Your mother doesn't work here - clean up after yourself!

When I first started working at my current job 4 years ago, I was amazed to find real dishes in the breakrooms.  No really; drinking glasses, coffee mugs, plates, bowls, silverware and get this - a dishwasher!  I was quite puzzled, as my previous places of employment only had sinks, refrigerators and microwaves.  So this was totally new to me. 

Once explained to me, the efforts to cut down on waste and to go green, I warmed up to fact that these breakrooms were full fledge kitchens, just like at home!  But as my tenure progressed, I began to observe that the employees were treating these "at work" kitchens like they were "at home" kitchens.  Right now, at my house, my dishes are piled up in the sink (working girl = full sink until the weekend), but would I necessarily feel compelled to just dump my dirty dishes in the sink and leave for who knows who to clean up, at work?  Yeah, not so much. 

Why do people think this is ok?  Now of course this is not everyone, you have people like me and then the people who create signs and tape them to the cupboard doors or even on the countertops printed in all caps "CLEAN UP AFTER YOURSELF!"  Maybe we should remove the dishes?  I don't know what the solution is, we are all adults, and sadly enough people bring their bad home habits to work.  This is interesting to me, most times I would hate for someone to come to my house and see my dirty dishes piled up high or witness any other outside of work or behind closed door behaviors.  I suppose the employees who do this have no shame in their game and like to keep it real no matter where they are????  Beats me.

There is a time and place for everything, so let's try to suppress our behaviors that are not appropriate for work (like being slobs) until we get home OR eat at restaurants where there are servers OR use disposible utensils! 

There's cake in the breakroom!

Happy New Year Everyone!

Each year people make New Year's resolutions to get fit and eat healthier. While I'm not setting a resolution to work out more or stop eating red meat, I am going to make a conscience effort to stay away from "workplace birthday cake"!

One must learn that when you enter Corporate America your sweet tooth will be tempted almost everyday. Only the strongest will power will stop you from falling victim to the "newbie nine" (the number of pounds you will gain when you start your first corporate job), similar to the infamous "freshman fifteen" (number of pounds one might gain as a freshman in college).

It seems that there is always a birthday cake with lots of sugary frosting, to celebrate a colleague's birthday, double fudge brownies and macadamia nut chocolate chip cookies to bid one "Farewell or Bon Voyage" as they resign, a cupcake tower to congratulate a retirement, some creative apple fritter and/or caramel coconut bar made by that employee who just likes to bake and wants to show off their skills by bringing in their so-called "overflow" because they made too much, or lastly the decadent Harry and David chocolate truffles a vendor sent to say thanks for the business.

I have to admit - I've been caught up in this free for all munchfest: eating these goodies for breakfast and helping myself to another serving around 3:00pm to help me make it through the rest of the day.

So, instead of resolving that I join a gym that I will end up not going to and wasting my money or cutting out carbs (I love bread and potatoes too much) , I figure I should really resolve to not fall prey to the celebration peer pressures of the office and say "NO" to workplace birthday cake in 08!"