Should I be worried about my co-workers?

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

I think there's some kind low level lunch bag competition going on. I'm seeing larger insulated bags and more of them every day. I understand a sandwich, salad and yogurt need to be stylishly transported and that they ideally would remain chilled. Now these bags are further enlarged to account for the space occupied by the 5 lb block of reusable blue ice. Today I opened the fridge and thought that the interior light was broken due the darkness but it was just being blocked by the immense size and number of these bags.

All of this strikes me as odd because 50 years ago my ham sandwich and apple sat on a shelf wrapped in aluminum foil inside a temperature uncontrolled paper bag.

The things that are particularly worrisome:
1. These food footlockers with blue ice keep your lunch well insulated from the outside temperature, so does putting them in the fridge make any sense?
2. I work in the systems engineering group of an aerospace company. My coworkers choose among systems and components to FIT inside a small aircraft.

[vlyons]

1. Tape an anomnymous note on the Fridge door

nt

[Flaleftist]

2. I suppose a bag like that would make it less likely for someone to steal your food,

but I'd just put mine on top of the fridge. I guess they figure as long as their bag fits, screw everyone else who might need the space. It seems both pointless and inconsiderate.

[LisaM]

3. Your coworkers aren't going to have a vestige of an immune system left.

I bet they are all germ phobes too, and that you have Clorox wipes and Purell everywhere. At some point, people need to understand that your immune system needs to be exercised in order to work.

Yes, you should be worried about them, because they're all going to have zero resistance to bacteria.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

4. So what you're saying is that this is self-limiting behavior?

Pain teaches the individual; evolution teaches the species.

[LisaM]

5. If that's your definition, then yes!

Not quite sure that's what it is, I just don't think that people who hide from germs and bacteria are doing themselves any favors.....and I remember taking school lunches that weren't refrigerated for the most part, too. If we had a Field Day or something where the lunch would be kept outside, the norm was to freeze a can of pop to stick in the bag.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

7. These folks wouldn't exactly make honorable mention at the Darwin awards but...

...I won't be flying in anything they work on.

[Pluvious]

6. Maybe it's the Amazon Fresh insulated bags ?

They are pretty big, and not recyclable, and not taken back by Amazon.
They look shiny silver, with a criss-cross texture ?

Maybe they've found a use for them...

[csziggy]

8. My husband used to take his lunch to work in an insulated bag

Designed to carry a six pack. He really didn't need that much space for his PB&J sandwich and two cans of soda, but the refrigerator at work was dorm sized so by using the cold pack designed to fit in the middle of six cans of beer made it so he didn't have to use the fridge at all.

His workmates made fun of his PB&J since they all spent the money to eat out every day. But he liked his sandwiches on my homemade bread and he took diet Mountain Dew to work for the caffeine and because no one would steal it. He figured he saved at least $30-50 a week by bringing lunch from home.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

9. A wise decision

[Major Nikon]

10. Get there early with one that takes up the whole fridge

I've found passive aggressive solutions work the best.