Monday was our Housekeeping supervisor Dennis' first day back from a week vacation. Boy, did he need the time off. He's been really stressed lately, and that was exhibited in an episode a couple weeks' ago, when he had what I'd characterize as a major freak-out over something he'd needlessly blown out of proportion.
Dennis had put a bag containing two half gallon bricks of ice cream in the break room fridge. Instead of putting his name on the bag, as is normal procedure for food one wishes others not to take, he added a lost and found tag that read, "Do not take." But at the end of the day, the ice cream was gone.
He was just beginning morning announcements when I arrived to work the next morning. The break room had more people than usual; included were the laundry and janitorial staff. Dennis started out by reminding everyone not to take food from the fridge that had a name and wasn't their own. He then went on to tell us a sad story of the girl who's birthday was ruined because the ice cream for her party was stolen from the fridge. Then after reiterating that taking things from the fridge is stealing and suggesting that such actions were termination-worthy offenses, he went on to ask the person who had taken the ice cream to come to him so they could discuss the issue. ("What you did was stealing, and you could be fired. So who wants to fess up?" Right, Dennis....)
So he continued to fume throughout the day. Matters weren't helped when two people from laundry came to him a one point to say that they knew of the person who had taken the ice cream. The mystery deepened, however, when laundry supervisor Robbin revealed that she had ridden home from work with the suspect, who in fact did not have any ice cream. (As far as I know, Dennis does not suspect a conspiracy.)
At another point, Dennis, referring to a sign on the fridge door, complained, "Can't people read? The last sentence on this sign says, 'Do not take anything that does not belong to you!" I couldn't help myself, and so I replied, "Dennis, the first sentence on the sign says, 'Put your name and date on any food you put in the fridge.' So everybody else has to abide by the last sentence, but you can ignore the first?"
The thief is still unknown and at large.
There is never a shortage of drama here in Housekeeping. Stuff like this just gives the rest of us something to talk about. And make fun of Dennis for.
