Eeewwww. Grooosss. (Never mind the fuzzy green moldy stuff, how about seepage of who knows what dripping between the racks.)
Yeah, I’ve seen those office fridges. Dare I say, way back in the day when I was young and reckless, I even contributed to those fridges.
And I’ve seen the clean tidy ones.
The office cultural value that seems to stand out the most on this one is simple respect for ones co-workers (and company resources.) But mind you, you can have a clean office fridge and if there’s always the complaint that someone’s “coveted brought from home beverage of choice” has gone missing, you still have the issue of respect, and perhaps a klepto in your mist. Then there’s the guy who takes up a whole shelf, all by himself. Office fridge manners speak more to one’s innate character than you would think.
And I get it, not all of us are clean freaks. But I bet we all want respect and our brown paper bag not to stick to the shelf.
It’s a small thing. A detail really in the scheme of an entire office. But it says a lot. Is the fridge treated as a shared space for all to benefit from where everyone who uses it does their part (think baseline teamwork and consideration here.) Or is it an abused space that simply fills a need (says – I’m here for the paycheck) and where leftovers go unchecked for far too long.
And for those of you who have janitorial service who throws out anything that’s left in on Fridays and wipes the weekly goo off the shelves, I must ask, are you missing out on a key indicator of your employee culture?
Oh and don’t get me started on dirty dishes in the office sink…
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