Office Kitchen Sink Envy
Office Kitchen Woes
Dirty Dishes in the office sink have followed me at every company since I started working in tech. Working in smaller start-ups usually means a smaller office with a shared kitchen area. Add any one or combination of the following, and you are going to find dirty dishes in the office sink:
The urgency to scale a service results in busy schedules
Anonmynitiy that comes with a larger number of employees
Break rooms in the back corner of a less-trafficked area of the office
Lazy and inconsiderate employees who don’t give a damm
They think HR should fix all problems
Working in HR, I am usually the first person to hear about the inconsiderate mess. They expect me to “do something.” When I ask, “What would you like me to do?” I usually get a heavy sigh, frustration, or a rolling of eyes. What are they expecting? Should I go around asking employees individually, “Hey, are those your dishes in the sink?” Do they want me to pull out my DNA swab kit and start asking people, “Say Ahhhhh, please,” and then compare biologics to those in the sink? Don’t worry; I have a potential solution to minimize the dirty dishes in the office sink.
Consistent theme
Over the years, I have found that there is a consistent chain of events. The dishwasher sits empty, and the sink, less than inches away, piles up with dishes. Below is the timeline in the number of days.
Monday, Day 1
A coffee mug and a drinking glass are left in the kitchen sink.
Wednesday, Day 3
The coffee mug and drinking glass are still in the sink. A few other mugs, plates, and dishes have joined the party. The coffee mug has a ring of dried-up coffee with powdered creamer that even an industrial dishwasher will struggle to clean. It’s not even hiding behind the veil of “I am soaking that stain!”
Thursday, Day 4
Clean sink! A good Samaritan, OCD employee couldn’t take the pressure and cleaned the kitchen. Generally, these folks are NOT the culprits, as their personalities wouldn’t leave dirty dishes for others in the first place.
Friday, Day 5
The habit has been ingrained, and I am not discussing the clean up cycle. Someone leaves a dirty bowl in the dishwasher. See the actual picture above. Not sure where the utensil is. Did someone have cereal or soup like a dog, just eating straight from the bowl?
Monday, Day 6
The hyenas get bolder. At the end of the day, the sink is half full of dirty dishes. Yes, the company supplies dishwasher soap free of charge.
Tuesday, Day 7
The emails start. An employee sends an all-company email explaining how they just cleaned up the kitchen sink after some inconsiderate slobs. The tone is accusatory, shaming, and career-limiting for the author. Yes, the workplace was disrespected, but – it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. Yes, Career Limiting.
Wednesday/Thursday, Day 8 and 9
Clean sink. The email worked. Our frustrated employee is oh so proud of themselves. They are smiling inside and feeling smug. They think their email worked. “Promote me, please; that is leadership bitches!”
HRNasty knows better. This ain’t his first rodeo. Round 3 is coming, and it is going to get ugly.
Monday, Day 11-12
Dirty dishes in the sink. And this time, it doesn’t take a few days to become noticeable. Over the next 24 hours, the cup spilleth over.
The author of the last email fires up the flame thrower and sends another email to the entire company.
A few employees pile on, reinforcing the message. Messages range from condescending and self-righteous to diplomatic and encouraging.
Tuesday, Day 13:
An exec responds to the email thread. They don’t want to but realize that the “Kitchen Sink SNAFU of 2025” will become a thing if they don’t.
The exec sends the obligatory email response asking folks to leave dishes in the dishwasher, company culture, and respect for coworkers. Times return to normal.
Note: In 20-plus years of Kitchen Sync Wars, I have never gotten involved or in the middle of the Skype/Teams threads or all company emails on this topic.
4-6 months later:
Real-Life HRNasty Experience
I encountered the common “kitchen sink” problem a few months ago. After a few days of dishes stacking, our newly hired office manager asked me, “What can I do?” I asked her, “What would you like to do?” and she responded with the classic “Send an email to the company.”
This is our office manager’s first corporate job. She is whip-smart and quick to smile; everyone loves what she brings to the company culture. I appreciate the thought, but I have seen this play out too often. As an HR professional, I don’t like to punish the entire company when we should be addressing a few culprits. It’s your classic – someone gets drunk at the holiday party, and the CFO/GC cancels all alcohol moving forward. I suggested a sign above the kitchen sink.
Shortly, I saw the sign. It simply stated: “Please put your dirty dishes in the dishwasher.” Short and to the point. It was also very small. Think about a fortune cookie fortune. It was a little bigger but you get the idea. I had to smile. I am sure our office manager felt badly asking folks to put their dishes in the dishwasher, hence the small sign.
Sure as shit, dirty dishes in the sink continued. I had to chuckle inside.
Our office manager returned for more advice. And here is where it gets “nasty.” As in my Street Name, HRNasty: an unreal maneuver of incredible technique, something that is ridiculously good, tricky, and manipulative but with a result that can’t help but be admired.
I explained my theory. Our sign reads: “Please put your dirty dishes in the dishwasher.” This is not a request. It is an order from management. We used the word “please”, but the tone separates two parties, management and the employees. We are a small office, and everyone will know the origin of the sign. No one thinks, “WTF! Management is telling me what to do again. I am leaving my dishes in the sink out of spite,” like Day 11 and 12 above”.
It is more subconscious. It is automatic. It’s just habit. Drink coffee – leave coffee cup in the sink.
I explained that we need to change the tone and their perspective to get folks on OUR side. We want them working WITH us, not without or against us.
Our sign needs to share the burden of the kitchen sink. Employees bring something to the table, and the management/company/office manager brings something to the table. Our office manager looked at me cock eyed. If I could read her mind, it would read, “WTF just give me the words dumbass!” Again, whip-smart, hip, stylish, and everyone loves her, including me. But I am probably getting too Mr. Miyagi on her.
I explained the following
:
“Let’s post a sign that is a little larger. We need to show confidence. Let’s not make the sign so small; it hints at us being afraid of asking for anything. This sign needs to let employees know that we are sharing the burden of the kitchen sink. We need to bring something to the table. We may have better luck if we let folks know that if they put the dishes in the dishwasher, “management” will run the dishwasher at the end of the day.”
Yes, a few months later, we haven’t had any problems. Our nuance of teamwork did the trick. If you are having issues with your company kitchen sink, remember, “It’s not what you say; it’s how you say it.”
See you in the breakroom, elbows deep in the dishwasher,
HRNasty
nasty: an unreal maneuver of incredible technique, ridiculously good, tricky, and manipulative but with the result that can’t help but be admired, a phrase used to describe someone good at something. “He has a nasty forkball.”
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