At my volunteer firehouse, there is a semi-complete set of ‘communal’ dishes and glasses and flatware. The rules are that if you fix something to eat, you clean up as soon as you finish eating.
If the captain or senior lieutenant walks through the kitchen and there are dirty dishes in the sink, they’ll look around for the guilty party. If no one owns up to them, and jumps up to wash them, they get dumped in the trash.
Same for the fridge. Everything put in it is to be labeled with your name and dated, even stuff like ketchup and jelly. Each week, someone is assigned the task of sorting through it. Anything not labeled or out of date is tossed.
Oh yeah, I hear ya. I’ve got a nail-clipper neighbor and one that seem to have to talk REALLY LOUD anytime he’s on the phone. Plus another who has 15 different ring tones on her cell phone that goes off 10 times a day. I mean, come on people, ever think that maybe some of us are trying to concentrate??? Huh???
So - I get all frustrated and need to go for office walks - and I vent at home to my husband who comes up with the solution: Wear headphones. Either with music or just the hearing protection kind. I choose music when I just don’t want to hear them, and regular hearing protection when I have to concentrate. Woo Hoo!
And then I just ignore the one who can’t seem to understand that when my back is to my cubbie door and I’m clacking away at the computer - it means I’m WORKING (or replying to the Straight Dope), not ready for an endless conversation about your child’s dog. After awhile it seems to work. I feel bad, but what else can you do???
OH GOD I had a nail-filing neighbor… he was an older guy who would file his nails every day for 5 minutes. It was gross and annoying. What makes any adult think it is OK to manicure their fingernails while at work in a cubicle with coworkers around? And just the other day, my other coworker was clipping her nails. That was really excruciating.
I WISH we could do paper/plastic but my boss is way too cheap. She even stopped buying paper napkins, and recently refused a group request for coffee supplies. I feel extremely lucky just to have a water cooler!
To the person who suggested having your own stuff - well I did that for a long time and it still didn’t solve the annoyance of people leaving their shit in the sink. I have to look at it every time I go into the kitchen or when I want to use the sink.
I’m still looking for ideas for a sign I could post in the kitchen reminding people to clean their dishes… anyone?
Maybe put up a sign which says “Any unwashed dish will be thrown away.” The problem will take care of itself one way or another.
Put me in the never-use-a-communal-dish camp. There’s no way I would trust every co-worker to properly wash the dishes.
And why would you need communal dishes at work anyway? There’s no cooking going on. If you want to reheat something, bring it in a microwave safe dish.
Not really annoying, but more in the ‘stupid’ camp. The office manager where I work constantly sends out notices about using less paper towels in the bathroom. She’s one of those tree-hugger save-the-Earth types.
“Why use two when one will do?”
“Save a tree, don’t use three!”
The thing is, we don’t have work-based email (it’s a preschool), so she prints them up on real paper and puts them in our mailboxes. One of these days, I’m going to snap and ream her out for wasting paper to chide us for wasting paper.
In my years of working in various offices, one thing never changes - there is ALWAYS someone who is too special to clean up after themselves or participate in any of the communal things that the rest of us have to do (refilling coffee, replacing the toilet paper roll, etc.). They ignore the signs, and no one ever talks to them about it because no one ever catches them at it. Pretty much all you can do is move their dirty dishes out of the sink so other people can still use it (just stack them up out of the way), come here and vent, and get on with your life. And bring your own cutlery.
Let me add my disgust at women who insist on applying makeup in their cubicle. This is a place of business, not your boudoir! And don’t get me started on the hair brushing. Keep it in the bathroom, girls!
I also fail to how filing one’s nails is ‘gross’. Annoying, maybe, but gross? When I chip a nail, I’m going to file down the sharp edge as soon as can. I never once thought I was grossing anyone out. Live and learn, I guess.
No, the worst is lazy and rude people who leave their dishes in the sink. I’m at the end of my rope! The sign is the best way I know to make these imbeciles feel stupid, ashamed and embarassed (as they should).
The sound of nail filing is not one that I want to hear whilst sitting in my cubicle. Personal hygiene activities should not be performed in one’s cubicle while within earshot/view of one’s coworkers. It’s just nasty and annoying.
If that’s what you think you’re going to accomplish with your sign, I think you’re sorely misguided. I’m willing to bet that people who think it’s ok to leave their dirty dishes in a communal sink aren’t going to feel anything but mild amusement at the sign, let alone the other feelings you mentioned. If it makes you feel better, however, to a post less-than-witty missive for your co-workers to ignore, more power to you.
I’m of the opinion that they clean up after themselves when other people are around, but if no one else is there, they just dump their dirty dishes and scamper off, hoping someone else will clean up the mess. No one saw them leave it, so it doesn’t count.
That’s why it’s so hard to figure out who does it - “Well, I know Jane cleans up after herself; I saw her washing her dishes yesterday, and Dave was washing stuff, too. I can’t imagine who left this stuff.”
I was just in the kitchen and one of the culprits walks in, goes over the the sink and hastily rinses out the bowl and takes it with him. It’s is precisely one of the people I thought it was.
I think the sign shamed him into compliance. I hope it lasts.