By Anthony Patete, JD, MBA
Faculty Member, School of Business at American Public University
There is always conflict between labor and management. If you ask laborers what their biggest concern is, it is job stability. Ask any manager and it is profitability. How both sides reach their goals is why we have human resources in every company. However, when it comes to the cleanliness of the workplace kitchen, all bets are off. How do we find a middle ground?
The Workplace
The modern workplace brings many people together for a common purpose — to earn wages. Many people spend a significant amount of time at work, and many employers provide workplace amenities such as babysitting, gyms, relaxation areas and a workplace kitchen. Assuming most people eat three meals a day and have snacks during the day, this kitchen area is a welcome resource for employees. The workplace kitchen is not only a place to eat and prepare meals, but is also a break and socialization area. Most, if not all, employees go to the kitchen once a day, for coffee, tea, meal preparation or a break.
The Kitchen is Dirty
With the exemption of the personal cellphone, it is common knowledge the kitchen is the “dirtiest” place at work, housing germs and bacteria that can cause illness and reduce employee productivity. Oftentimes, complaints are filed with human resources about the poor condition of the common area.
Policy and Procedure
Policies are written and published, and rules and warnings are posted in the kitchen about “kitchen etiquette”. All of these rules are ignored by most employees and enforced by a few people.
Those people ignoring workplace kitchen etiquette such as cleaning up after your own meal or eating other people’s lunches do not consider it rude behavior or base their thinking on cultural values. People attempting to enforce the rules and keep the kitchen clean soon tire of this thankless chore.
With a combination of different employee cultures and culinary novices, there is stress involving the workplace kitchen. What is an employer to do? The job falls to human resources to resolve the conflict.
The Role of Human Resources
Human resources must balance the benefit of having a common area for employees, camaraderie, and personal enjoyment with enforcing workplace rules. The two extremes are to eliminate the common area, or do nothing and allow the employees to work it out.
Either position ignores that a conflict exists. The players are employers and employees. One would think that the employer has the upper hand, but that is not the case. Can an employee be fired for such an infraction? Can the employer remove or even enforce the workplace kitchen etiquette without fear of reprisal?
Resolving the Conflict
When two or more people come together at the workplace, they bring with them different ideas and perspectives. These differences may lead to conflict and problems in communication and understanding. These differences can be explained by cultural and world views that are developed by the individual over a lifetime.
One way to address and potentially resolve these conflicts is to resist a tendency to attack or retaliate with the spirit of inquiry. This is achieved through communication.
Communication includes both verbal and non-verbal communication. Where a conflict involves a cultural perspective, conflict resolution should expand the parties’ individual awareness toward the other’s culture. For example, eating fish heads at work may be culturally acceptable to one group and clearly offensive to another.
On an individual basis, communication begins with either a community approach or an individual approach. The community approach teaches that people are part of a unit, circle, neighborhood or community. In this case, they are part of the workforce. The reward for being part of this community is obedience, order, unit harmony, cooperation and family values.
Individualism involves the self as independent, self-directed and autonomous, all for the purpose of self-gain. This way of thinking translates into different ways to address conflict.
Community-based persons address conflict focusing on social connections and cooperative style, the “can’t we all get along approach.” The individual approach to conflict is more of a competitive style, focusing on personal achievement and the “win at all costs” approach to conflict. Like cultural diversity, these two approaches can meet in the middle to create a conflict.
The key is identifying the approaches and developing a workable approach toward communication and conflict resolution. Start by identifying a common interest.
If the solution is communication and identifying a common interest, then this is where the conflict resolution process must start. First, a common interest to both the employees and the employer is a “clean” and healthy workplace. This benefits the employer because employees show up for work, are productive and do not use sick time for a germ that originated in a “dirty” workplace kitchen. Employees benefit by retaining an employer-sponsored benefit.
Second, this common interest should be communicated to the employees. This can be done by providing educational seminars on a clean versus a dirty kitchen. Routine and regular emails can be sent to employees and notices can be posted of a clean kitchen rule and routine maintenance of the kitchen.
Rather than have human resources enforce the rules, the workforce should gather to write or re-write the clean kitchen rules, nominate an employee committee to monitor and enforce the rules, and have employee ambassadors regularly inspect the kitchen. By using a community approach of peers to maintain kitchen etiquette, no one person becomes the enforcer, the individual mentality should succumb to the peer approach and employees remain healthy.
About the Author
Anthony Patete is a faculty member at American Public University in the business school. He has been teaching law and business for more than 10 years online and on campus at various schools; and he has been an administrator in post-secondary education. Dr. P, as his students affectionately call him, provides his students with seasoned instruction and career guidance.
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