this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2026

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A Boring Dystopia

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10+ year manager named Joe was apparently fired for bringing cookies to be thrown away before their sell by date to a food pantry in my town (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 1 day ago by StarvingMartist@sh.itjust.works to c/aboringdystopia@lemmy.world

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[–] tresspass@lemmy.world 15 points 3 hours ago

I work in food services and just yesterday a temp was fired for "stealing" leftovers that were going to be composted. Like excuse me? They could at least have gotten a warning since they were new not to mention its a cruel policy to begin with.

[–] Nomorereddit@lemmy.today 12 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

Imma need to see bodycam footage and his hr files. If he was grazing the salad bar again, he's toast.

[–] hector@lemmy.today 2 points 1 hour ago

You just said salad bar, they don't have toast at salad bars, croutons maybe, I mean that's stale toast they toast more traditionally, but get your story straight.

[–] ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net -1 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

Yep! Call me a skeptic on these stories. I've seen too many, "I was fired because I clocked in 5 minutes late!"

Only for it to come out that while they were fired for "being late", it was the last straw because of all their HR complaints for sexually harassing dozens of women, offensive humor, and for creating a toxic atmosphere.

[–] Woht24@lemmy.world 1 points 10 minutes ago* (last edited 9 minutes ago)

Call me a sceptic, but I don't buy these corporate dick sucking posts are real people.

[–] hector@lemmy.today 1 points 1 hour ago

Look at you giving employers the benefit of the doubt. Yeah, just like I'm sure all of the president's companies fired people for totally legitimate reasons that they came up with after the fact when they got called on it.

[–] caboose2006@lemmy.world 55 points 17 hours ago

I remember once the heat broke in the middle of winter at my work. I wore a unbranded brownish orange beanie because it was effing cold. I was told to remove it because hats were against dress code. When a customer asked me why I wasn't wearing my beanie I told them the truth. Management told me to take it off because it violated dress code. I was taken to the back for a disciplinary meeting for being "unprofessional". Then let me wear the fucking hat if talking about not wearing it is making you look bad.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 78 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

I want to know who narc'd on Joe.

That person deserves an ass beating.

[–] LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world 19 points 16 hours ago

[–] PrettyFlyForAFatGuy@feddit.uk 54 points 22 hours ago (9 children)

A manager doesn't have discretion to dispose of out of date stock in any other way than putting it in the bin?

Why would you even have the position of Manager then?

[–] hector@lemmy.today 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Corporate joints, they figure if they don't waste the food people would be motivated to see food is wasted that could be used. And it would prevent managers from slipping in expired food they aren't supposed to use anyway because they are under pressure to lower waste costs. So they throw out food rather than let anyone have it.

Plus if you feed someone, they aren't going to be buying food. It's completely just a theoretical self serving philosophy, that's why I refuse to work for corporate joints like that.

[–] Woht24@lemmy.world 1 points 8 minutes ago

It's also 'theft' and 'damage of reputation' by these companies. They believe by giving away food to homeless people, that purchasing customers will see that, believe the brand is dirty and not buy their product.

It's fucking madness.

[–] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago

Offloading of actual work + the illusion of power over your situation

[–] Bluewing@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

The biggest impediment to donating foodstuffs by grocery stores is most often governmental food safety regulations. A store just can't take foods it needs to pull off the self and donate it. It can be onerous to get the special permission to do things like this. And yes, management is too lazy to jump through all the hoops and put out the effort to try as it often stands.

I highly recommend working with your local government to make it easier for a grocery store to donate foods.

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 4 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (2 children)

Maybe outside the US, but we have Good Samaritan laws at the federal level to expedite charitable donations from corporations. Any rules you may have encountered, in the US, were put in place voluntarily by the company.

Source: Food Safety Manager that went to war over this exact issue with a pizza hut franchise and won.

[–] hector@lemmy.today 1 points 1 hour ago

Only because we let corporations write off the value of the food they donate to charity, off their taxes. Canada does not let them do that, and they have a lot less donations to food banks as a result.

It's all quid pro quo stuff, you notice food banks make you prove you live in the area with a piece of mail, they aren't giving it out to anyone, it's a charity that harvests tax write offs.

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 2 points 3 hours ago

Yeah, most excuses I hear are really just excuses. Even had a shop refuse to sell me something after its best before date despite it being on the shelf at a reduced price. They said its illegal to sell it to me - no it isn't, there is another shop just round the corner which makes that their entire business model by selling reduced stuff past its best before date.

Had I been feeling more argumentative I would have been tempted to leave the money on the counter and just walk off with it. Yes it is kinda stealing, but no one is going to enforce that. "So you are saying he left the money on the counter and walked off with it? Yeah stop wasting our time"

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 47 points 20 hours ago (4 children)

The general corporate answer is that the misappropriation of waste is theft. They'll try to propose that Joe might hide boxes of cookies to take them, causing disproportionate waste. Giving them to the pantry instead of keeping them for himself is immaterial to their rules.

Realistically, some companies move near-out-of-date products to the sale rack and then offer them up to pantries after they pass their best-by date. They should easily be able to look at waste and sales here and make a judgment call. I'm betting someone local had a beef with Joe, didn't get their preferred day off, and turned him in.

Handled correctly, corporate would have donated a shit ton to the food pantry, taken a tax break, improved the community and told Joe to cut it out if they really cared.

[–] thlibos@thelemmy.club 2 points 1 hour ago

Yep. This is exactly why. It makes logical sense if they only thing that matters is profit. Several places that I worked would allow the public to come in and request these "about to be tossed." items to take for free. You had sign up, provide ID, and come right at closing time, though, to do it. The employees were not allowed to do this for the reason rumba gave.

[–] WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today 16 points 19 hours ago (6 children)

Didn't Eskimos throw sociopaths off cliffs?

Why doesn't the conversation end there?

[–] TrojanRoomCoffeePot@lemmy.world 5 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Begging your pardon, but Eskimo is considered pejorative. The people in question called themselves Inuit.

[–] PhoenixDog@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

Not considered.

Is.

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[–] Sunsofold@lemmings.world 16 points 20 hours ago (3 children)

If you don't trust someone to appropriately handle waste, you don't trust them enough to be a manager.

Giving them to the pantry instead of keeping them for himself is immaterial to their rules.

This is prime executive laziness. In this case, that should warrant an investigation by upper management. If the regional director fired an otherwise productive manager for what really would amount to 'not getting a receipt for tax purposes,' one has to question whether they've been promoted beyond their capabilities. Rules are for people who aren't trusted to apply critical thinking to their job, i.e. relatively new minimum wage workers. Managers are supposed to be people with enough education, experience, and established trust to make decisions on behalf of the company. If they aren't trusted, they shouldn't have been made a manager.

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[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 11 points 20 hours ago (5 children)

When I was in retail, we were required to destroy anything we threw away.

If we had a warranty issue on a product, the manufacturer would usually just ship us a new one because it was cheaper than a repair, and we'd have to provide proof of destruction. My favorite was for kayaks. We had to mail back a portion of the body at least 1 square foot in area that included the serial number stamp.

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[–] not_that_guy05@lemmy.world 133 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You should let the pantry know as well. They can be a force that could change this. They can let folks that go to the pantry know not to go to those kind of gas stations and also have them call corporate.

[–] StarvingMartist@sh.itjust.works 45 points 1 day ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (4 children)

I mean the food pantry is apparently the food pantry in creston illinois if that helps

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[–] JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world 106 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Joe should see a lawyer about a wrongful termination lawsuit.

The Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act (pdf) brought to law in 1996 shields most liability for people donating food exactly like he did.

This may have been a knee-jerk reaction from the employer incorrectly assuming they could be liable if someone got sick. Though its also possible they've been looking for a reason to dismiss a long time employee to replace him with a cheaper one. Corporate ownership makes me leans towards the latter.

[–] roofuskit@lemmy.world 45 points 1 day ago (24 children)

Liability if the food is bad. He was fired because the company perceives it as theft. The act does not cover that.

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[–] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 19 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

Our society will not improve until we punish this type of disgusting behavior. The people responsible for firing others for things like this must be held accountable.

[–] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 28 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Everyone should call the number! The prompts to get you to a human are 2, 1. I just spoke with Stacy, and she literally wrote down my comment. Like with a pen and paper.

Casey's is actually one of the few ethical petrol stations and will actually listen to customer feedback.

[–] dellish@lemmy.world 22 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Casey's is actually one of the few ethical petrol stations

The very fact we're in this situation kinda tells me otherwise.

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[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 50 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (6 children)

This is very much wrong, and something I've always disagreed with.

The reasoning behind it, is 'conflict of interest' (I'm just passing on the reason I was told when I worked for 7-11). The employees in the store look at a 'product forcast', decide how many cookies to make (heat up some pre-made dough) and package for sale. If they are permitted to keep or donate expiring product: they may intentionally make more than needed, ensuring they get free stuff. This goes for all of 7-11s 'made in house' (assembled as best, usually just re-heated. Fried Chicken was the closest to 'fresh' they sell) products. Cookies, sandwiches, hot food, etc.

I get that viewpoint; but I think they should punish abuse of the system, not outright prohibit saving perfectly good food, if nearly expiring/expired, for good causes like the needy/homeless.

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