Why is it office culture to make the admin take care of your dishes?

[Anonymous]

Eh, I've worked at places with communal dishes and there was usually someone assigned to putting away or emptying the dishwasher. One place was an admin, another was the cleaning guy (TBH, this guy was hired as a favour and there wasn't that much work for him to do, so it was added to his list of tasks).

I also don't think stuff lingering on the dishrack is a big deal though, and would take a clean plate off there to eat off if needed. Different to me then everyone leaving dirty dishes lying around.

[Anonymous]

At my office the maid does it.

[Anonymous]

Strange. Every office I’ve worked at, if you bring your own lunch, you bring the container back home.

I’ve never heard of office dishes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I assume they're on the drying rack to dry. How can they put them away immediately?

If you don't want them on the drying rack- toss the drying rack and make everyone use a paper towel.

Our cleaning crew is the one who cleans the fridge and tosses everything/ makes sure the kitchen is clean.

The dishes have been sitting in the drying rack over night and into the next day before I finally put them away

You are triggered by seeing the dishes on the rack. Others are not. You need to let it go. It is not your home kitchen.

This. Just make a mental decision that on the rack is where they belong. People can get the clean dishes from there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'll be the voice of dissent.

I would be *mortified* if our admin was putting away my dishes. She's not my mom.
OP, we actually have a sign in our kitchen that says "Clean up. Your mother doesn't live here."
Cheesy, yes, but it gets the point across.

Did your boss tell you that putting away the dishes is part of your job? Do you have other facilities/food related responsibilities that this could reasonably be seen as an extension of? If so, suck it up and do it.
If not, just stop putting away the dishes. People will figure it out eventually. Or not. Not your problem.

+1 - I cannot believe that people think washing/putting away dishes is part of normal admin/receptionist duties. If that's the office policy, then fine. But these posters that are so rude and demeaning - you are jerks.

[Anonymous]

Talk to your boss about it to understand if it’s truly expected or you are just doing it because it bothers you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I used to manage the receptionist/office manager in my former company. People were disgusting turds and thought she should clean up their nasty tupperware in the sink or collect coffee mugs to put in the dishwasher etc. She had the go ahead to throw out any dish that was left in the sink daily or the fridge at the end of the week. We got rid of all mugs/plates/silverware and replaced with plastic/paper.

Our receptionist was a business associate and not a maid.

+1 - I once worked in a place where people were like this. We did a remodel and it called for a sink in the office space. I was in charge of the reno and told the contractor I would murder him if he put a sink in the office.

There was a communal sink down the hall that was cleaned by janitorial staff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People use an office plate to eat their lunch?

+1
WTF

[Anonymous]

We have a full kitchen / canteen in all our size-able offices (500+ employees). It is managed third party and includes the facilities crew. They are responsible for running the dishwashers in each area every night, including any mugs dishes silverware in the kitchen sinks. Admins and receptionists do not have clean up duty. However admins are responsible for lunch orders for all day meetings, and coffee refresh and snacks in afternoon. Our admins also don’t do ‘coffee runs’ unless they are grabbing some for themselves and just happen to ask if other want anything.

[Anonymous]

Because they probably earn the least per hour in the office. It doesn’t make sense to have higher value people putting away dishes.

Having said that, I’d never use office dishes. Gross.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just stop putting them away. No one will notice or care. If there's no room on the drying rack people will stack the dishes on top.

I really doubt anyone will come to you and say: “Mary, why did you stop putting dishes away?” Or if they do, you can clearly show your goals or work agreement where I am 100% sure there is nothing about the dishes.

Also, There are people who just don’t care about emptying the drying rack. You care, so you empty it. Others would just take a plate from the drying rack when they need it, or just add on top or put on the side. You need to stop caring about the drying rack. Wipe your own dish after your wash it and put it away, and don’t even look at the drying rack. You made it your job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because they probably earn the least per hour in the office. It doesn’t make sense to have higher value people putting away dishes.

Having said that, I’d never use office dishes. Gross.

This.

If you are an admin, this is your job at this particular office.

I wouldn't eat off those dishes or be that admin, but that's where you are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because they probably earn the least per hour in the office. It doesn’t make sense to have higher value people putting away dishes.

Having said that, I’d never use office dishes. Gross.

And because you started doing it / you care. We had a highish level admin who stated in a meeting that she spent X hours a day on cleaning / dishes (it was one or two) and I just... did not feel bad for her. (I also highly doubt it was taking that much of her time since we are not large / messy and no one was leaving dirty dishes in the sink for others to do) She was in charge of a lot of stuff, she should not be doing it, but there was no one that was making her. She should have delegated our said "do your own stuff".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whose job do you think it should be? At my office people leave their sh*t in the sink so maybe count your blessings.

Obviously each grown-ass adult should take 30 seconds of their lunchtime to clean up after themselves in a building in which they work every day. Just because they expect their spouses to be their maids doesn't mean their coworkers should be. Duh.

[Anonymous]

That's not the case at my law firm.. We hire intellectually disabled people and one of the jobs they have is to clean the kitchens. They load and unload the dishwashers, clean the counters, etc.