Office Offers Free Cream Cheese To Employees After Manager Dies

After an office manager passed away, the remaining team leaders decided to give their employees something that would help them cope with the loss and connect with each other.

If you had imagined an extra day off or an office outing in honor of the deceased manager, you would be wrong.

Instead, executives decided to offer free food in the break room.

Office managers offered their employees free cream cheese to help them cope with the loss of their manager.

One of the employees took to the r/antiwork subreddit to share a photo of the message the team leaders left for them in the break room.

“Take an extra minute today,” read one sign with a heart emoji next to it. “Cream cheese in the fridge.”

Reddit

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In smaller text, below the message, the leaders shared that there were 7 containers of plain cheese, 2 containers of strawberries, 2 containers of maple and walnuts, 2 containers of vegetables and 2 containers of garlic and herb cream cheese in the fridge that were up for grabs.

The employee added that there were no bagels or other foods to put the cream cheese on. It seemed like employees were supposed to eat the cream cheese by itself.

Many people thought that this gesture could not even be considered the bare minimum when a team member dies.

“I never thought I’d see the workplace equivalent of ‘Press F to pay your respects.’ It’s the perfect balance between a meaningless gesture and tone-deaf virtue signaling,” one Reddit user commented.

“This sounds like a bad thought experiment. ‘For 60 seconds you have unlimited cream cheese that you can’t sell or give away, what do you do?’” another user joked.

cream cheese bagel prairie_eye / Canva Pro

“I don’t even know what else to do but laugh,” another user wrote.

Others suggested that the late director’s favorite condiment must have been cream cheese, and the team thought offering free cream cheese would be the perfect way to honor them.

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While the free food and snacks are a nice gesture, the team members could have done more in the wake of the death of one of their employees.

They could, for example, have called a team meeting to inform everyone of the tragic news and give them time to process it. They could have offered their employees resources to support them in their grieving process, such as therapy services.

They could provide a dedicated space for the deceased manager where employees who were particularly close to him could pay tribute.

grieving workers

fizkes / Shutterstock

There were so many opportunities to do more, and yet they didn’t.

The Harvard Business Review pointed out that most managers aren’t trained to handle these situations, but that being sincere and “authentic” is essential. Additionally, the journal noted that making a gesture to keep the memory of the deceased employee alive goes a long way in helping employees channel their grief.

Somehow, cream cheese in the break room with nothing to put on it just doesn’t cut it.

When employees are struggling, managers and leaders need to guide them.

Time off to attend memorial services or an inaugural dinner for the director would be much more useful than tubs of cream cheese.

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Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango covering entertainment and current affairs, self, love and relationships.

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