Condescending signs at the workplace

It peeves me to see crap like this. It seems to be a real condescending attitude from the type of people who like to hang these types of sign all over the workplace. Post your most condescending. Or is this normal?
take care,
space

Bitte kippen anderswo entsorgen.

How about in that plastic wallet provided conveniently on the wall?

I think there should be more of these...

I often see people take a last drag of their ciggie, then just flick it into the road or the closest none flamable recepticle...

Cigarette ends ARE litter..!

G

Oh we have those all over the place, at the shredder, Fax machine(s) Photocopier(s), Kitchen(s), Toilette(s), Exit(s) and emergency Exit(s) etc...

If I'm feeling less lazy later on I'll type a few of our notices here...

Bitte im Sitzen pinkeln...und bitte nach Großeren Beschäften bürsten benutzen.

it seems a pain, but the problem is if there is no sign, then the behaviour would continue. what do you want? arsey signs or a terrace full of ciggie ends?

Die Toilettenbuersten sind keine Dekorationsartikel!!!

Sie *duerfen* nicht nur, sie *sollen* sogar benutzt werden!!!

Yeah it is normal so to speak. We have those type of signs all over too, but they all seem to come from one person in the building and each building has one of these people.

The Hausmeister at work put up signs in all the toilets saying "Die Klobürste ist kein Dekorationsstück - sie darf auch verwendet werden!!!", presumably because he is a twat.

I've seen them in Britain too.
It's a style often adopted by the petty and pompous.

my ex flat mate back in birmingham used to stick up signs like that in our wg
silly sod

As sad as the signs are, it's sadder that they are needed. People don't just randomly decide to put up a sign telling people what correct behaviour is, they do it because they have suffered at the hands of people who act like the workplace is their own personal little kingdom and that they can do whatever they want. Eg leave cigarette butts in the flower planters, not worry about the sight of unflushed cereal in the toilet bowl, etc etc.

I think our sign (given above) was put up by the Putzfrauen.

how about polite signs?

a simple "Bitte, keine Kippen auf der Terrasse werfen. Danke!" is all you need, me thinks. I would react better to a polite sign than a condescending one (if i smoked that is).

There is a great one in the Teeküche in my hall. I don't have the ability to take a picture of it right now but here is the translated jist:

Are you sick of sending your children to Kindergarten?
You don't have to. Simply bring them here to work.
Our kitchen needs a cleaning force.
But would you rather not see your sweet children
washing dishes? Then, when the dishwasher is full of
clean glasses, empty it. If they are dirty, run the
dishwasher.
THANK YOU!

@brokenm, is that a real sign at your workplace? To pee sitting?
Wow, that's pretty ballsy.

I always retaliate by taking a dump on the lid in this case

OG got it. He is spot on. "Condescending" is what twerps me. Something like "Please help us keep our rooftop garden beautiful" is much more appropiate IMHO and it makes me want to help. Whereas the condescending one makes me want to trash it because whoever wrote it apparently thinks I don´t know the difference between a rooftop garden and an ashtray and that I have to be told. I think I will change the sign. Any suggestions?
take care,
space

Well, you would have thought they would have gotten the idea themselves to keep the garden clean? If a note is necessary, obviously it has to be spelled out to people.

I notice on ski lifts here that the English sign is 'polite' and the German is... well, German. For example 'please keep your hands in the cabin' vs. 'es ist verboten...'

My fave is:

DER GEHWEG IST KEIN HUNDEKLO

Better than 'please pick up after your pet' which obviously doesn't happen here...

I personally like KingsTown's suggestion of using the 'convenient plastic wallet'.. (how considerate of them!)

Leaving notes though is certainly an impersonal german thing.

One of our ex-flatmates (in a WG) used to leaves notes all the time, like he couldn't say anything, or was too afraid to.

Stuff like, do we think one of us could clean the kitchen this week, or the rubbish has been there ages, do we not know where the bins are? etc etc.

Pathetic rubbish, but if someone in the service sector, chooses to live in a 5 person, student type flat, what do you expect? a clean kitchen? an empty bin? Please.

Anyways, back to the point: Germans seems to like signs (and rules). if they didn't exist, the people would not know what do in life. No chance of teaching them improvisation.

If a situation occurs, that doesn't have a rules, or a sign, they are buggered.

Infact, i'm gonna bring this to a new thread cos it's quite interesting.

KT

Hmmm, brings to mind THIS 'workplace' sign.

I don't think that there's anything pompous in asking people to respect their colleagues and work environment.

People do all sorts of disgusting and antisocial things like not washing their hands after going to the bathroom (my #1 alltime pet peeve) and then start moaning about pettiness when people bitch about it.

I don't want traces of your urine and/or shit on what I'm touching and I don't want your cigarette butts littered all over the place either.

If you want to do that, do it at home.

Pettily yours...

People shouldn't need signs to know what's right! If I see a sign I'm more likely to do the opposite because the sign is insulting me.

yeah, we have one where (for once) they even managed to transfer their scorn into english correctly:

Please leave the toilet as you would like to find it... a toilet brush may also be used!

Twaddles.

But then Showem is right.. even with this sign, some mystery female colleague completely blocked our loo with crap, stuck the brush in to try and clear it, failed, and left it like that, brush'n'all. She didn't even report it.

@ JW, One should always wash hands if one pees on them
Nicky is on Target with my way that it is insulting and I am more likely to be contrary.
The sign that is up (that I will change and I´m still waiting for suggestions) helped nothing as there were a lot of butts around when we first moved in. I´ve found a total of 2 since the snow melted. My actions of picking up the original butts the sign was for did a lot more good than the condescending nature of the sign IMHO. We will see,
take care,
space

surely just replacing that note with a sign saying "complementary ashtray for our employees' enjoyment" would do the trick?!

Let them stick the butts in the bag (and hope they're clever enough to put them out first).

Speaking of which, what's with the MVV fag-free platform rule? There were three butts on the escalator this morning, and 2 were still glowing. Made me shudder, thinking of the King's Cross disaster...

Couldn't agree with you more on this. I get very anarchical thoughts when I see these things. You find signs all over, not just at your workplace. In the middle of the forest sometimes you'd find a sign telling you that grit had not been scattered on the way and that you are using it at your own risk.. Amazing. Somewhere somebody is sitting there making a fortune designing these signs and manufacturing them. What a weird job that must be..

I am surprised that using the damn brush after a good session isn't breaking some union rules for the cleaning people!

Personally I think it is rather disgusting to see that damn brown ended thing sitting next to the toilet anyway.

Fact is: Germans love signs!

For example we have this one, but I find it kind of funny:

"Für alle die für Große (Insert company name) müssen, bitte danach Tür auflassen und Licht anlassen (Lüfter)"

or

"Sieht's bei euch zuhause in der Küche so Sch**** aus??!?? Räumt wenigstens die Lebensmittel wieder in den Kühlschrang"

...but whoever wrote it does have a point, our kitchen is a bit of a pigsty...

That's just two of (very) many notices

I've seen these sorts of notices often in student accommodation LOL

I think also it would be better to leave more polite notices instead of condescending ones... but maybe German people prefer the condescending ones :} I think that it doesn't make sense leaving these signs anyway as some people will just continue to behave the same...

Maybe I should stick a sign on my balcony since my boyfriend always smokes there and sometimes flicks ash or dumps cigarette ends in my plants :} GRRR!!

I got caught crossing over the S-bahn tracks the other day (Scheiße Ausländer!). Although there are no signs in that area that say that crossing the tracks is prohibited (this was my main defence, thinking that they, as Germans, would find it very odd that there are NO SIGNS for this particular rule) the S-bahn schutz guys said it was like jaywalking and, wouldya believe it, I got fined (25 Euros for those interested).

Yeah, yeah...it's people like me that make the Germans believe that their little signs give Ordnung to the world.

But who hasn't gone over the speed limit or jaywalked or peed on Parliament grounds? Laziness has kinda made signs a way of life. Or I guess greed is what lead to the infamous "CAUTION: Coffee is hot!" on most disposable coffee cup lids (Geez, can't get more condescending than that!). I'm assuming y'all know the story behind that one...

Yeah and i love the font they always use:

Sometimes, though, the germans manage to put some humour in their signs, though. Like these one's found on garbage bins in Hamburg

"Laß uns schmutzige Dinge tun"
Let us do dirty things

"Ich bin für jeden Dreck zu haben"
Hmmm ... tough one to translate, anyone want to help?

I wash my hands before going to the bathroom. My hands are dirtier than, well, you know...


Its been a problem for a long long time.

So, true. I dont't understand why Germans write such obnoxious signs either. I think most are frustrated with their work and colleagues that leads them to put their frustrations displayed on signs.

After contemplating condescending signs and the purpose for which they were created I came to the following conclusion, Shred it. Implying that one is an idiot the way that sign did is more of a statement of territoriality than trying to get some one to be considerate. Worse, It can cause a vicious circle; They called me an idiot so I will do the opposite, So they will write a more aggresive stance and post it on & on& on... "Hey IDIOT! Be Considerate!", That simply doesn´t work with me. I fail to see the logic of the "cause and effect" If one wanted to be more to the point one could say "Someone has been inconsiderate in my territory and I am unhappy" I thought of all different ways to write it kindly and then finally realized that I´ve been in Germany too long and "We", (My colleagues and I) don´t need any condescending signs. After reading some of the Pro "Condescending signs" posts, I realize that I work with a great bunch of people and am humbled and grateful. Goodbye Condescending sign! Don´t come back.
take care,
space

can we also shred Tim's post?? don't really see why that has to be dragged into it...

Interesting thought provoking thread this one. I see it differently I dont have problems with the Germans habit of leaving signs, some are quite humourous.
While I concede that some German are the self appointed policers of their own policies and take it to the extreme in levels of pettiness. On the whole I rather like the way Germans say things -it is directly to the point without the inuendos and emotional baggage that we tend to find in the English language. They simply state what needs to be said without prettying it up, you are not left in any doubt as to what the message means. I think if they tried to incorporate the English methods of tact and humour to convey their messages it would fail dismally and be misunderstood- there are some things our language is able to express better

I found this sign today in the toilet:


I wanted to write on there:
4. Hände Waschen

..even though it's not a part of using a toilet, but because some people seem to forget that. But then I realized that people would notice that my handwriting is not German and I scurried away like a coward.

The German in me came out recently and I put up a sign at the kitchen hub at work saying "this is not a self-cleaning area. pls wash your mugs, wipe your spills and keep the area tidy".

Quick - scan it in and send it off to passiveaggressivenotes.com. Before your colleagues beat you to it.

Well, I wrote a sign that said, "You mother doesn't work here, clean up your own mess!" Didn't seem to work very well. Now there is a new sign with instructions on how to clean up. Doesn't work well either. I work with pigs!

I agree with you. People are inconsiderate and rude and because of that there is a sign. I can understand a cleaning lady/gentleman or a Hausmeister would be slightly pissed off after cleaning a nasty toilet or fishing cigarette stubs out of plants, so it only makes sense their signs convey their feeling.


Godwin's Law.

@ Eurovol post #45

You work from home, don't you. "Pigs" - not a very nice name fopr your family or is it a term of endearment?

I don't think it's a question of signs or no signs - often they are really necessary. But Germany is the country of signs, and often unnecessary ones, hands down.
There are signs for everything, and yet they make fun of Americans bc of lawsuits that led to slightly over-the-top designating.

If a sign is full of excess exclamation marks, underlined and capitalized words and sarcastic remarks, it brings to mind a ranting, raving person who is cursing and stomping about things you, reader of the sign, might not even have done. A more positive phrasing and a friendly "Thank you" are much better. It makes me picture a polite human being whose wishes I naturally respect.

Sue, if you did not do what the sign is saying, clearly it is not addressing you and there is no need to get upset over it.

You are also not supposed to just respect the sign-writer but what the sign writer represents, in a company that would be all of your co-workers. And clearly the individuals who the sign is actually addressed at do seem to have a problem with respecting other people.

I might not have done what the sign is telling me not to do simply because I haven't had a chance to (other places than work etc).

I don't get upset over signs, really. That would be a bit petty, unless it said "Sue, shut the hell up and leave" I just think that people sometimes forget that, righteous anger over this and that set aside, if you're nice to people, they are more likely to oblige - unless they have repeatedly shown themselves to be immune to friendliness. Then by all means, smack em upside the head with a big bad sign that shouts and yells.

Stupid behaviour that calls for signs telling people to stop is often also due to complete thoughtlessness and lack of consideration, which isn't necessarily the same as disrespect.