I'm shocked at the entitlement, others think it's normal..?

[Bigstyle]

I work for a small charity. There are three very important, very well paid executives and a small team of "workers".

The executives like their coffee and mostly make it themselves, using the office pod machine. But at the end of the day they bring their cups into the main office for the most junior staff member to wash.

Now, I get that our job is basically to support them, but I can't imagine doing this to my staff. The "junior" doesn't have hot drinks so it's not even like she's going to wash her own cup.

I think it's outrageous, the general attitude it demonstrates rather than the task, but they clearly think it's perfectly normal.

Is it?

And you have to get up to your desk possibly have conversations hang around at the sink have more conversations walk back to your desk by the time you’ve done it it’s 10 minutes.

I’m just being pedantic really but I do think that it is simply a fact that some people’s time is more valuable than others and some on this thread are getting very triggered thinking that these things are personal when they may not be personal at all

Not if it’s clearly agreed as part of the cleaner’s job description.

Temped in Chambers doing admin. I was expected to wash up cups.

Worked at other places where there was a rota for cleaning the fridge and emptying the dishwasher

Get a rota and everyone takes it in turns or else they wash their own up

I am a joint owner of a business. We normally have a cleaner that comes in each day, but she couldn't make it last night.

As a result, I did the dishwasher and ladies' loos and my business partner ran the hoover round and did the bins.

Our staff are there to work, not clean up after us! (Though I do occasionally have to remind them to clean up after themselves and put their cups in the dishwasher, not just abandoning them on the side!)

Yes this sums it up.

Back in the 1980's perhaps! I would never expect anyone - regardless of their grade - to clean up after me!

Do you put 'wifework' into the job description when you're advertising for junior positions, or is that a fun surprise for then to discover after they've taken the job?

Urgh.

Some jobs really do not give you the time to eat and barely time to wash up, especially public sector.

Which is why emergency vehicles are so filthy inside and staff canteens are filthy, as a cop can not really tell the dispatcher to wait until they have finished their dinner when they are the only patrol free and it's an emergency.

Forty years ago, when I started working, you’d expect the office junior to make the tea and wash up. However, life was different then.

If the executives’ can make their own coffee, then are capable of washing their own mugs. What next, clean their shoes?

The junior does the crappy jobs and works their way up... she's not going to be washing the cups forever!

You need to get her to speak to her Apprenticeship tutor. That is bullying and harassment. Not on.

Could they run to a dishwasher?

One of our cleaner's tasks is to do the dishwasher. It's the first thing she does when she gets here and by the time she's done everything else it's finished and ready to empty, which she also does.

What was really unfair was the state people were leaving the kitchen in. Literally a sink full of mugs, half full of coffee and one mug that had about 25 spoons in it from all the teas and coffees of the day.

Our cleaner is there to clean, including the dishwasher, but she's not there to tidy up after people that can't be bothered to open the dishwasher door that is right next to the sink!

I was an office junior in my first job 20+ years ago and it was in my contract to do the washing up.

I suspect the most junior member of your team has an ‘any other duties as required’ line in their contract. It’s still entitled and shitty on the seniors part though and it would make me cross.

It's an abuse of power. It's nobody's job to wash their cups the lazy fuckers.

It's entitled and lazy.

Our office had a dishwasher and everyone was expected to put their cups/plates etc in there when they finished with them. Last person out puts the dishwasher on. Cleaner sorts it out in the morning.

No one has so few minutes spare in their day that they can't wash their own cup. You don't need to stop work to do it, just do it when you finish before you go home or in the morning when you arrive. It's a 2 minute job and a dickhead move to expect a more junior member of staff to be your skivvy.

I would point blank refuse. In fact I have in the past.

I worked for a charity where a manager used to expect someone else to clean their plates . Probably me. I just left them.
my currently job, my boss does this too. She doesn’t expect but hopes someone will do it for her. Again, I refuse.

Id just play “Covid risk” card if I was the junior here 😂

Thank you. Interesting.

One thing I have noticed in life is that the people who make the most of being highly moral, liberal, bien pensant types, are the very people who are most likely to be utter shits to those around them.

It's like, "I'm saving the world so it's fine if I treat people around me like shit."

I wonder if this dynamic is at play with people who run charities.

Send around a rota to them and with a "tips to build a collaborative workforce"

@stayathomer Yeah - I think that's right. It's better not to hire support staff if it's morally wrong to have them assist. I can certainly do my job without it - I just can't do as much. That certainly would be my conclusion if it came up at work.

Wifework is a feminist description from a really interesting book about the actual value of this sort of labour and how it facilitate(s) the careers of men. It's interesting to me that so many people here think it's demeaning to do this work even when paid to do it.

I was a carer for so long - I'm so used to being despised - but it's interesting to see it's all support workers who are despised. It's like - I don't know - I guess I drew a different conclusion. I think that work is really important.

Honestly, no, I haven't worked in an environment liek this in years. It's also considered extremely wasteful. Having said that, it is true that every office I've visited in the last few years has a dishwasher and, unless the dishwasher is on, it absolutely is the respponsibility of each person to put thei rmug directly in, and not to leave it on the counter for someone else to load.

Well, yes. But if that were the case, I would change the cleaner's job description. She is a cleaner, rather than a maid, and I expect staff to wash up after themselves. I don't think it is a big ask.

That died out along with patting a female colleague's arse to say "well done".

Agree with PP that unless cleaning is in the job spec of the junior then they shouldn’t be dumping their mugs on their desk at the end of the day to be washed. It’s really disrespectful, and they’ve put her in a terrible position of having to push back, and now they are just laughing at her!
you just wash your own mugs, or have a dishwasher.

People who use the term 'it's not my job' in my experience don't get on in life/work.
Therefore I'd not be recommending that any young person used that term.