Lesikar's Business Communication: Connecting in a Digital World 13th Edition by Kathryn Rentz,Paula Lentz

Exercise 27

You are the facilities supervisor at Iverness Form and Function, LLC, an architecture firm. The custodians report that the break room is so trashed, the amount of time needed to clean it has increased from 15 to 30 minutes each day. Employees who take late lunches and afternoon breaks have no clean space to use. People are not wiping the tables after they eat, used napkins remain on the tables or on the floor, and dirty dishes are left in the sink. People will heat food that overflows or explodes in the microwave and just leave without cleaning it up. Some of the food in the refrigerator is over a month past its due date. Given all the complaining you have heard about the break room, you would think that people would be more diligent in cleaning up after themselves.
In fact, someone left the message "CLEAN UP AFTER YOURSELF!!!!!!! YOUR MOTHER DOESN'T WORK HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" on the microwave last week. As the office manager, you realize that while the custodians are responsible for cleaning every room in the building, the employees' messes are excessive and unbecoming of people in professional positions. Send an email to employees to encourage them to clean up after themselves. Just last week you were giving a tour to a member of your town's chamber of commerce and were thoroughly embarrassed when you took him through the break room. Keep in mind that even though you are sending the email to all employees, it's not likely that every employee contributes to the mess.