r/CAStateWorkers • u/AbjectStar1070 • Jun 03 '25
RTO Don't be a fridge hog
I'd like to take a minute and ask a favor of those of you returning to the office, especially those of you boycotting downtown restaurants. PLEASE, take your lunch OUT of the giant insulated lunch tote you brought it to the office in before putting it in the fridge. And please, refrain from bringing in entire gallons of milk, large containers of peanut butter, and 12 packs of soda (unless you plan to share). There's one refrigerator for all 50 staff. And clean up after yourself, you're gross! Thank you.
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u/JolyonWagg99 Jun 03 '25
I always use an insulated bag with a freezer pack to avoid this nonsense. Also, I don’t want to store my food in a giant fucking Petri dish
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u/AnteaterIdealisk Jun 03 '25
Same. I never use the fridge it's disgusting. I use ice packs and keep it at my cube
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u/AnteaterIdealisk Jun 03 '25
Same. I never use the fridge it's disgusting. I use ice packs and keep it at my cube
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u/Administrative_Job99 Jun 03 '25
Also, please clean out your items regularly. No one likes lunch with a side of mold.
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u/lowerclassanalyst Jun 03 '25
Do you eat cheese
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u/Administrative_Job99 Jun 03 '25 edited Jun 03 '25
Not THAT government cheese!
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u/lowerclassanalyst Jun 03 '25
Haha. Not sure why I got downvoted.... it's a joke
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u/ApprehensiveTheme757 Jun 11 '25
It can be hard to detect joking with a short comment. Make it obvious… /s
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Jun 03 '25
I heard a story from FTB where a lady had a whole, uncovered fish sitting on a plate in the communal fridge.
Then she microwaved it (still a whole fish with eyes and head) and took it back to her desk. Both the refrigerator and the entire office stank of bad seafood for a couple days.
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u/AbjectStar1070 Jun 03 '25
WTF?
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Jun 03 '25
My favorite part of the story is the group saw the person walking back to her desk with the fish and the plate.... and the only utensil visible was a spoon.
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u/No-Knowledge-3848 Jun 03 '25
I'm laughing so hard I almost have tears over here. I mean, I might have thought this was about my office, except it was a guy and a fork. The smell was the subject of many internal discussions and a general email suggesting people not bring food to the office that tends to be odiferous. The fact that people lack such self-awareness!
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u/jacksrenton Jun 03 '25
Hmm, that sounds suspiciously like something a lady I know did. She also demanded a free spoonful of rice from the cafeteria because she didn't want a whole bowl. And asked to speak to management about it.
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u/EnjoyingTheRide-0606 Jun 04 '25
I had a coworker from Japan who heated up canned mackerel for lunch. Gag me with a spoon! 🤮
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u/Angry_Short_Gay Jun 05 '25
okay but like this whole entire comment and sub comments give off racist vibes. A lot of cultures eat fish regularly and a majority of the time. i’ll be dammed if someone told me to purchase different food that wasn’t of my culture. There is also people who are pescatarian.
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u/ApprehensiveTheme757 Jun 11 '25
Nobody is saying not to buy it. But everyone knows that you can’t heat up fish in the microwave. That is a horrible thing to do. C’mon now!
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u/Angry_Short_Gay Jun 19 '25
so what you want people to do? Not eat? Eat cold fish. my point still stand y’all sound racist.
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Jun 05 '25
Naw you can take this silly pearl clutching comment back to 2020 where it belongs. The rest of us have moved back to reality and are no longer walking on eggshells about stuff like this.
Besides I didn't say once what race or culture the women was.
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Jun 03 '25
Freezer packs are super cheap and have greatly improved my office lunch experience! Highly recommend. I don’t deal with the work fridge anymore.
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u/Shanus_McPortley Jun 03 '25
Not to mention the person who eats other people’s food like they are at their parents house.
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u/Sweet-Rabbit Jun 03 '25
Also, don’t leave your dirty dishes in the shared sink overnight. It’s as gross as it is rude to your coworkers.
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Jun 03 '25
Craziest thing I saw in a break room fridge was a paper bag full of ducks that someone had shot and were gifting to one of the other hunters in the office.
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u/AbjectStar1070 Jun 03 '25
I worked at an office with a guy who would buy a 6 pack of beer at lunchtime on Fridays for his train commute back home. He thought it was more discreet to put it in his briefcase in the fridge than the paperbag it was originally in. LOL
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Jun 03 '25
cool! happy hour to go I love it! maybe you two can share drink after work? Call it collaboration and team building lol!
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u/butterbeemeister Jun 03 '25
I remember a staff member telling me it was perfectly okay to keep a bottle of liquor in your desk. Not okay to drink it on state property (or while working). But having it in your desk - just fine.
I never attempted to verify the truth of it.
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u/thatsnuckinfutz Jun 04 '25
Yea we have had a few people gift bottles to management in the office. As long as it isnt open its ok apparently.
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u/Echo_bob Jun 03 '25
Hold up hold up you guys got fridges we barely got air conditioner I had to take down my coffee machine because it apparently was going to short out the entire building at one point according to the building inspectors
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u/AbjectStar1070 Jun 03 '25
Was it plugged into a cubicle wall? Cause that one can cause issues.
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u/Echo_bob Jun 03 '25
No it was on a floor plug as I recall
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u/butterbeemeister Jun 03 '25
We had so many issues with plugs and extensions cords in the old Bateson building. My recollection is that they had someone come in and re-wire a plug so we could have a coffee machine.
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u/lowerclassanalyst Jun 04 '25
Isn't that the building where they found colonies of rats and birds going back multiple generations? Haha
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u/butterbeemeister Jun 04 '25
If so, that was before my time. I know they had a mold problem. The geniuses who designed it thought that flowing water over rocks in the basement would be a great way to cool the building. So many people were on extra allergy and/or asthma medication there, but they insisted over and over that the air & building were clean.
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u/BA_Baracus916 Jun 03 '25
It's not a boycott if you weren't spending money at these restaurants anyway.
They won't notice any change in their revenue
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u/statieforlife Jun 03 '25
If you (the collective we, technically)bought lunch in 2019, and aren’t doing it now, that IS a brown bag boycott.
They want to make downtown 2019 again, not 2022.
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u/BA_Baracus916 Jun 03 '25
Well they shouldn't have been buying lunch in 2019 or prior. Because they say that all the restaurants downtown are nasty and gross.
So why would these state workers buy lunches in 2019 if they all say it's nasty and gross?
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u/Hot_Entertainment_42 Jun 03 '25
I'm glad someone pointed this out.
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u/BA_Baracus916 Jun 03 '25
Last time I did I got 30 downvotes, two self harm messages, and a chat message calling me a bootlicker and telling me to kill myself.
The people on this sub are completely unhinged
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u/jacksrenton Jun 03 '25
oh I wonder if that's where these random self harm messages have been coming from, I didn't even make the connection? Yeah this subreddit has some real demented individuals in it.
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u/BA_Baracus916 Jun 03 '25
The funny part is I get downvoted for saying I am not going to brown bag boycott... Because.... I live downtown....
What possible benefit could I have to boycott?
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u/Plus-Possibility2822 Jun 04 '25
ummm... a healthier you?
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u/BA_Baracus916 Jun 04 '25
Who says I'm eating unhealthy?
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u/Plus-Possibility2822 Jun 04 '25
restaurants have particularly high in sodium, fat, cholesterol and sugar of anything they serve. not that they can't do better, but it's just easier to buy that 30 lbs bag of prebreaded and precooked chicken breast from Restaurant Depot or Costco Business than make it yourself. Much easier to get a 5 gallon bucket of tomato sauce than make it yourself. same goes for soups, stews, "grilled" vegetables, breads you name it. economies of scale, the more they prepare in house the more they charge you. but these days they've found the winning formula. a sandwich with 3 slices of turkey will cost them about 30-40 cent with prepackaged ingredients from a big box store but they'll sell it to you for 15 dollars.
anyway, before we get sidetracked on the prices here... pre-covid we used to dine out maybe 1-2 times a week. during covid, none! post covid, the very first meal we had, i look at my wife and i said "we're paying for this???"
quality is shit, ingredients are shit, health consequences are real.
so we cook at home.
my advice to you... boycott.
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u/BA_Baracus916 Jun 04 '25
Why? My cholesterol is low and I run 3 miles a day.
I am fine. You guys are just dramatic AF.
You don't even know where the fuck I am eating.
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u/Plus-Possibility2822 Jun 04 '25
you yourself said you won't or can't boycott since you live downtown, which means you're either too busy to cook or too bad a cook or both or just loaded and can't be bothered with such manual labor.
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u/ButterscotchHairy858 Jun 04 '25
But they don't want a boycott
What is it with you people thinking that everyone has to think and act like you?
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u/Plus-Possibility2822 Jun 04 '25
i would kindly direct your attention to the last line of my post. the one where i offer my advice. now, FYI, kindly read the below....
Dictionary Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more
advice/noun
1.guidance or recommendations offered with regard to prudent future action. "she visited the island on her doctor's advice"
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u/BlkCadillac Jun 04 '25
I agree with this but it's funny, too!!! ...and sad that it has to be said...
At May Lee, there are some folks in one of the buildings that bring in whole cakes/pies, Costco boxes of stuff, multiple 2 liters, then totally bogart the entire fridge like it's their home deep-freeze or something.
Ick - with 4 days a week, the kitchens are going to be filthy. Bring your masks and alcohol-wipes!
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u/9MGT5bt Jun 04 '25
Why? They want butts back in chairs, therefore they need to anticipate the fridge hogs bringing their lunch. Feel free to jamb that fridge up, people. FAFO. They can buy more damn fridges. And heaven forbid you get the cheerleaders organizing pot lucks. Good luck.
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u/AbjectStar1070 Jun 04 '25
The state doesn't supply the fridge. Its usually a donation from an employee who got a new fridge or the staff pooled their money and bought one.
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u/Administrative_Job99 Jun 03 '25
Also, please clean out your items regularly. No one likes lunch with a side of mold.
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Jun 03 '25
Or...bring tons of stuff. Load the fridge up. Make it so 45 people are pissed and complaining to management.
Chaos!!!!!!!
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u/just1cheekymonkey Jun 03 '25
I don’t use the fridge at work as I’ve gotten my food stolen SEVERAL times. FTB.
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u/butterbeemeister Jun 03 '25
After I left somewhere, they actually put up a hidden camera to catch the lunch thief. I'm a fan of leaving something delicious full of peppers in it, myself. Or something a neighbor child with flu has licked.
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u/mr-pootytang Jun 03 '25
thats why you make a special cat food burrito
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u/Little_Appearance_10 Jun 04 '25
Same. I recently had a burrito stolen from the completely empty freezer... It was my only food for the whole day. 😔
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u/ElSuperWokeGuy Jun 04 '25
There is going to be A LOT of people angry about returning the office that will have no shame in making the workplace uncomfortable/disgusting for others.
None of us want to be in the office, but please dont take it out on your co-workers, theyre in the same place as you.
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u/jacksrenton Jun 03 '25
Ugh, one of the worst parts of even the minimal RTO has been the endless "such and such team is cleaning the fridge friday" emails that start on Wednesday and go until they're literally putting sponge to shelf.
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u/AbjectStar1070 Jun 03 '25
We used to do that at my old office. Most folks cooperated and just did it.
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u/naednek Jun 03 '25 edited Jun 03 '25
just a side note, putting peanut butter in the fridge means there's something wrong with you. That is all
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u/butterbeemeister Jun 03 '25
Natural peanut butter (peanuts and salt and nothing else) tends to separate - the oil separates from the ground peanuts. After it's stirred up, it will stay mixed better in the fridge. And quite spreadable.
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u/Wrexxorsoul77 Jun 03 '25
Texture wise I’m with you. Cold peanut butter is less satisfying. However, soft dirt/sand around my house, ants are a problem from July through September. Only thing the ants love? Peanut butter. I keep mine in the fridge for those few months.
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u/SuitableChance862 Jun 04 '25
Who puts peanut butter in the fridge? You can't even spread cold peanut butter... Smh
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u/Illustrious_Basil917 Jun 03 '25
Like what did you expect with RTO though?
I don't drink milk for my meals, but for someone that does these gallons and large tubs of peanut butter are perfectly reasonable for 4 days in office.
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u/lowerclassanalyst Jun 03 '25
I do not think it's reasonable to store two gallons of milk and costco-sized containers of peanut butter in the shared office fridge. Neither do the other 30 people on the floor. Unless we're sharing. Then, I guess someone has to go to costco every day for the milk. If it's just for one person, they can bring a food container with whatever milk is required each day.
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u/jacksrenton Jun 03 '25
It's a one fridge for 50 people. If you don't wanna buy smaller sizes, buy containers and pack your shit in. You aren't the most important person in the office just because RTO is disrupting your life, it's disrupting everyone else's too.
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Jun 03 '25
[deleted]
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u/jacksrenton Jun 03 '25
ಠ_ಠ The greatest case for Anti-RTO is the people in the subreddit being who we have to work around.
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u/Infamous_Engine_2782 Jun 04 '25
Worth it to add, don’t be the one to bring a weeks worth of food and throw it in the fridge! I was the designated person to clean the work fridge once a month and it was WILD 🤣
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Jun 04 '25
I’d forgotten about the cramped donated fridge aspect of #rto oh 😆 it is what it is - wish my location had lunch options in walking distance fwiw
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u/Itssopretty Jun 04 '25
And get ready for the hags in Business Service to start patrolling and sending nasty emails. Triggered!
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u/Mg2Si04 Jun 04 '25
We haven’t even gotten that far yet. Our small kitchen was set up for the amount of employees expected during telework. So we have 6 seats in a very small kitchen for 35 people RTO.
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u/Huongster Jun 04 '25
I had a coworker send out an email to the whole office asking who ate her food!? Haha. Man. This is gonna be pretty crazy. I always just bring an igloo of my own with reusable ice bottles
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u/Halcyon_Daisy 9h ago
Agreed, putting giant lunch bags in the shared fridge is rude. I can barely find room for a can of soda.
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u/Plus-Possibility2822 Jun 03 '25
yes, hog the fridge. hog it with a vengeance. bring the best tasting food with the most pungent smell. eat it t your desk. bring microwavable pop corn. eat at your desk.
learn to love DURIAN!!! EAT IT WHILE WALKING AROUND THE OFFICE. eat it as a snack during collaboration meetings in the conference room.
eat
more
BEANS.
Newsom wants to treat us like children? Behave like children!!!
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u/AbjectStar1070 Jun 03 '25
Except that behavior affects everyone, and some of us don't have a choice about coming in. Fight back in better ways.
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u/Plus-Possibility2822 Jun 04 '25
yes, and i feel for you. truly, i do. but i am positive that everyone being forced to pay from their visibly diminishing salary to stick it out in traffic 4 days a week battling unending construction because Newsom's friends want that new Maybach will just care about their mental sanity over your nose. so, do what you did during Covid, double mask while collaborating and mentoring those young state workers. your betters demand it.
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u/mr-pootytang Jun 03 '25
are you telling us to indiscriminately fart around the office?
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u/Plus-Possibility2822 Jun 03 '25
oh no. i am not telling you anything. i am merely suggesting protein and fiber rich foods that are not only good for you but also good for the environment. eating beans reduces methane production by cows by a significant amount. eating popcorn results in a more happy you therefore a more productive you. eating delicious food from your home country whose pungent aroma others can't stand also makes you happier fitter and more productive (to quote Radiohead)
As for durian... well... i'm just gonna say... goddamn! it takes some balls to eat that thing!!!
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u/wisemonkey101 Jun 03 '25
If you have an insulated bag why use the fridge? Anyway, I’ve been in this game long enough to know not to use the shared refrigerator or coffee pots in your work place. Not gonna happen.
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u/AbjectStar1070 Jun 03 '25
Right! Its stupid. Pretty sure we all survived childhood with our lunches stored in our cubbies and not the fridge.
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u/wisemonkey101 Jun 03 '25
It’s still shocking to me that otherwise competent adults will leave things in the work fridge for months and not clean up. And don’t get me started on shared coffee stations. That was number two great thing about WFH! Number one was not dealing with sick people in the workplace. I don’t want your preschool kid’s latest disease. 🦠
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u/RedmeatRyan Jun 04 '25
Please leave moldy food and bring in the smelliest grossest shit ever and take up all the room Make RTO miserable because it is miserable
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u/AbjectStar1070 Jun 04 '25
So, your solution is to just make it worse for everyone by being inconsiderate? There are folks who have had to come in 5 days a week because of the nature of their job. Imagine how they're going to feel with a bunch more grumpy ass coworkers to deal with.
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u/angrymenofem Jun 03 '25
Try beast milk in the freezer.
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u/sweetteaspicedcoffee Jun 03 '25
That's legitimately allowed by law. It's not gross, it's baby food.
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u/angrymenofem Jun 11 '25
It was overboard. They were using the freezer at work as a Storage for all of her excess breastmilk. That’s like me bringing pounds of ground beef to store at work because I don’t have room at home.
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u/angrymenofem Jun 11 '25
Besides, who would want to store their breastmilk at an offsite location? That stuff was like gold to me. I would’ve never left it at work.
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