Views

Office fridge gripes exposed

Just a fizzy Friday post today. I don’t know about your office, but Friday is the day our wonderful office manager takes on the valuable but thankless job of cleaning out the office refrigerator.

I’m a huge neat freak, so I love coming in on Mondays to a sparkling clean fridge. That said, I don’t envy the person who cleans it.

I don’t know why, but there’s something about the office fridge that turns generally civilized adults into animals.

In most workplaces I’ve been in, it seems people couldn’t follow basic kindergarten rules — clean up your own messes, don’t take what doesn’t belong to you, when in doubt throw it out. I don’t understand it.

Neither, apparently, do the folks at OfficeTeam, who actually took the time to conduct a survey on what bugs people the most about office fridge faux pas.

According OfficeTeam, 44% of workers said making a mess for others to clean up is the most annoying break-room behavior. Stealing a coworker’s food came in second (19%) followed by leaving expired or spoiled items in the refrigerator (18%).

For me, stealing is No. 1, followed ever so closely by smelly food in general — like that of my coworker, who shall remain nameless, but who regularly packs the world’s strongest onions in her lunches. Every day. 

Share any fridge frustrations you have in the comments.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
MORE FROM EMPLOYEE BENEFIT NEWS