I ran many meetings from a few to 30 people in our corporate offices to large conferences with 1,000 attendees. We always had huge amounts of food left over and we never cared what happened to it. It was going stale, anyway. Te caterers took care of the leftovers.
This is petty beyond belief! A stale half sandwich that the health department says must be thrown away anyway and they FIRE her?
I’d say something else is going on. They want to downsize without paying RIF costs.
As I understand the story, she doesn’t work for the law firm, but for a contracted housekeeping service.
I did meetings and events for years as well.
Did I care what the caterers or venue did with the leftovers? Heck no.
The fact that this even came on someone’s radar tells me either they were not done with the platter or, as you indicated,
this was a convenient excuse.
Another person suggested the liability angle, wherein if they got sick from the food and wanted to sue, the company could be exposed (even fighting a nuisance suit is expensive).