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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think you should wash up at work...

36 replies

ThreeMoreDaysTillFriday · 18/03/2015 07:52

I work 3 days a week in one office and 2 in another.

Office a - has cleaners everyday (who don't do dishes) and it is always spotless because everyone y'know. Washes up!

Office b - has a cleaner in once a week (who does do dishes) and yet from one cleaning day to the next (fri-fri) every single thing is left to pile up. Week old food caked plates. Half drunk cups of tea growing mould. Soup bowls with an inch left. It's fucking disgusting. These people think it's acceptable and it's starting to piss me off that everytime I go in the place stinks of rotten food and that if clients are in (I have my own plates, cup, cutlery in my drawer) I have to wade through the debris to find a couple of cups that are salvageable enough to clean.

I have previously spoken to the owner and asked for an email to go round which it did but everyone ignored it. Wibu to tell them all they are manky hits when I next refuse to make a coffee for a client. Or take pictures and post them on the company FB page (joke!)

But seriously wibu to ask them again to clean their own fucking dishes. I am senior to them and I really am fed up!

OP posts:
ThreeMoreDaysTillFriday · 18/03/2015 07:53

Gits not hits

OP posts:
livsmommy · 18/03/2015 07:55

YANBU. Why can't they just wash up as they go?! That's disgusting.

lostblonde86 · 18/03/2015 07:58

That's awful! would they live leave dishes/cups at home like that? I wouldn't think so!

in my last office there were a few lazy sods, who thought others would wash up for them so a email went round basicly stating if you can't wash up don't use it, if there are dirty dishes they will be chucked out so there wouldn't be anything to use. ok had people moaning for a few days but they soon washed up.

It's a health issues!Shock ynbu!

Hazelnut55 · 18/03/2015 07:59

It sounds very much like a school staff room. People are bone idol at work and we have tried everything from the pleasantly polite to the blatantly rude.

For one week, we threw away every single mug that had been left by the sink unwashed. It helped for a couple of days.

ThreeMoreDaysTillFriday · 18/03/2015 07:59

I feel sorry for the lady who has to come in and clean up after the filthy gits! I'm pretty sure the washing up should really only cover a day worths max but I don't see how it's necessary, it should be done as and when people use and are finished with things imo!

OP posts:
RedButtonhole · 18/03/2015 08:01

That's disgusting.

I would start by moving their manky crap onto their own desk or simply chucking it on the bin any time an item was left, they'd soon learn when there was nothing left to eat off of.

Waswondering · 18/03/2015 08:03

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

llamallamaredpyjama · 18/03/2015 08:07

Was the same at my work. Was disgusting. It was brought up at a staff meeting and everyone nodded along and made 'oh yes it's disgusting' noises but it still continued. Cups and teaspoons were the worst. SMT brought it up again saying how bad it looked to visitors etc and they implemented (with staff agreement) a dishwashing rota. It didn't last long but it gave everyone the idea that it was being taken seriously. People would rather wash their own dishes every day than everyone's dishes on one day! I feel for you, it made my blood boil. I'd often be seen cleaning the kitchen at 7.30am with a pissed off look on my face!

chemenger · 18/03/2015 08:08

Either get a dishwasher or stop the cleaner doing washing up so that they have to do it. The problem with a dishwasher is that nobody will empty it so it will sit around full of clean dishes until they are all dirty again and piled in the sink, no doubt. I'd go for stopping the cleaner doing dishes, he or she can't have much time to do anything else if they are wading through filthy dishes every time they come in.

The throwing away thing is an option, but having been a victim of this, please warn people (my cup had been used by someone else and left out).

ThreeMoreDaysTillFriday · 18/03/2015 08:12

If I knew who's was who's I would move them! No option for dishwasher. A dish washing rota might be a good idea but I'd grudge doing it considering I wash my own damn stuff.

I considered naming everything so everyone had their own stuff. That way if they continued their slovenly ways I could name a shame. It's like a group of children. My 3 year old has higher cleaning standards than them!

OP posts:
eggyface · 18/03/2015 08:39

I'm clearly in the minority but I think if you work all day then hot drinks are a (pitifully minor) perk of the job. I wouldn't wash up all my mugs at home, I'd stick them in the dishwasher, so I would expect work to be equally as convenient. Big lunches and roast dinners and sticky toffee puddings, yeah they are discretionary, so people should wash plates up.

I don't think it's about good citizenship and so on, it's more practical. The business charges us out at high day rates. When I'm in the office, there's more valuable stuff I could be doing to the business than washing up. It drives me mad to see everyone clustered around washing up. Five minutes here and there, but if you add up everyone's time and the value of it, it would more than cover a load of mugs and a cleaner popping in at the end of each day.

Get me and my vast importance!

Horsemad · 18/03/2015 08:45

We all wash cups/dishes as we go at my workplace. Very occasionally, a mug might be left on the side by a visitor but usually people just wash up after themselves.

BestIsWest · 18/03/2015 08:50

We have the same issue. One of my colleagues got so fed up she posted a notice in the kitchen saying next time she found the sink full of dirty dishes she was going to bin the lot. And she did. It solved the problem for a while because there were no dishes but it's started to get bad again now. We have a dishwasher FFS.

MinceSpy · 18/03/2015 08:57

I thought office kitchens had to have dishwashers?

devilinme · 18/03/2015 09:00

personally I'd put up a warning that unless the skanky cunts cleaned up after themselves I'd bin the lot.

Do not put up with this disgusting shit.

MagelanicClouds · 18/03/2015 09:03

We had the same problem in my last job, and the main culprit was one of the supervisors. It was gross, even if you wanted to wash up you couldn't as she'd always managed to fill the sink with her stuff by mid morning and then she'd be the one moaning about the bad smells in the staff room.
In the end the general manager gave her the boot because she was an incompetent fool not doing the job well and the problem got a lot better. Most people were so disgusted by it that they were happy to wash up as they went.
Ironically the last time this happened was when some big bods from head office visited for the day. They moaned about various things in the shop (it was an old building, not a lot could be done) and decided some things were rather unprofessional.
Then they went off leaving a staff room covered in detritus from their long lunch break. I remember the look on our managers face - he wasn't usually one for getting hopping mad, but it happened that day!
YANBU

bobbywash · 18/03/2015 09:04

It's one of my pet hates, the company supplies washing up liquid, clean tea towels (changed daily) and cleaning sponges and hot water. It takesw 2 minutes to wash up and yet some people just dump it in the bowl. If I ever see someone do it if I could find a fork (more below) I'd stab them with it.

However, we have something that annoys me even more, people take the forks. We have an office of about 35 people and 12 forks, or we should have 12, we actually have 2 in the drawer and if you don't get there by 12.00 they've vanished until 2.00. So some people have taken a fork back to their desk to eat lunch, and even if they've bought the plate back they keep the fork, I mean really. If you're that possessive about a fork, bring your own from home. Alternatively club together with the other fork thieves and buy them from the shop down the road 2.50 for 4. Aaarrrgghhh!!!

Thanks that's better

MagelanicClouds · 18/03/2015 09:06

We had the same problem in my last job, and the main culprit was one of the supervisors. It was gross, even if you wanted to wash up you couldn't as she'd always managed to fill the sink with her stuff by mid morning and then she'd be the one moaning about the bad smells in the staff room.
In the end the general manager gave her the boot because she was an incompetent fool not doing the job well and the problem got a lot better. Most people were so disgusted by it that they were happy to wash up as they went.
Ironically the last time this happened was when some big bods from head office visited for the day. They moaned about various things in the shop (it was an old building, not a lot could be done) and decided some things were rather unprofessional.
Then they went off leaving a staff room covered in detritus from their long lunch break. I remember the look on our managers face - he wasn't usually one for getting hopping mad, but it happened that day!
YANBU

MagelanicClouds · 18/03/2015 09:06

Sorry for the double post. Bloody laptop!

ilovemargaretatwood8931 · 18/03/2015 09:09

chemenger has the right idea I think. Get the cleaner to stop doing the washing up, make this public knowledge at the next staff meeting, also follow this up with written memos.

First memo- Dear colleagues/ attention please colleague,

The cleaners duties no longer extend to washing up. S/he is going to concentrate on cleaning the office space, including the kitchen.
So, WE need to wash up. Daily. The unwashed cups/ plates/ cutlery (that we are currently leaving for the cleaner to tackle) are building up in a way that is unsanitary and antisocial. It is bad for the office, the people who work there (ie us) and our clients. Please can each person ensure that they wash and put away all the cups/ plates/ cutlery that they use.

Yours, Threemoredays etc

Be prepared for this NOT TO WORK for a while. Everyone will ignore it. Ingrained habits take a long time to change.

So write a second memo- Dear colleauges, Re the washing up. We still have unwashed cups/ plates/ festering food all over the place. It's a problem that needs to be tackled. Please make sure that you wash up after yourself. Thanks. etc.

Repeat. Send individual emails out, to everyone, about the issue.

Then (after this and subsequent emails, which still won't have worked), send a memo and announce at staff meetings that all dirty crockery will be thrown away on a certain day. And then follow through, and actually throw away all dirty crockery. Be prepared for a lot of anger as people have things thrown out that are wanted/ special. A lot of people will lose cups that are theirs, but used by someone else. Everyone will hate you (except for the possible silent majority who are as exasperated as you are about the situation).

At this point, some people might see the light and come over to your way of thinking. But many probably won't.

Repeat the whole exercise again and again at regular intervals.

It probably won't work in the long run. But it'll be an interesting challenge!

HearTheThunderRoar · 18/03/2015 09:25

YANBU. I'm quite high up in my department at work, so normally one of the office juniors (I think they are on a rota) in the call centre will come and collect coffee/tea mugs from the rest of our dept of about 15 people and put it in the dishwasher, them empty it the following morning.

Though everything else you have to put in the dishwasher yourself, though there's hardly anything else other than the mugs.

Koalafications · 18/03/2015 09:32

Oh, I think my office is in the minority.

We have a cleaner who comes in during lunch everyday to load the dishwasher and wash any cups/glasses/plates etc that don't fit in the dishwasher.

We don't ever have a problem like this.

It seems that this is quite a perk!

HowlyBabblyBansheeeeeee · 18/03/2015 09:33

Yanbu. I've worked with similar disgusting people who seem to think that it's ok to leave dirty dishes cluttering up the staff kitchen. Most of the crockery and cutlery was removed by a manager after many warnings, meaning that if people didn't wash up they were told off by the next lot of people on their break. Peer pressure worked.

mindthegap79 · 18/03/2015 09:42

We had this at my work, until my colleague quite rightly implemented a cleaning rota. Everyone should wash up as they go, but 2 or 3 people have overall responsibility each week for wiping down surfaces, putting stuff away etc each day. There are still a couple of repeat offenders but they are named and shamed so they feel the guilt and wash up. It works and we're no longer at risk of disease.

0x530x610x750x630x79 · 18/03/2015 09:43

we have a dishwasher, and people still leave their dirty plats on the top, above the empty dishwasher.
and to answer a previous question of course some people behave like this at home.
And once the sink gets full it gets harder and harder to get in and wash your own stuff so you just give in and join everyone else.

But a dishwasher is the way to go, and find one or 2 people who actually care to put it on after lunch time and empty it in the morning. they will be pleased to do this at it makes stuff nicer for them. But if the office is large you will need 2 dishwashers, we really need 2 at work for 30+ people

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