I was very glad I hadn’t signed it because it looked totally crazed. Obviously she didn’t think I had reflected the Epic Seriousness of the problem. I did, and then came back to find it reworked with the same wording, but much, MUCH bigger font size, CAPITAL LETTERS, underlining, and many exclamation points.

I once had a staff member ask me to post a reminder to check that you weren’t taking someone else’s printing with your own. So there are some dueling notes about “PLEASE don’t leave your dishes sitting on the counter-everyone has to use it!” versus “But if you DO see dishes on the counter, please leave them alone and don’t hide them in random places!” The array of notes truly is a sight to behold. Our break room counter area is large and has tons of space-but some people apparently get really irked if you just leave your containers sitting on the counter after washing them, to the extent of taking/hiding containers they see sitting out. The gist of the majority of them is “Wash your dishes, you animal” or “Clean the sink when you’re done washing dishes, you animal,” with one “Don’t dump your coffee grounds down the sink, you animal.” Where it gets interesting is the fate of the cleaned dishes/containers. But we have at least six or seven notes taped up behind the break room sink right now, some of which disagree with one another, a few of which go on for paragraphs. Man, there is wartime going on in my office concerning dishes/sink/break room etiquette.

Here are some doozies readers have shared with me: It’s the obvious underlying anger that makes these sorts of notes passive-aggressive (or sometimes just aggressive-aggressive).

Funny christmas minion memes