Keeping communal spaces tidy is a common challenge in offices and community centers.

One manager’s new policy about labeling food in the shared fridge started off as a way to encourage cleanliness, but ended up causing unexpected drama when the manager neglected to follow her own rules.

Did the employee do anything wrong here, or did the manager mess up?

Read on for the full story!

Throw it away if it’s not labelled

So, I work part-time at a small community centre.

I handle basic admin and help tidy up the shared kitchen, which is used by different groups throughout the week.

The most drama doesn’t come from the work itself, but from the office kitchen.

The fridge is always a warzone — half-eaten cakes, mystery containers, expired milk, and the likes.

Last week, we had a meeting about cleanliness, and our manager was especially fed up about the fridge.

The manager instituted a bold cleanup plan that she expected her employees to follow to the letter.

She said, “From then on, if anything in the fridge isn’t clearly labelled with a name and date, it should be thrown away. No questions.”

I asked her if it should be thrown out if it looks new or expensive.

She said, “Yes, if it’s not labelled, it should be binned.”

So that’s exactly what this employee did.

This Monday, I did a proper sweep.

I tossed out a bunch of stuff — unlabelled hummus, leftover pizza, and a suspicious casserole dish.

They found something quite valuable, but following their boss’ directive, they threw it out anyway.

Then I found a pristine box of individually wrapped pastries, easily £15 worth from a nice bakery.

No name, no date — in the bin it went.

About an hour later, chaos.

Turns out, the manager didn’t actually mean what she said.

Our manager came in livid.

Apparently, those were her pastries, brought in for a private workshop later that day.

I just apologised and told her that I simply followed her instructions to the letter. No label, no date, so I binned it.

Sounds like in the end she learned a valuable lesson about being more specific.

She went quiet for a few seconds, then mumbled something about clarifying the policy.

Fridge is sparkling now, though — and labelled.

Do as I say… but not like that!

What did Reddit make of the story?

This user isn’t surprised by this manager’s behavior.

You would have thought the manager could have taken two seconds to label her own items.

This commenter thinks there’s a better way to keep the communal fridge clean.

This commenter is categorically against shared fridges.

Maybe next time this manager will pay a bit more attention.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.