This thread is the very reason I avoid the office coffee pot/fridge/dishes/sink/etc.
I don’t want to have any part of this madness.
While I love my company & 99% of the people I work with, I abhor the following:
People who cannot grasp the basic tenet of science that understands in order to make ice, one must FILL UP THE FREAKIN’ ICE TRAY WITH WATER WHEN YOU’RE DONE WITH IT! The flip side of this? People who take 3 cubes out and then FILL UP THE FREAKIN’ ICE TRAY WITH WATER!
Free bagels on Friday - fabulous. Is it too much to ask that when you’re done dissecting your everything bagel that you take 30 seconds & clean up the area of crumbs, garlic shavings and sesame seeds?
People who bring their sick kids to work because they’re out of sick/vacation/personal days. It usually occurs in November/December. It’s disgusting. Kids snotting all over the place. This goes for actual employees who insist on coming in when they’re mutant germ factories.
Do not EVEN get me started on the bathrooms.
VCNJ~
I’m with nyctea on the second annoyance, its why I have my own mug in the office and not one of the shared ones.
More annoying (in our office) is the cretin who thinks that they can solve the issue of unwashed dishes by piling them up on the drying rack and then placing the drying rack on the worksurface :rolleyes:
By “applying makeup” do you mean actually doing their whole face or simply putting on lipstick or dabbing a little powder on? If the former, then I agree, if only for the reason that they’ve already shown the world their face sans makeup, so why bother putting it on now. If you mean the latter, I really don’t see how it affects you if I take 10 seconds to shmear some lipstick on.
I think this is the second time I’ve read about people bringing their kids in to work here, and it makes me wonder how much this is actually happening. Work is the one place I can reliably expect to not have to deal with other people’s children, and you’re telling me that people are bringing their kids to work, too? And not even healthy, somewhat tolerable ones, but SICK ones? Ai me.
featherlou, I agree - I’m having a hard time figuring that too - I have never worked anywhere where this could even be a viable possibility!
If it’s not being too nosy, could someone please tell me what type of workplace/company it is that is letting employees bring sick children to work?
It isn’t that I don’t believe you, I DO - it’s just that it’s so out of the norm in my experience, I’d be interested in knowing.
As far as people who won’t clean up after themselves: what you’re dealing with here are people who have no shame, or are lazy, or have an entitlement mentality.
The only way to get them to modify their behavior is for them to suffer consequences, the price of which outweighs the benefit they get from leaving their shit in the sink. Really, without consequences, what incentive do they have to change? Obviously, they don’t much care about social sanction - unless maybe you set up a video camera to catch them leaving their crap in the sink and then showing it at the Christmas party. And even then some people just won’t care or will get angry with you for calling them on their shit.
So, your choices are 1). consequences for them or 2). accepting you can’t change other people. Either do something effective or let it go. Cuz I can guarantee you a sign won’t do dick.
Yes - it’s true. I don’t believe it’s actually allowed, you know. We are a fairly compassionate company re: single moms & the like, and understand that baby sitters are an iffy proposition at best. But yes, people here do bring in their kids on occasion when the kids in question are sick. When I was preparing to have my GBS surgery in November, 2004, I was <this> close to hanging garlic around my office door just in case.
VCNJ~
Actually it has been working, so far. The culprits have been washing their dishes and not a single dish has been spotted in the sink over the past two days.
By the way, I never told anyone it was me who posted the sign. The day after I posted it, one or more of the culprits went up to our part-time office assistant (who is usually the one who ends up cleaning up the abandoned dishes) and they apologized to her and said they were not going to leave dishes in the sink anymore. I heard the office assistant telling another coworker about this and I went over and divulged that it was me and they cracked up laughing! They loved it.
Holy God! I can’t believe that!!!
I guess my office idiots are more stupider than yours.
Well, I guess congratulations are in order.
And obviously you don’t work with salespeople. 
I don’t think “compassionate” is the word for letting people bring their kids to work, but that’s probably a whole 'nother thread.
Good for you, nyctea. I would not have believed it possible based on what I’ve seen in so many offices.
Nope…salespeople are all gone, used them to grease the lawyer grinding machine*
*non-doper lawyers that is 
God, so true.
I work on the operations side of a sales team, and my coworkers and I have a file rack for salespeople to stick their new files. Then one of my coworkers decided to create a new system involving two file racks. The sales people were, however, supposed to keep putting their files in the same old rack they’d always been. The new rack is for our own purposes. She even, ahem, put up a sign above the new rack, saying “do not put files here!” This was about three weeks ago.
Since then, I have long ago lost track of how many people have asked me if they’re supposed to put files in the new rack now, or how many people I’ve caught trying to put files there.
They’re so obtuse, it almost makes me wonder if they’re doing it on purpose, to make me crazy. Except there’s no way they could possibly come up with a plan that well-coordinated.
Salespeople don’t do paper well. I suspect they even have trouble wiping themselves, but I could be wrong.