What do you do with a thieving doctor?

I work for a pediatric hospital in a division of sub-specialty doctors. You would think they would have enough money to buy whatever they may need. One of our most "respected" doctors always takes food that does not belong to her. Leftovers in the fridge, someone elses unopened drink, whatever. However, this morning was the topper. A girl on our administrative staff brought in 2 tins of butter cookies for everyone to share. Around 8:00 she went back to get a cookie and noticed one of the tins were gone. There were only about 4 people in the office at this point, not enough time for them to be gone. When we started looking, we looked in this particular doctors office and found the tin of cookies hiding behind her briefcase. What would you do? We have tried posting notes around saying not to take other peoples food or food meant for everyone and have even sent out emails.

She is an older lady, about 65 and seems so sweet. I often wonder if she has a serious OCD.

It sounds to me like the best thing would be to report this doctor to an administrator or maybe try to get a few of the other staff members together and talk to a doctor who has been there for a long time. I definitely don't think you'd get anywhere by saying anything to the doctor who is stealing the food.

Talk to HR.

Quit being passive aggressive with the notes and emails and have a polite conversation with the actual person.

The girl whose tin it was should confront the doctor. She can say it in a polite way, but she should say, "I noticed you have my tin in your office, those cookies were meant for the office. Can we leave them in the break room so everyone can partake?"

Or not so obvious, "Dr. Smith, when you're done with my tin please be sure to return it to me."

You're going to have to call her to task on specific instances, a general email isn't going to cut it.

Dont know how comfortable you are with confrontation, but that is what I would do (non-aggressively). I would personally ask the Dr why the biscuits were behind her breifcase and did she not realise they were brought in by whoever it was for you all to share. Would you have issue confronting the person if it was a thieving cleaner or amdinistrator or is it because it is a Dr? I think she needs to be brought back into line and embarrassed.

Being a doctor this is very funny behavior. Treacle her with care.

Say something about it. Then she will be in the spot light. She most likely already knows that people know. You could alaways ask her for a few dolllars to keep snacks and drinks around if she is to busy to go some from other than the shared space of others stuff. There is an engineer at work at work that always uses a particuliar contractor that most think that most think does less than good work and I have said something in front of many people about them making his house payments and building his vaction home (not for sure any has happened) but he still uses these people. Some people habits just can not be changed but it will be known. You could also if not afraid to get in trouble is post her picture saying if your stuff is gone check with her first.

Is she even a real doctor? I would just tell her up front. You can't just go around taking whatever you want!

Wow, that's pretty embarrassing for this person! It sounds as though they may have a problem! I would say that maybe they just didn't know who's it was, but then again, those kinds of misunderstandings only happen so many times before things are deliberate. If you've posted notes on food, sent out emails, I think all you have left to do is confront her! It may be awkward but someone needs to speak up to her!

call her on it

She may think she is privledged and has the "right" to it. Tell her this time you will let it slide but if you notice things go missing again like that you are going to make a formal complaint to HR.