Pickles: Condiments or Side Dish?

I feel sorry for my co-worker John.  He brought ina new jar of bread and butter pickle slices to keep in the refrigerator to have with his lunches, and co-workers who use our frig thought they were for their own consumption.  Imagine John's surprise the other day when he reached for the jar, only to find pickle juice.  That's hardcore.  The thieves didn't even have the courtesy to throw away the empty pickle jar.

Whenever Kroger's has catsup or mustard or mayo on sale, I'll buy a jar and bring it in for all lunchroom patrons to use; others do this, too.  So our frig is usually stocked with community condiments.  However, the line is drawn when it comes to salad dressings.  If you don't want someone using your bottle of ranch dressing, then you'd damned well better put your name on it.  As with any food or drink left on the tables and countertops, anything unmarked is considered community property.  We have countless meetings and training sessions, and any leftovers from their lunches are usually brought to the lunchroom for the hungry masses to devour.  You cannot imagine the feeding frenzy that happened last week when 4 whole leftover pizzas were dropped off in the lunchroom after a training session.  People in the hallways were almost plowed over by a few members of the engineering department. 

In addition to usable condiments, there are a plethora of condiments that have been rotting in the frig for months.  I pray that some unsuspecting soul doesn't pick up an old packet of tartar sauce that has been on the shelf since last Lent.  The frig is also full of lunches that time has forgotten.  The other day, I threw out half of a Big Mac that had been in there for 2 weeks.  When I threw it in the garbage can, I noticed that the Big Mac was harder than the cardboard box it was in.