Could use your advice on a work situation (a tad long)

MrsPatterson · May 2010

This is going to sound so petty but I don't know what to do. I'm an admin. asst. in a small field office for a state-wide organization. Myself and my co-worker (who have different bosses) basically get stuck with all the b!tch work in the office, including cleaning up after people and keeping the fridge stocked with pop. We literally keep every flavor of pop known to man on-hand, so it's quite a process to continually re-stock everything and keep things neat.

Anyway, theres a person who works out of our office who is not exactly an employee, and doesn't have a boss in the office (it's complicated). Since she started working here last fall, the fridge has become a nightmare because she brings her lunch in bags (like small paper shopping bags with handles from Bath and Body or DSW), usually will not eat what is in the bags, and just leave the bags in the fridge until she needs to clear space for a new bag.

Ordinarily I would just approach her about it and ask her if she wouldn't mind if I cleared some of her bags out (in a way that let her know that myself and my co-worker do not appreciate the clutter her bags make in our small fridge). But, a few months back, I approached her about an old computer she just left in the tiny storage room we have here and she went ballistic on me saying that it was not her fault the storage room was a mess and she wasn't going to take responsibility for the way that room was when it wasn't her fault.

I don't know what to do because everyone knows it's her crap in the fridge but the bosses don't care enough to say anything since to them it's not really their problem. I thought about sending out a mass email to the office so as not to single anyone out, but since everyone knows it's her, I thought it would make things worse. Do you ladies have any advice for me to get this situation fixed, because it's driving myself and my coworker nuts and is so frustrating.

futureevans · May 2010

The building I used to work at had a note on the fridge that said any food left unattended will be tossed on Sundays. That way when the work week is over you can clean it out.

ErinBrooke · May 2010

My old job was in a small office situation too, so we had to continually remind people about break room etiquette/keeping the fridge clean. Our office manager was responsible for keeping the fridge clean, and would basically throw everything out every 1-2 weeks, always sending a reminder email to staff beforehand so people could keep what they wanted.

Maybe you could start a regular fridge cleaning and email reminder so everyone will start respecting the shared space, and hopefully this way she wouldn't feel called out if it went to everyone in the office.

burghbaby · May 2010

Erinbrooke's idea sounds like what my work does. And I think that's totally fair. We have people who do that at my work. There is a sign on the front about no "science experiments" should be run in the fridge

MrsB0701 · May 2010

ErinBrooke:

My old job was in a small office situation too, so we had to continually remind people about break room etiquette/keeping the fridge clean. Our office manager was responsible for keeping the fridge clean, and would basically throw everything out every 1-2 weeks, always sending a reminder email to staff beforehand so people could keep what they wanted.

Maybe you could start a regular fridge cleaning and email reminder so everyone will start respecting the shared space, and hopefully this way she wouldn't feel called out if it went to everyone in the office.

I would absolutely do this!

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