The Devil eats cheeseburgers. My hungry supervisor made me give her my lunch.

[Anonymous]

She shouldn’t have done that. I’m glad she paid you but you need to say no next time, or else you’re going to become her gofer.

[Anonymous]

In the 1990s a college friend of mine got her first job working at Martha Stewart magazine. One day her leftovers from a nice restaurant in went missing and she walked all around the office asking everyone if they had seen her lunch. Within a few minutes Martha herself walks out of her office with the empty bag and says to my friend “I ate your lunch.”

[Anonymous]

I know the way it came out. But I kind of feel like she was in a bind and asked you for a favor. Sometimes things come up that you can’t plan for at work. I think the execution was bad because it put you on the spot to have to agree.

[Anonymous]

Why did you give it to her?

“Sorry, no”

And find a job immediately.

Boundaries are your friend! (Though apparently not hers.)

[Anonymous]

My initial thought was that this was not okay but after thinking about it, I’m not sure it’s so bad. It’s pretty common that if someone is having a crammed schedule day some one will say — do you want me to grab you something? Or I have sometimes asked my assistant to grab me something from downstairs if I am in all day meetings. So if part of your job is to make your supervisors boss easier, then standing in line to get her lunch might occasionally be part of it. So i guess for me it would depend a lot on what your job duties are and also if you’re an hourly or salaried worker and if you were on an unpaid lunch break. At least she didn’t ask you to run down and get her a salad while your burger got cold. I mean, you still got your burger right? And still presumably got to take your same amount of lunch break? So for that one day standing in line at the grill was part of your job duties—whether that was appropriate to ask you to do depends on what your usual job is. If you’re an admin assistant, I think that’s probably appropriate. If you are a CPA, that’s not generally okay but maybe in an emergency (eg boss is diabetic or otherwise can’t slip a meal), would be something a good colleague would step up and do in order to be a team player on a tough day.

[Anonymous]

Let it go and consider it a good deed, and maybe will earn you some brownie points with your boss. If it becomes a pattern or escalates, that’s a different story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the 1990s a college friend of mine got her first job working at Martha Stewart magazine. One day her leftovers from a nice restaurant in went missing and she walked all around the office asking everyone if they had seen her lunch. Within a few minutes Martha herself walks out of her office with the empty bag and says to my friend “I ate your lunch.”

Not gonna lie, I kinda love this story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the 1990s a college friend of mine got her first job working at Martha Stewart magazine. One day her leftovers from a nice restaurant in went missing and she walked all around the office asking everyone if they had seen her lunch. Within a few minutes Martha herself walks out of her office with the empty bag and says to my friend “I ate your lunch.”

Not gonna lie, I kinda love this story.

Me too because t wondering if she really did or if she was just shutting down a conversation she didn’t want to continue.

[Anonymous]

I would have been shocked and said yes. I doubt that most of these keyboard warriors would have actually said no.

Does your boss ask for other weird work and non work things?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WTF is this? I got back to my desk with my lunch and my supervisor pokes her head in and asks, mmmm what smells so good? I show her my cheeseburger and fries I just got and was about to eat for MY lunch! She says, oh can I have that, I’m starving and I don’t have time to wait in the grill line. Do you mind? So I said sure and left to get another lunch. Never bringing food to my desk again (except when she’s on vacation). It was so weird, the nerve of her and my inability to say no since she’s my boss. What is this behavior? Should I tell HR? Look for a new job?

Why did you give her your lunch if you didn’t want to? You could have just said no?

Fear of retaliation. She may have a point… she doesn’t have time to get lunch and I obviously do. It was so unexpected.

Oh you definitely need to repeat this story in the office but when you tell it make it faux concern.

And next time say no sorry i

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let it go and consider it a good deed, and maybe will earn you some brownie points with your boss. If it becomes a pattern or escalates, that’s a different story.

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My initial thought was that this was not okay but after thinking about it, I’m not sure it’s so bad. It’s pretty common that if someone is having a crammed schedule day some one will say — do you want me to grab you something? Or I have sometimes asked my assistant to grab me something from downstairs if I am in all day meetings. So if part of your job is to make your supervisors boss easier, then standing in line to get her lunch might occasionally be part of it. So i guess for me it would depend a lot on what your job duties are and also if you’re an hourly or salaried worker and if you were on an unpaid lunch break. At least she didn’t ask you to run down and get her a salad while your burger got cold. I mean, you still got your burger right? And still presumably got to take your same amount of lunch break? So for that one day standing in line at the grill was part of your job duties—whether that was appropriate to ask you to do depends on what your usual job is. If you’re an admin assistant, I think that’s probably appropriate. If you are a CPA, that’s not generally okay but maybe in an emergency (eg boss is diabetic or otherwise can’t slip a meal), would be something a good colleague would step up and do in order to be a team player on a tough day.

IMO, the boss is an adult and if she doesn't have time or has blood sugar issues, she could order lunch to be delivered or ask her admin to order it for her. Or she could pack a lunch or keep snacks in her drawer because this is an ongoing issue. Or she could have asked someone to stand in line for her. She even could have done a "ohhh, that looks soooo good, I wish that was my lunch" and hint that OP should buy her one (which would still be pretty rude and awful), but to actually ask OP to give her the food, knowing OP is her subordinate, was just completely unprofessional and weird. I have been a supervisor and I can't imagine ever doing this. I actually can't imagine doing that to anyone at work and I'm not sure I would do it with friends or family either (I might ask for a bite or a few fries, but to just take their lunch they are about to bite into...?).

[Anonymous]

This just cannot be true!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My initial thought was that this was not okay but after thinking about it, I’m not sure it’s so bad. It’s pretty common that if someone is having a crammed schedule day some one will say — do you want me to grab you something? Or I have sometimes asked my assistant to grab me something from downstairs if I am in all day meetings. So if part of your job is to make your supervisors boss easier, then standing in line to get her lunch might occasionally be part of it. So i guess for me it would depend a lot on what your job duties are and also if you’re an hourly or salaried worker and if you were on an unpaid lunch break. At least she didn’t ask you to run down and get her a salad while your burger got cold. I mean, you still got your burger right? And still presumably got to take your same amount of lunch break? So for that one day standing in line at the grill was part of your job duties—whether that was appropriate to ask you to do depends on what your usual job is. If you’re an admin assistant, I think that’s probably appropriate. If you are a CPA, that’s not generally okay but maybe in an emergency (eg boss is diabetic or otherwise can’t slip a meal), would be something a good colleague would step up and do in order to be a team player on a tough day.

IMO, the boss is an adult and if she doesn't have time or has blood sugar issues, she could order lunch to be delivered or ask her admin to order it for her. Or she could pack a lunch or keep snacks in her drawer because this is an ongoing issue. Or she could have asked someone to stand in line for her. She even could have done a "ohhh, that looks soooo good, I wish that was my lunch" and hint that OP should buy her one (which would still be pretty rude and awful), but to actually ask OP to give her the food, knowing OP is her subordinate, was just completely unprofessional and weird. I have been a supervisor and I can't imagine ever doing this. I actually can't imagine doing that to anyone at work and I'm not sure I would do it with friends or family either (I might ask for a bite or a few fries, but to just take their lunch they are about to bite into...?).

^This.
-OP

[Anonymous]

That was so obnoxious.

I would be looking for a job with a different boss.