You said the office kitchen is "everyone's responsibility." Noted.
some background. I work in an open office, about 40 people, one shared kitchen. for the past year there has been a rotating cast of people who leave dishes in the sink, wipe nothing down, and generally treat the microwave like it's someone else's problem. management sent three separate emails about it over the course of like eight months. passive aggressive notes appeared on the fridge. nothing changed.
then in January our office manager Karen (not using a fake name, her name is actually Karen, which I recognize is a lot) announced at an all-hands that "the kitchen is everyone's responsibility and everyone will be held equally accountable going forward." she looked very satisfied saying this. a few people nodded. I wrote it down.
I took her at her word.
I started showing up to the kitchen at random points during the day to wipe down surfaces, clean the microwave, organize the condiment shelf, throw out expired stuff from the communal basket. not my mess, didn't matter. equal responsibility means equal responsibility. I kept a casual log on my phone just for my own interest. over six weeks I cleaned the microwave fourteen times. I wiped the counter after other people's spills maybe thirty times. I threw out a cream cheese that expired in october.
week seven Karen pulled me aside and said she'd noticed I was spending a lot of time in the kitchen and asked if everything was okay and did I have enough work to do.
I showed her the all-hands email on my phone. I told her I was just honoring the equal accountability policy. she stared at me for a moment and then said "that's not really what I meant."
the kitchen has been noticeably cleaner since that conversation. I choose to belive this is not a coincidence.