Shared canteen issue

Sunny Dayz

I work for a small business, and in a small office block with two other similar sized businesses. Each business has its own office room, phones, internet and file storage. We have shared toilets, meeting room and kitchen. Lately we seem to have an issue with one of the other offices in relation to the kitchen.

Monday last week, we came in that morning to find the lunch dishes piled up in the sink from the previous Friday belonging to one of the other businesses. Kitchen was cleaned by us as we couldn't even make coffee.

Things escalated this week, they had a meeting organised. I noted we were low on milk that morning so I bought a some. We went to make coffee that afternoon only to find the milk all used up, raised this with the other office and got a reply "oh well we had a meeting today". They grudging went down town to get milk, and they left it on the kitchen counter. Only for I went into the kitchen before going home, it would have been sour this morning. They also had left all the cups dishes from the meeting left in the kitchen and we refused to touch them, they weren't tidied til later this morning.

Any recommendations on how to sort things out without causing agro, we all have to working in this building together, albeit for different businesses.

Equality

I have some suggestions.

The first is that you pour your milk from the carton into a jug or other container. Most people won't touch this, as they are unsure that it is milk.

The second is that you should purchase dishes/cutlery for your own office. Make sure that they are distinctive, and mark the press they are in.

It is a bad idea to wash dishes that the other office have used. If you must do this, leave them in the sink unwashed after you have used them.

If they are using your millk, I presume they are using your teabags and coffee. Keep these in your office, as you do not need to keep them in a fridge.

who the fug

Cause aggro, Kitchen & Bathroom are to be kept clean at all times, and if you can't understand that concept it will be beaten into you.

frag420

Had a similar situation with colleagues a few yrs back. After several chats it still continued so we did the only thing we thought would work..........we added laxatives to the milk. It soon stopped!!

If you want to resort to this though please exhaust all the previous suggestions first!! If they are thick enough not to change their ways then they deserve all they get.

Oh and remove toilet paper from jacks for ultimate payback!!

Chuck_Norris

frag420 wrote: »

Had a similar situation with colleagues a few yrs back. After several chats it still continued so we did the only thing we thought would work..........we added laxatives to the milk. It soon stopped!!

If you want to resort to this though please exhaust all the previous suggestions first!! If they are thick enough not to change their ways then they deserve all they get.

Oh and remove toilet paper from jacks for ultimate payback!!

You could leave the tp, but do something equally as nasty.....lime juice. Add a few drops to the paper for remarkable results.

Had a flat mate years ago who had "a friend" move in from Australia for "a few weeks". 6 months later she was still there, and contributing nothing to the place, and seemed to feckin live in the jacks with the amount of toilet paper we were going through. Sooooo, we added a few drops of lime juice to the tp, and re-rolled it.

Oh man, the screams when she used it.

They moved out fairly swiftly afterwards.

nlgbbbblth

Confront them. Do not beat around the bush.

Maybe send an email to a nominated contact in each of the other offices. Outline some basic ground rules for the kitchen. Keep it polite and brief. If the problem persists send them an email berating criticising their behaviour - and make sure it's copied to the other businesses.

Mrs OBumble

Moderator note:

Some of the suggestions so far are "interesting". I don't know if they're actually illegal or not, but they aren't exactly mature adult ways to treat people.

While I do enjoy the humour, they're not actually courses of action that I'd recommend actually taking.

And boards official line is that we don't promote illegal activities here.

So please be cautious about what you actually do.

tatli_lokma

I am not a fan of meetings for meetings sake, but perhaps as previous poster suggested contact each 'responsible' person in each company (office manager, general manager whatever) and ask if you guys can have a brief meeting to discuss some general housekeeping issues. Be firm but polite. And then together try to address the issues and come to compromises.

It could be something as simple as the other lot think that there is a cleaner who tidies the kitchen.

I also think it is a good idea for each company to get their own ser of crockery and cutlery and would even go so far as to arrange for each to have their own shelf in the fridge for milk, otherwise a kitty will have to be started for milk and cleaning supplies.

Other options are to set up a rota for each company to be responsible for the kitchen each month - perhaps after a month of cleaning YOUR mess (which you will leave deliberately) they might cop on.

And if all that fails, I would get my own crockery and a plastic basin or something and each time a mess is left by them in the kitchen, pile it into the basin and leave it to one side. Continue adding to the pile until they get the message.

Procrastastudy

I used to work for a chain of stores. The manager of Tallaght was a nice block but also a bit rough around the edges. His store looked like it was managed by a 60 year old granny. Not a THING out of place.

As soon as someone (staff) put something where it wasn't meant to be it went straight in the bin.

OldmanMondeo

Buy a small fridge, keep it in your office some where. Tell all staff to bring their own cups and dishes in. Only use the cateen to make tea and coffee. If anyone needs to use the canteen to eat, then move anything unwashed to one side and leave it there. Clean your own stuff up and leave it at that. They will soon learn.