Re: How to Ban Personal Fridges

Reposting for Todd Wojtylak: I am trying to find support information for banning personal fridges at our office.

(Originally posted as QuickPost in in Energy Efficiency on Nov. 8.)

We do it because of the electric cost and sanitation (food in offices).

We send a memo out once a year to all staff, November is our "walk-thru" inspection month and if we spot personal fridges, we tell the owner to get rid of it and we make the owner's supervisor responsible to see that it's removed.

What is your reason to want them banned? Like Ryan posted, electric cost and sanitation may be a good reason however you may suffer employee morale problems if you don't give a good reason. We allow them but everybody is responsible for their own. So far we have not had any issues.

ok...I don't buy the sanitation reason.  Without the fridge, an employee will get his Taco Bell and eat at his/her desk. Or bring in a personal lunch.  Or vending machine potato chips. If you ban eating in all the offices, then I can see how sanitation could be used as a reason to ban personal refrigerators. I have worked in many jobs over my career, and I have always had either a personal fridge or a community fridge (ugh!) to store my lunch.  This spans working as a contractor, military, government, private, and quasi-public/government jobs.

The question is really better address when understanding the scale of either the employee base, size of Faciitiy or operation. If it's 10 employees in a space, you're probably intimate enough to get away with just about any arrangement (single or shared). But, if it's a large campus, having say 600 individual refer's change the way you think about it.

The problem for us has been bigger than just refer's. It's also been heaters, popcorn makers, coffee pots, and just about anything one can imagine (yes, even a bread maker, although some loved the smell)

We recently determined we had to ban all, but the resolve is to provide break room spaces that offset the need.

Whatever direction you chose to take, start by crafting a policy management can support. Then they should become the governing body that helps you manage the issue.

Specifically to refers we argue: (not in order of priority)

- Electricity - no brainer, but its not only consumption, it's the load many may put on the sytem. Ever lost data because some plugged in the crock-pot.

- Sanitation (some old ones have a condensate pan that can have mold growth). There's also typically a fan motor for cooling/filtration. It's really a dust collector

- Space - There's really not adequate space in some cubes

- Fire department requirements - make sure they're not on an extension cord. They must plug directly in house/cube power.

- Smells that offend others - ever smelled a rancid fridge smell, or wondered what could they possibly be eating that smells like that.....NUF Said! :)

As you have probably gathered by now, there are many sides to the issue ranging from company policy to the nature of work being performed in the work space.  Some places/offices/cultures encourage the personalization of the workspace with things like refrigerators, coffee makers, etc., while others keep the cubicle as a "work only" space with no food, drinks, pictures, etc.  Space heaters and other high wattage appliances should always be unacceptable since they are the number one cause of office fires (NFPA).

I think the best approach is to provide something just as good or better.  A well maintained and outfitted lunch room is usually well accepted by employees, especially if they are not allowed to eat in their cubicles.  Keeping food odors (whether good or bad) out of the office area where others are working is, I think, the only business friendly approach.  I would complain about second-hand left-over fish odor more than I would second-hand smoke!

Keeping lunches cool is usually a necessity, so employees need someway to do that in a relatively convenient manner.  Put yourself in their shoes and think about what you would like to have available.

A lot depends on your company culture, but investing in something better is good for everyone in any culture.