HopToIt: Judge a Company by the Kitchen It Keeps

By Rich Gilroy

When you compare marketing communications firms, what is the most important factor to consider? The portfolio? Case studies? Client testimonials? The firm’s website? How about its kitchen?

The other day, I remarked to Lisa Martin, LeapFrog Solutions’ founder and CEO, that we have the cleanest kitchen of just about anyplace I’ve ever worked. I went on to say that it seems to demonstrate what a collaborative and supportive team we have here. In all fairness, we do have a schedule in the kitchen and everyone (except, strangely, Lisa) is assigned a week of kitchen clean-up duty. Yet it’s not uncommon to see someone who’s not assigned to kitchen duty unloading the dishwasher, restocking the granola bars and giving the counters a wipe. This is especially true when the assigned kitchen-keeper is on travel, out sick or in non-stop meetings. And despite her exemption from assigned duty, I have seen Lisa empty the dishwasher. (Of course, being the well-known sycophant that I am, I always offer to help!)

We’ve all worked at offices in which the kitchen sink was usually full of dirty mugs, dishes and flatware — even though the dishwasher was right next to the sink. Years ago, I worked in an office where one individual became so exasperated by the sink full of dishes that she tossed out all the mugs. Oh, the wailing and gnashing of teeth that ensued.

There was another office in which the refrigerator had become so filled with plastic containers of decomposing leftovers and dips — and baggies of fuzzy green sandwiches ─ that the stench was overwhelming. We literally wore rubber gloves to clean and purge.

And still another office that much to the chagrin of its environmentally conscious staff, provided only paper plates and plastic flatware. Why? The office general manager told me — and I’m not making this up — that they used to stock regular dishes and flatware, but they kept “walking out the door.”

So if a clean kitchen suggests a dedicated, supportive — and dare I say, “happy” — team, what does a dirty kitchen suggest? Here’s a list of possible theories:

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