jelly Bellys and Tootsie Pops, but apparently not enough to start their own candy jars. :rolleyes:
It’s funny how these things go. A few years ago there was a thread in the Pit where the OP bought in a dozen donuts from Krispy Kreme on the way to the office as a treat for the staff. There were like eighteen people in the office. One very obese man took three of the donuts for himself and shortly later took two more. When confronted, he said that since he was fat, he was hungrier and deserved them.
I was one of the first posts and supported the OP. It ended up in a back and forth fight between a few of us and more than a couple of other Dopers who supported the guy who took the five donuts. They said that it was a “first come, first served” situation and that an appropriate portion wasn’t necessarily one donut per person.
Well, this thread has inspired me to start a CCJ in my office. I don’t know why - perhaps I’m just longing to see who the shwanks in my department are. 
That is sad and pathetic, I cannot believe people would defend someone that grabbed 5 out of 12 donuts. The glutton in question is disgusting. Bad enough to scarf down food like that, if you bought it for yourself, but to do it to food that was meant to be shared, really brings inconsiderate to a new level.
Jim
Yeah. I felt kinda bad the day I took a half-full soda can with me, because I figured it’d be wasted otherwise. To snag a whole bunch of the free drinks? Classless.
Then again, at my last job, people’s lunches got stolen all the time out of the communal fridges. It was bad as low-level workers typically were paid little and would just go hungry if their lunches were stolen, as they couldn’t afford lunch out of the cafeteria and couldn’t take time off to go home. We did catch one employee doing it - a long tenured employee who had recently been promoted. He was fired. The manager did it reluctantly and only when forced to by higher-ups, but, this guy made more than I did (a manager)… if he can’t afford food, well, he has problems, and especially stealing from people who couldn’t afford to lose stuff.
I’m glad Ellen is still going ahead with the CCJ, it seems like she enjoys it for the most part!
If Ellen doesn’t want to confront Steve, something you might do on her behalf (that leaves her out of it) is wait until she is not around in the office, and then announce in a pleasant, loud, and assertive way that you are going to replenish the CCJ candy supply as a “thank you” to Ellen, and WOULD ANYONE LIKE TO KICK IN A FEW BUCKS so that you can get an even more plentiful supply. You might ask someone else in your lunch bunch to be ready to jauntily say “Why yes, PunditLisa, what a nice idea, here’s $5.” The key of course is to do in front of Steve. If he ponies up, he’s still piggy (and lazy) but at least he’s good natured. If he doesn’t … then you know the true nature of the beast and can seek revenge accordingly.
The passive aggressive approach! What a marvelous idea. :rolleyes:
What’s wrong with, “Hey Dude, Ellen pays for that out of her own pocket. Why don’t you contribute every once in a while or at least don’t take as much as the rest of us combined.”? Yeah, I know that Ellen doesn’t want a confrontation but your way amounts to pretty much the same thing.
I wish I could take credit for that but I was quoting my sister. It’s odd when you have no memory of writing something, but odder still when punitive measures, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and colons are all sufficiently mentioned in a post to warrant it being repeated. 
Not wolves, that’s for sure- I doubt you’d get away with that kind of behavior in a wolf pack.
Nothing is wrong with your way, except that Ellen said she didn’t want to confront him herself. In my way, Ellen isn’t confronting him, so I don’t think it’s the same thing in terms of her involvement. It is indeed a similar thing in terms of possibly getting the CCJ replenished, which I think is a plus for everyone.
Really and truly, I know I’m in the minority on this, but I don’t see how the passive-aggressive approach is by definition a poor option. It’s an option.
Not to mention the most famous wolf-raising I know of resulted in something a little more communal-spirited.
I don’t think it is about greed. I think they feel like they have a small victory. They are getting ahead in the system . I have been a supplier all my life. Every office has at least one who is trying to get ahead . Even if you offered to supply candy for a penny apiece the cheaters will quit eating. It is getting away with it that they like.
I’m amazed at the amount of people who think it’s okay to sit idly by and let these CCJ Pigs grab handful after handful. The suggestions to say nothing to him, take the candy bowl away, and snarky comments towards him should he ever ask what happened - what passive aggressive bullshit. If Ellen had taken the candy bowl away, it’s not due to the fact that Steve takes handful after handful of candy, it’s because no one ever told him it was not okay to do so. All this pissing and moaning about how everyone suffers because one person ruins it all… well it does n’t have to be ruined if you just grew a pair and tell these fuckers not to take more than their share.
I deal with a lot of shit at my job. At times, I get treated worse than the admin assistant. Our director intimidates the hell out of me, but if he ever had the audacity to be a pig about the community candy, he would sure as hell hear it from me - with a lot of “Yeah!” and “You go girl!” shouting in the background like a bad 90’s movie.
I mean really, how hard is it when you see the Pig approach to head him off at the curb and just say “I noticed you’ve been grabbing handfuls each time you come by. This is community candy, limit yourself to two pieces please.” and if he’s that clueless and laughs off your “suggestion”, then drop the pleasantries and remove it from his reach when he approaches. You don’t have to be confrontational at all, just don’t be a fucking doormat.
Oh bullshit. Other people aren’t responsible for his behavior.
I’m not saying that he should be taking handfuls of candy. I am saying that when he does, people have a choice of either telling him that it is not okay and educate him on why it’s not okay, or stare daggers at his back and silently resent him for ruining things for everyone.
As difficult as it is to believe, some people really have no idea how to behave socially. Whether it’s because they were raised by wolves, their mothers never taught them, or they suffer selective amnesia on social ettiquette, it doesn’t really matter. You can say something to them and curb their offensive behaviour, or you can let them ruin it for everyone.