Giving it Away

I'm working at a client's site for a while, so I brought in a sack of snacks - a couple packs of mate (Japanese rice cracker snacks) and Harry and David things - that I won't eat but that I thought were non-offensive enough to give to others. I like my client and the staff, so I just tossed the "Moose Mix" or whatever it was called and similar items that from the ingredients appeared to be code for Death in a Bag.

In addition to the mate: box (opened) of individually wrapped jam-filled cookies; box of six chocolates; individual serving size bag of mixed nuts; box (opened) of seeded crackers. I put them out and have been walking by every 20 minutes to see what is left.

10:00 put all items on the table in the break room
10:20 nuts taken; chocolates opened, 2 taken; entire box (!) of cookies taken
10:40 one more chocolate taken
11:00 one bag of mate gone
11:20 entire box of crackers taken
11:40 one more chocolate gone
12:00 no change; one bag of mate and 2 chocolates still available
12:20 2nd bag of mate taken
12:40 one more chocolate gone - only one left!
1:00 last chocolate still hanging on
1:20 all gone!

I don't want to know who took an entire box of individually wrapped cookies. Or crackers, for that matter, but at least the crackers could have been someone's full lunch. On a related note, I'm glad that as a consultant I don't know enough about office politics to make a guess.

Maybe it's the person who politely opened the chocolates and took only one or two, rather than the whole box of six, who is the outlier, but I prefer to think otherwise.

People may be reluctant to take the last goody unless they really want it, or perhaps the last chocolate did not disappear until after lunchtime because during lunch the room is busy and others would see you take the last one.