prep room being used as a kitchen

[jodye]

Morning everyone,

I have a BIG problem with a teacher ( HOD ) using my prep room as a kitchen. he puts his lunch in the fridge & uses my sink to wash his coffee cups. What annoys me the most is him leaving his cups in the sink or on my bench!! : I started hiding all his cups but he still brings more !! Not to mention knives,forks & spoons. I placed signs around stating no food or drinks allowed in prep room but he stil hasn't got the message. Any suggestions ??

[lada]

Why dont you put frozen rats next to his lunch (or slightly off fish) for dissection and accidently drip some blood on his lunch. Or make some smelly solutions and leave them rubbing shoulders with his knives and forks. OH&S would have a ball with this one.
Lada

[jodye]

Lada,
I have had rats in the fridge beside his lunch... It doesn't seem to stop him. I had HCl on the sink yesterday too !!

[Voice]

Warn him about calling in Health and Safety. Give him a week. If no improvement. Do it!
Maree

[tree-hugga]

Do you have a fridge in the staff room? Is it nearby? I'd just keep moving it to where it should be if it's not too far, then if he questions why you've moved it, just reply with a very patronising response, state the bleeding obvious! You know, the same way you'd treat a four year old!

[jodye]

We do have a fridge & a sink in the staff room. At first I kept bringing his coffee cups back to the staff room & when he asked where his cups were, I told him " in the staff room where they belong!! "

[estelle]

If he isn't that worried about his health, then I wouldn't be either.
E.

[vlclabbie]

I have the same problem here. If they don't worry about their health then I don't either.

I also have signs "No eating / drinking" etc... & they have been told, so if we were to get a visit from OH&S or similar then I have documented that ALL staff were notified about the protocols in my work book & there is nothing the perps can do if they get sick... they've had ample warnings.

Still.... it's annoying! I just leave the unwashed cups to grow microbial critters... & if they start to pile up, I put them on the perps desks. And as for the lunch in the fridge thing - I take them out if I don't have enough room for the sciencey things. Try to keep your fridge full of other things!

I do lament with you!

[Labbie]

It is so very hard when it is the HOD. If he is allowed to do it, others will follow. I agree it is his health, but if you let it stay as it is, others will follow. Are you new to the positon or is he new to the school. Has he done this for years and years????????? Sorry to ask questions, but DO keep at him, I do know just how hard it really is. You are not alone in this.

[Jen1]

How about a big notice on the fridge stating "Do not put your lunch in here or it will be thrown in the bin" or similar, and then follow though with the threat. A few hungry days should sort him out.

[jodye]

He has only started doing it this year as he moved into the lab beside my prep room.
Thanks for the advice everyone. I will take it all on board & pile up his cups & cutlery & place them in a box. When I get it full I will put it on his seat in his lab. As for the food in the fridge, you're right, if he isn't worrying about getting sick, then niether will I.

[bindi]

Start storing all your flour, rice, pasta, seeds in the frig in BIG JARS! say you are getting stored product pest, beetles or weevils. The frig helps to stop that and slows the breeding down if you do have them... your saving the department money
As for dirty cups, next birthday buy him a packet of styrofoam cups and give it to him infront of the department

[Lyn]

The following are some of the things I keep in my fridge. I store sugar (2kg or more), plain flour, cornflour (lots - never know when someone wants to make slime), pasta, rice, yeast, boxes of jelly crystals, ethanol in small bottles, hydrogen peroxide 6% solution & 3% solution in large bottles and small bottles plus sets of dropper bottles, sets of DCPIP, sets of starch and ascorbic acid when using it for pracs, seeds, foods for food pracs (takes up a lot of space), assorted fruit, potatoes, celery, liver, vitamin C tablets, pavlova magic, unused agar plates which probably should have been chucked out, sets of plastic petri dishes which have an assortment of things like wool, cotton wool, fabric, aluminium, paper, toothpick, paperclip and piece of pasta (have to keep in fridge so the ants don't eat the pasta), bottled honey, golden syrup, sultanas, margarine, cocoa powder (for meteorite craters), eggs (lots when students are designing ways to stop them from breaking when they are dropped from the first floor of a building or parachuted off the high bridge into the gully between the two campuses). Why would there be any room for lunch in a fridge used to store science stuff. You could store preserved rats in your fridge but then anything you handled would stink of preservatives. Might be the answer to your problem.
Lyn.

[tree-hugga]

If you want to really be brave you could report it to your OH&S committee as a hazard. Don't know if I could be that game, though!

[jodye]

Wow..I couldn't fit all that into my little fridge but I will give it a go. I will fill it up today!!
I still don't know how to stop the coffee cups but I am going to just collect them in a box.

Funny thing about the OH & S committee..I am on it as of next month when I complete my OH&S course. I will at least then have a lot more authority ( not that it will worry him) so we'll see. I just have to be patient until then.

Thanks everyone. It is seems a very trival problem when you read about teachers giving some labbies a hard time.

[smiley]

Guys guys guys - I've said it before and I'll say it again - Phenolphthalein! If someone is giving you the s...s, give em right back! OR I reckon a drop of ipecacuana in his coffee cup will have him chucking for a while. Works REALLY well for those that have sugar in their coffee. Then you can say "Oh dear! It must have got contaminated somehow" and bat your eyelashes innocently. Practise in the mirror if you need to. Drop a few dead roaches in the cup, a dead gecko - use your imagination. Good Luck!

[Lyn]

My HOD just put two cane toads in the freezer section of my prep room fridge. I don't remember him saying anything about lunch though.
Lyn.

[smiley]

Lyn That's a whole new thread, like "You know when you're living in the tropics when..."

But wait! Were they already dead? You should SEE the paperwork req'd to say that you euthanased a cane toad according to the regulations. Who cares?

[Ocker]

All I can saw Smiley is, I'm glad you're a friend and not an enemy

[smiley]

Well Ocker, old buddy old pal, at least I know I'm not being obtuse!