A cultural comparison: the office kitchen in USA, Germany and the UK

It's been a few years since I've worked in the US, although I still go back to Benevolent company J's headquarters at least once a year. I find office kitchens in the US to be very basic. There's usually a microwave and maybe a refrigerator (with a sign saying 'all food left here Friday night will be thrown out by the cleaning crew), and perhaps a drip coffee maker or an automatic machine which will dispense something powdered at the touch of a button. Usually coffee and tea are free, but they aren't much to brag about and the optional extras are sugar and those tiny plastic containers of creamer which don't require refrigeration.

Because there is a microwave, some people will bring lunch, although I don't think it's such a popular American custom. If people do bring food, it tends to be a packaged microwave meal, or perhaps a hot breakfast food like oatmeal or an afternoon snack of microwave popcorn.

For the most part US office kitchens are clean and there's not so many issues there mainly because they are mostly used for morning beverages, and often there's a very limited skeleton collection of guest mugs and spoons. Often you cannot find forks, plates or knives, unless there are some plastic ones left over from someone's birthday cake celebration.

Without a doubt, however, the biggest office kitchen issue while I worked in the US was the mircrowaving of 'smelly' food. Because so few people microwaved anything further than a Chicken Parm Lean Cuisine, and because America is often not so diverse in some places, when someone would microwave something strong-smelling, it tended to be noticed and would cause a negative reaction. Specifically, Asian specialities including fish and Indian dishes (I lived in California where these foods were popular) would often cause an uproar among non-Asian or non-Indian populations who were not used to the smell.

Then, handwritten passive-agressive notes would appear commenting upon this use, causing HR to have to get involved. Usually 'Cultural diversity - foods of the world!' would then become a 'Lunch and Learn' session and an official memo would come out from HR celebrating our differences, and would everyone please be sure to wipe down the microwave after using it.

When I came to Germany, I arrived with the above background in my pocket, so I microwaved my Indian food with trepidation, lest a cause a German to meltdown. However, I needn't have feared. The Germans are the most curious lot when it comes to food. I'd say 80% of the time, someone would comment positively as we overlapped in the kitchen, and never once was it negatively commented upon. Further, it would usually play out like this:
Random German: Ah! Smells...interesting!
Heather: Yes! It's homemade.
RG: Really? (peers at it) Spinach and...and...?
Heather: (Gives detailed instructions)
RG: (Listens closely) Well! Enjoy!

Further, the Germans are an industrious lot. Even though we have cleaning staff at Benevolent company J, that wouldn't stop a German from scrubbing down the countertop, simply because it looked like it needed doing while waiting for the kettle to boil. When things would happen to go off, it was quickly settled. For example, we had a bit of a problem that people were taking the last of the coffee and not making new. Sure as God made little green apples, an offical memo from management went up and the problem stopped. Why? Because someone official told them what to do. Problem solved. The same thing happened with people stacking dishes on the counter instead of putting them into the dishwasher. Once the official memo goes up, problem is magically solved.

The funny thing about the German kitchens though, was the little tiny refrigerators and the fact that so many people brought lunches. Granted, I spent part of the time in an office with no cafeteria so the refrigerator usage was definitely higher, but it was a little crazy at times. In multiple office locations, we only had the 'typical' German freezer (aka one the size of a US college dorm fridge) and it would be packed solid. You'd have to jockey things around to fit yours in, which was ok. But interestingly, if someone's food went bad, like they forgot about it or went on travel--and it went moldy, no one would do anything. So they would touch your items to fit in theirs, but they wouldn't throw out moldy chicken sharing the space. Go figure.

In the UK, I've been interested to see how things would play out here. On a good note, I make the office coffee at 07.20 and the pot lasts until about 10.20 since 98% of the office are tea or instant coffee drinkers. We do, however, have a plethora of management produced signs, but they don't have the same effect as in Germany. It started with a "Your mum does not work here, please clean up after yourself' note--how standard.

That didn't secure the desired effect, so a second kitchen note went up earlier this week: "If you want your plates, bowls, cups, etc. to be washed, put them in the dishwasher. Any item left in the sink will be thrown out." Sure enough, when I walked in late lunchtime, there were dishes in the trashbin. Someone comes in to make his tea and makes the comment 'Oh, looks like (Facilities guy) is throwing the toys from the pram again. He then proceeds to take the dishes from the trashbin and to load them into the dishwasher.
A. I was surprised that there was actually follow through here on the sign threat.
B. I was more surprised that Fellow A actually picked all the dishes out of the trash.

I cannot see either of the above two actions ever happening in the US or Germany. Although that is perhaps because the US has no kitchen dishes and Germany has a sign warning people to use the dishwasher therefore they do. :-)

Signs from the South

I spend too much time studying signs. In Germany no office ladies toilet is complete without a cartoon toilet brush ordering one to use it correctly.

In the UK last week there were no such cartoons, but this one stuck out for me because of the use of the word 'please' and 'now':

The US version would look a little more like this:

(From http://www.designerysigns.com/osha-signs.html)

My favorite kitchen sign last week is from below:

If case you have difficulties to read this, here is the text, but converted from all uppercase to mixed case:

Milk is provided for tea and coffee.
With the exception if you commence work at 7 AM or before. You may use on cereals.

If not Please provide your own milk.

This one interests me because we have a similar sign in the Essex office, to not use milk on cereal, but it does not have the 7 AM exclusion.

I'm not sure why this sticks out to me except that:

-I've never seen such a sign in the US.

-Probably because we don't have gallons of milk in the office fridge.

-Probably because we're not proper tea drinkers, and the only milk for coffee drinkers is often coffee-mate or those little packets of cream which require no refrigeration.