I feel like dirty dishes have been a problem in every place I have worked. Have any companies wised up and installed a dishwasher in each kitchen, and have someone assigned to run them every night? Or even just pay someone to wash the dishes by hand?
Large companies I've worked at with several hundred people have multiple dish washers per floor, cleaners going round kitchens on the floor making sure cups/dishes are in the dishwashers, running regular wash cycles and emptying.
Small offices with a handful of people normally have people put cups in the dishwasher at the end of the day and turn it on when leaving.
I guess maybe it's the medium sized companies that have an issue? To many people for a end of day cycle to work, not enough people to justify multiple dishwashers/full time cleaner to keep things in order.
We've got a dishwasher in each office, and the office manager/reception tidy up. Most people put their own plates away.
However like with litter and graffiti in the streets, if people let even a small amount of cups & plates build up - then everyone seems to think it's time to dump their stuff in the sink too.
One company of 120+ people I was at did have a dishwasher and people were somewhat diligent in filling it up, but that didn't stop dishes from piling up in the sink etc. The receptionist ended up being responsible for running the dishwasher and so on unfortunately.
I think that’s the solution: make it the responsibility of one person, instead of everyone’s. And that “everyone” probably earns a lot per hour, and each person doing their own small part just wastes a lot of start-up/ramp-down time.
For <10 people there's easy personal accountability and no issues should arise. For 20-50 people I've observed good effects from just having one employee who has the responsibility (and time in their daily schedule) to fill, run and empty the dishwashers. That person can either go around the building collecting everything or police everyone else to put their cups where they belong (in practise almost always a mix of the two).
I don't know how bigger companies handle the issue, but the plan for scaling up seems obvious: have one person responsible for the dishwashers of each floor (or whatever division seems reasonable).
I consulted with a ~small law firm that had staff for that. They setup food and beverages for meetings and depositions, kept the kitchen spaces orderly, and so on.
You just need to convince everyone to get their own unique cup, and they’ll take care of it themselves. Just make sure there’s plenty of dish soap and replace the sponge at an appropriate cadence.
Even better is to have the kitchen cabinets accept dishwasher racks. Then clearing out the dishwasher is simple. You need 3 racks (and one dishwasher):
