ok, so at the office where I work, people take it in turn (on a roster) to be on kitchen duty.

kitchen duty involves unstacking the dishwasher, providing morning tea, picking up milk, topping up tea, coffee, sugar, etc, and making sure the dishwasher is stacked and turned on at the end of the day (or during the day, if it's full early.

if someone is too busy to do it on their day, or if they are going to be out of the office that day, they organise to swap with someone else, and they amend the roster accordingly.

but I've noticed a trend that I don't like ... when someone is away for a while (a week, a month...) people will "swap" with them, and then the person gets back from leave, and they're on several times in the first week or two when they're back - and they haven't been told that they'll be on!

is it just me, or is this really selfish?

if someone has been away for a while (ie: a week or more) then they haven't been benefiting from other people coming to *their* house with morning tea, milk, doing the dishes, etc ... why should they play catch up when back from their break?

IMO I think an office full of grown ups should be able to cope with picking up after themselves and doing without milk for ONE DAY if necessary, or if they really can't, going out and picking it up even if it's not "their turn" ...

Many of us diaries ahead for when we're on kitchen duty in advance so we can swap if we're going to be away just for the day or two, but when you're on holiday, surely swapping isn't necessary ...

What do others think?