Eddie Used Something From the Office Fridge That Wasn’t His

A conversation about office kitchen etiquette started when Morgan spotted Eddie in the community kitchen again.

The general rule in the office kitchen is simple: if someone’s name is written on something, you don’t eat it. And even if there’s no name, most people still assume the food belongs to someone else. Morgan walked by the kitchen and saw Eddie standing there with a carton of oat milk. Eddie called Morgan over because he didn’t have his glasses. He asked Morgan to read the expiration date on the carton. Morgan checked and told him the oat milk had about five days left before it expired. Eddie seemed relieved. As he walked back over to pour it into his coffee, he casually said it was a good thing the oat milk wasn’t his. Then he poured it into his coffee.

Morgan immediately pointed out that the oat milk wasn’t his to use. Eddie admitted he knew it wasn’t his. His reasoning was that he had seen the same carton sitting in the refrigerator for months. In his mind, that meant no one was using it. That explanation sparked a bigger debate. Amy pointed out that with drinks like oat milk or almond milk, the expiration date on the bottle doesn’t tell the whole story. Once the container is opened, it usually needs to be consumed within seven to ten days.

Eddie didn’t believe that was true. Eddie went to grab the carton from the fridge. When they brought it back, it was still almost completely full. Bobby said the carton was “NFY," aka not for you. The printed instructions confirmed that the milk should be consumed within seven to ten days after opening. That led to another problem. Eddie admitted the carton had already been open when he used it. He insisted he had seen that same bottle in the fridge for months, but others pointed out there was no way to know whether it had actually been the same bottle or if someone had replaced it with a new one at some point. Either way, the oat milk clearly belonged to someone else.

At that point, the group started debating whether the milk might already be bad. Even though the printed expiration date was still in the future, the seven-to-ten-day rule after opening suggested it could have gone bad long ago. Eddie realized he had already used it the day before. Despite that, he said he felt fine. Some thought it should be thrown away to avoid anyone accidentally drinking spoiled milk. Others argued they shouldn’t touch it at all since it didn’t belong to them.

In the end, the situation returned to the original point. Don’t drink something in the office fridge if it isn’t yours!!