Beware the Office Refrigerator!

[Railroad]

Today, I cleaned out our office refrigerator and let me tell you what... I am going to have nightmares tonight about it. It was so bad that the maintenance worker requested he wheel it outside for me to clean and that was after a large trash bag cleared away all the rotten and expired food. Now I certainly could have delegated this duty since I am the boss of my office but I’ve always had a theory that I should never delegate a duty I would never want delegated to me. AND, my staff has enough to do.

Anyway, our refrigerator is one of those old avocado green ones that are not self-defrosting and the frost was so bad that you could not have even fit a weight-watcher’s meal in the freezer portion. Once I cleared the frost out, I found ice cream sandwich bars and some sort of meat surprise in a plastic bag (I think) under all the frosting. Trust me, that was the least of my gross sightings today, because our refrigerator was a gold mine for forgotten food.

So... I have to wonder, what is your office policy on your refrigerator?

AND, what is the nastiest thing you've ever found in your office fridge?

Or how about the nastiest notes you've ever found on or inside your office fridge?

AND I'd be willing to bet that I have the oldest office refrigerator on the forums. (It is 43 years old)

Mine's relatively new, spotless inside and out, and 10 feet from my desk. Prior to that, my office refrigerator was in my cubicle, spotless inside and out. One look at the one in the common area ("coffee MESS") made the cheap mini-fridge look very attractive.

 

[Roman]

Mine's relatively new, spotless inside and out, and 10 feet from my desk. Prior to that, my office refrigerator was in my cubicle, spotless inside and out. One look at the one in the common area ("coffee MESS") made the cheap mini-fridge look very attractive.

Welcome back RR!

 

[czygvtwkr]

When I was at Ch10 our office manager cleaned out the fridge every Friday at COB. Threw EVERYTHING away, including Tupperware containers. I don't understand why anyone would need to have food in an office fridge longer than one day.

Well at my old job I had to work over time often without warning, usual quitting time was 4PM but there were nights that I was there till 11 so I often kept extras in the fridge.

 

[luvmygdaughters]

I put a note on the fridge that all leftovers, drinks, dishes w/food will be tossed out every Friday at COB. So far its worked pretty good. I've only had too throw out two tupperware/rubbermaid looking bowls.

 

[lucky_bee]

Within the first MONTH of my new job, a bunch of my food was stolen

For the most part, my office fridge houses a bunch of condiments and a couple of snacks people keep in there throughout the week. I though it'd be ok to keep a thing of pine nut hummus in there (name was allllllll over it) and a small container with a couple cuts of a low-carb breakfast casserole. Nothing had been in there for over 3 days, and nothing else from the fridge was taken. Just mine seems someone thought they'd either bust on the new girl or try my low-carb diet :shrug: wasn't very funny! I left a scathing note large enough to cover half the top freezer door about how they took my special diet food with my name all over them and how I was broke and sad and annoyed....

I guess in the long run, it helped establish some "don't mess with Bee" thing

 

[ArkRescue]

Who exactly left their nasty food in there in the first place?

The best policy I've ever seen was one where everything (other than condiments) had to be out of the fridge after lunch on Friday, unless they left a note on it saying they were taking it home. Then someone spent 10 or 15 minutes throwing out anything still in there at the end of the day. Containers and all, nothing was sacred. I know it sounds extreme, but everyone knew the deal and no one could complain that it stunk or was unsanitary.

We need to do that at our office. Right now both refrigerators are filled with forgotten crap no one cares about! It smells horrid in there too. I have seen some pretty nasty stuff. I think the smell gets to me more than what it looks like. Many times we can't tell WHAT it was. I toss out everything, containers too - we give people 1 week's notice, so if they left Grandma's heirloom casserole dish in there, that's not my problem, can we say GLADWARE? If you care about it, leave it at HOME for the children to break lol..