The dabba problem

After we moved to our new office, we tried a few different options for
lunch. The other "dabba aunty" couldn't provide us lunch here. We
tried the canteen from the office upstairs but they stopped catering
to people who don't work in that office. We then came across this
provider who is very professional (with a website and a phone number)
who provides lunches in insulated boxes. I took upon the
responsibility of handling accounts with him - I'd gather the orders
from everyone in the office and relay them to the supplier and later
gather money from everyone and pay the supplier.

The system worked well for about a week before it started falling
apart. A second group of people who apparently didn't want to deal
through me contacted the supplier directly. This meant he had two
accounts now. In addition to that a bunch of people started calling
him individually and ordering their lunches. The problem of course was
that the guy would just deliver a big bundle of lunch boxes which then
were subjected to a free-for-all. Unfortunately a few chosen a**holes
decided that even if they didn't order lunch that day, they were
entitled to eating whatever lunch they could get their hands on. This
meant a few people didn't get their lunches, and we couldn't track who
ate and who didn't. The problem is compounded by the fact that there
are a few people who don't eat their lunches at the lunch hour.

The first step in trying to solve this problem was to have the lunches
labeled by the team or customer. Then one genius from my team decided
that reading labels was too much work and just picked up a lunch from
another team's set. Then a person from that team wanted to eat a lunch
with my team's name on it and I refused because I thought my teammate
still had to eat. This became a HUGE source of tension at work and the
facilities manager had to start stepping in to restore order. Another
a**hole in the meantime tried to imply that he would pay for only
those lunches he ATE rather than those lunches he ORDERED.

The last two days I spent atleast half the day sorting out this mess.
And starting Monday the people in this office can graze on the grass
outside for all I care. I am not involved with this process anymore.