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> The kitchen area, despite being an office staffed with supposed professionals, is always a mess. How does this happen? It's a common space, so it's nobody's.

> The kitchen area, despite being an office staffed with supposed professionals, is always a mess. How does this happen? It's a common space, so it's nobody's. Especially in an environment like that, a collection of separated individuals

skellera 9y ago
My office has multiple kitchens that are always pretty clean. Everyone washes what they use and clean up after themselves. I don’t see why it should be different anywhere else. Some people just aren’t good at being responsible.
- jaymzcampbell 9y ago
  I've had this problem in almost every office I've worked at. It shouldn't be different but for whatever reason, people seem to think it beneath them. I often wondered what state some of my co-worker's houses were in.
  - macNchz 9y ago
    I've had the same experience, it seems to be a microcosm of the "tragedy of the commons" that has led to the spoiling of the environment, shared spaces, natural resources etc. That said, I've worked in an office where the company took a nagging/shaming/signs/emails approach instead of upping the cleaning budget as the team grew, which was frustrating and ineffective. Encouraging people to clean up after themselves is good, but if it's not immediately effective the rest of us shouldn't have to live in filth while we try to get the worst offenders in line.
    - foobarian 9y ago
      Well, privatization is how you deal with tragedies of the commons. Maybe there should be a ID-card unlocked kitchen where you have to accept T&C before every use that stipulate public surveillance and loss of privileges if not cleaned up. If you don't like it don't use it.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - dsfyu404ed 9y ago
    > I often wondered what state some of my co-worker's houses were in. They look like trailer park post tornado except for right after the help has been there.
  - musage 9y ago
    My apartment regularly is a mess when I'm not expecting visitors, but at work it still annoys me that people just put cups they drank some water from into the sink instead of the dishwasher. I bring my own thermos and tend to not eat at work so I never need to use the sink or the dishes, yet I often clean it up a little or completely because it's a 2 minute job that makes things better for everybody. But just walking by that pathetic mess (pathetic not because it's so gross, but because it's so unnecessary and lame) lowers my opinion of my co-workers in a vague and therefore unfair way, so this thread made me decide that enough is enough. I'll address each and every person I see putting their dishes in the sink, friendly, but firmly. I want to encourage everybody to join me in this quest, in their corner of the world. It's not a small thing, and we can't very well talk about big things like integrity, justice, pollution etc. while people put their cup in the sink instead of the dishwasher half a meter away, to make it someone's else problem.
pavel_lishin 9y ago
Especially if part of the fee you pay is ostensibly meant for cleaning staff.
gregmac 9y ago
All it takes is one person to really mess it up. It's kind of like breaking the ice -- the barrier to actually making the area go from "clean" to "not clean" is much higher than just making it go from "messy" to "slightly messier". In an office with a dozen or more people there's a pretty high chance there's at least one person who is lazy, "too important" and/or "too busy" to clean up after themselves.
- Artemis2 9y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory might be an interesting read.
  - ShorsHammer 9y ago
    Also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons > a shared-resource system where individual users acting independently according to their own self-interest behave contrary to the common good of all users by depleting or spoiling that resource through their collective action.
    - rosege 9y ago
      I'm going to throw another link out there and suggest its worth charging a little more and having cleaning staff https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_of_labour https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_of_labour
- Mountain_Skies 9y ago
  When my company moved into a new building, there was a problem with employees leaving dishes in the sink, not wiping up spills, etc. One of our coworkers wrote a letter to 'Dear Abby' who responded in her column. That column was clipped out and posted in the break areas. A bit passive aggressive maybe but it was incredibly effective.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

skellera 9y ago

My office has multiple kitchens that are always pretty clean. Everyone washes what they use and clean up after themselves. I don’t see why it should be different anywhere else. Some people just aren’t good at being responsible.

jaymzcampbell 9y ago
I've had this problem in almost every office I've worked at. It shouldn't be different but for whatever reason, people seem to think it beneath them. I often wondered what state some of my co-worker's houses were in.
- macNchz 9y ago
  I've had the same experience, it seems to be a microcosm of the "tragedy of the commons" that has led to the spoiling of the environment, shared spaces, natural resources etc. That said, I've worked in an office where the company took a nagging/shaming/signs/emails approach instead of upping the cleaning budget as the team grew, which was frustrating and ineffective. Encouraging people to clean up after themselves is good, but if it's not immediately effective the rest of us shouldn't have to live in filth while we try to get the worst offenders in line.
  - foobarian 9y ago
    Well, privatization is how you deal with tragedies of the commons. Maybe there should be a ID-card unlocked kitchen where you have to accept T&C before every use that stipulate public surveillance and loss of privileges if not cleaned up. If you don't like it don't use it.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- dsfyu404ed 9y ago
  > I often wondered what state some of my co-worker's houses were in. They look like trailer park post tornado except for right after the help has been there.
- musage 9y ago
  My apartment regularly is a mess when I'm not expecting visitors, but at work it still annoys me that people just put cups they drank some water from into the sink instead of the dishwasher. I bring my own thermos and tend to not eat at work so I never need to use the sink or the dishes, yet I often clean it up a little or completely because it's a 2 minute job that makes things better for everybody. But just walking by that pathetic mess (pathetic not because it's so gross, but because it's so unnecessary and lame) lowers my opinion of my co-workers in a vague and therefore unfair way, so this thread made me decide that enough is enough. I'll address each and every person I see putting their dishes in the sink, friendly, but firmly. I want to encourage everybody to join me in this quest, in their corner of the world. It's not a small thing, and we can't very well talk about big things like integrity, justice, pollution etc. while people put their cup in the sink instead of the dishwasher half a meter away, to make it someone's else problem.

pavel_lishin 9y ago

Especially if part of the fee you pay is ostensibly meant for cleaning staff.

gregmac 9y ago

All it takes is one person to really mess it up. It's kind of like breaking the ice -- the barrier to actually making the area go from "clean" to "not clean" is much higher than just making it go from "messy" to "slightly messier". In an office with a dozen or more people there's a pretty high chance there's at least one person who is lazy, "too important" and/or "too busy" to clean up after themselves.

Artemis2 9y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory might be an interesting read.
- ShorsHammer 9y ago
  Also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons > a shared-resource system where individual users acting independently according to their own self-interest behave contrary to the common good of all users by depleting or spoiling that resource through their collective action.
  - rosege 9y ago
    I'm going to throw another link out there and suggest its worth charging a little more and having cleaning staff https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_of_labour https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_of_labour
Mountain_Skies 9y ago
When my company moved into a new building, there was a problem with employees leaving dishes in the sink, not wiping up spills, etc. One of our coworkers wrote a letter to 'Dear Abby' who responded in her column. That column was clipped out and posted in the break areas. A bit passive aggressive maybe but it was incredibly effective.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]