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Comment by kube-system | Hacker News Reader

If you can’t trust your coworkers to not mess with your lunch, how do you trust them to do important work?

I stole a colleagues lunch once on the first day of a new job. I was running out quick to go to the book store and grab a book at lunch (lol!) and I grabbed the brown bag thinking it was mine. While I was driving, I pulled the sandwich from the bag took a bite and realized it wasn't mine. I was mortified. I went back put the bag minus sandwich back in the fridge with a $20 apologizing profusely in a note.

The woman whose lunch I stole laughed it off and gave me back the money. I was ragged on for the entirety of my 5 years there for stealing that lunch.

Well that's not so much "stole" as "accidentally traded" :-D

One bitten. Twice shy.

Mistakes are a different thing entirely, and if anything, your example shows why you can be trusted.

Yoko Ono notoriously stole a cookie from George Harrison. So either she thought the cookies belonged to everyone or the Beatles breaking up really was her fault.

Could be both

whether or not I trust my coworkers has no bearing on whether or not they continue to be my coworkers. My boss is accountable for them, I'm not. He's paid the big bucks to separate the sheep from the goats.

I would not want to work in a place where I could not trust my coworkers to that degree. If they were my direct reports I’d fire them, and if I had no say over the situation I’d leave. That kind of behavior is a huge red flag, especially if tolerated.

Unfortunately, many people in offices don't have the kind of freedom in choosing a job that tech workers are used to. For example, as a medphys resident I'd destroy my career if I quit over a lunch.

Why would you really trust your food with your coworkers?

What you eat should be well protected.

It’s not about the food. It’s about trust.

Trustworthy people still make mistakes, and act out of emotion, you surely don’t want anybody making mistakes on your food.

Feel free to downvote, but never play with the safety of your food.

What paranoid conspiracies do you think are happening in an office kitchen?

Wait until you hear about the shady stuff that happens in restaurants or supermarkets...

You've latched on to a part of my comment that was orthogonal to the point I was making.

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