When I got to work today, I saw that someone had posted a sign over the community microwave, asking people to please cover their food when microwaving, and to please clean up any spills.
I hate those stupid little signs. People post them on the fridge: “Please remove your old food items” and in the bathroom: “Please be considerate and clean up after yourself” and at the coffee station: “If you drink the last of the coffee, please start another pot”.
Who is posting these signs? Who thinks they would be effective? Does anyone really think that a person who wouldn’t normally do these things would be motivated to do them because of a sign? I find them condescending and I don’t think they would change anyone’s behavior. Either you’re an inconsiderate slob or you’re not.
Where I used to work, there was a community bathroom serving several small offices. A woman had taken it upon herself to post these hand-lettered signs:
In the toilet stalls: “Please use toilet paper and flush after you use the toilet. Unflushed toilets cause e-coli.”
Over the sinks: “Please use the antibacterial soap which I have provided for you.” (The bathroom already provided standard liquid soap in its dispensers.)
I started posting snarky signs in reply to this self-appointed protector of our health and she posted even snarkier ones back. At one point, I put a rubber cockroach in her clear plastic dispenser of people-disinfecting soap. What a bint!
Every work place with multiple people in it gets these signs so don’t feel special. The warning on the refrigerator goes up where I worked because it’s full ofn decaying food and no more fits. The sign states the next day at a given time the stuff all goes in the garbage, and that means the containers too.
Does anybody have a “think” sign over the wash basin in the bathroom? Please put a “thoap” sign over the soap. I’ve always wanted to do that, and never have had the oportunity.
The owners tried to make a different emplyee responsible for cleaning the break room every day. Many people like I always cleaned up their own stuff and only a few pigged the whole places up. They left their dirty dishes in the sink for weeks. Oh yah, you were to do this on your own time. They told me it was my day to clean, and the sink was full of dirty dishes. I got a garbage bag, and put all their dishes in it and tape a sign over the bag that said “The New Dish Sink”.
Please note this place had an employee that never washed their hands ever, handled all food not locked in a safe, tore open peoples lunchs to eat, and made his food on the lunch table and ate it like that. It had enough people not as bad as that but degenerates, to make the break room a place I didn’t use.
My workplace has temporary signs, and only when there’s a problem; i.e. the dishes in the dish rack have been drying for 3 weeks, or that old salad in the fridge has sprouted new life that is plotting to take over the building. The signs go up 3 days in advance as a warning, and then, WHOOSH! All is whisked off into the trash. Personally, I appreciate the warning because I’ve had food items cleaned out of the fridge that were still fresh (jam and salad dressing!).
At my workplace the refrigerators are cleaned out at 4 P.M. on Friday. Stuff like salad dressings, mayo, etc are checked for expiration dates. If they are expired, out they go. Containers in the fridges are dumped and the fridges are wiped down. Everybody knows to get his or her containers that are worth keeping out before then cause it’s bye bye come four on Friday. Other than that, the break areas are kept clean because we have a full-time cleaner on staff, so the microwave, dishes (we have real dishes here) and so forth are cleaned every day.
So, are you arguing that the person who makes a mess leave it and have the next person who comes along have to clean up? How is that fair?
The signs generally go up because someone is being inconsiderate to others. What should people do? Clean up after the other guy? Why? Shouldn’t the person who made the mess be responsible for cleaning it, especially in a communal setting like an office?
And, yes, they can be effective. People tend to realize that they’ve been inconsiderate, and you’ll usually see a drop off in problems (for awhile, at least).
But if people are not considerate of others, why is it wrong to point this out?
BTW, I have never put up any signs like this in any place I worked, and they rarely apply to me (I never keep food in the refrigerator more than a day, and always clean up spills). But I’ve never objected to someone pointing out the problem, because otherwise, I would have to do some of the clean up that by rights should be done by the person who made the mess.
Wow! I don’t realize that unflushed toilets cause e. coli! I always thought it was a bacteria that reproduced itself, and that generally lived in people’s intestinal tracts. Oh, Dopey Me! :smack:
Our company has a high turnover rate in some areas, so there’s a sign of “Kitchen rules” posted in above the sink. That way, people at least know what’s expected of them. Here’s what drives me nuts: One of the rules is “Remove your food from the fridge before it procreates.” Some idiot underlined the word “procreates” and put a question mark next to it. I really, really want to add another note underneath: “Look it up in a dictionary, idiot.”
Certainly not. I was only arguing that people who don’t automatically clean up their own messes aren’t likely to be influenced by a polite sign. And perhaps people who wouldn’t dream of leaving a mess are insulted by the suggestion that they might.
I think the “Please don’t litter” signs on roadsides are equally ineffective.
I am a chronic sign-poster and, in my experience, they usually do help – seldom 100%, but usually enough to get a bad situation at least under control.
The OP wrote:
“Does anyone really think that a person who wouldn’t normally do these things would be motivated to do them because of a sign? I find them condescending and I don’t think they would change anyone’s behavior. Either you’re an inconsiderate slob or you’re not.”
Sure the sign may appear stupid – and condescending to you, though frankly, I can’t really understand why – because it points out what you find so obvious. But you’re missing a whole other purpose for the sign, namely it informs the violator that someone is pissed. There is a percentage of happy-go-lucky mess-leavers, newspaper thieves (my bane), noise-makers, non-flushers and others who continue their vile ways largely because they think nobody notices or cares. A sign, at least, gives them pause. Some will think twice and stop it. And those who don’t stop it will have no excuses when someone confronts them with their social vandalism.
Off subject…I like it best when I get to start my day at work dealing with toilets that are plugged up and flushed repeatdly so they overflow. Into my office. Raw sewage coming from the upstairs bathroom. Dripping. Into my office. :mad:
On subject… I am in an office with 4 guys, I am the only chick, I have a sign that reminds them to refill the paper towel dispenser when they use the last one. Soon the same sign but regarding the toilet paper will be put up. Thats just lazy right there.
Barrels
Sometimes you gotta hit’em over the head.
I used to have trouble with people stealing my cans of soda out of the fridge even when my name was markered on them. Then I changed the notice to “Not Yours - Do Not Steal”. That worked for me.
My building at work has several small kitchens. One morning when I went into one of them, there was a sign where the toaster oven usually is that said:
“If you’re looking for the toaster oven, we have it in the kitchen across the way —>”
I have occasionally been tempted to put up a sign in our lunch room that says “Your mother isn’t here to clean up after you. Please do it yourself.”
Seriously, sometimes I come in there and there’s coffee grinds spilled everywhere and the empty coffee bag lying there along with drippings from the used filter they took out to brew a new pot. Making coffee does not make you a god. Clean your shit up.
We have one of those “your mother doesn’t work here…” signs in our breakroom. It isn’t overly effective, but I don’t see any problem with it being there. The problem that I have is the religious nut in the office who posts biblical quotes and little paragraphs on why democrats are going to hell on the wall in the breakroom. I guess she doesn’t get the hint when she comes in and finds that they have been taken down.