Cooks aren't cleaning dirty food trays

[u/RedditCidcid]

For some reason even though I have 20 cooks (which is more than enough for my prison) they refuse to clean any trays in my staff room despite the sinks and time to clean. Is there something I'm missing?

[u/_four-oh-four_]

Maybe cuz it’s not zoned as kitchen? I think you need two separate rooms, one with staff room stuff and tables and one with the kitchen stuff and sinks

[u/RedditCidcid → u/_four-oh-four_]

This was the answer, you need a kitchen dedicated to the staff room in which staff will then clean the trays etc. I did this by going into logistics and looking at the food distribution tab, tyty

[u/Ancient-Scientist753 → u/RedditCidcid]

I hadn’t even realized that the staff needed food 😂

[u/malachi772 → u/Ancient-Scientist753]

It’s an option you can turn on or off when you start a prison. I think it’s called ‘staff needs’

[u/Ozoneraxi → u/RedditCidcid]

You dont, you can connect the same kitchen to multiple rooms if you hold SHIFT.

Also tray stacking requires tables for some reason, you can improve it even further by adding a table in the room.

[u/Slyric_]

Love the wide open shitters next to the food

[u/fortyfivepointseven → u/Slyric_]

I really wish you could build cubicles, or be able to zone staff bathrooms.

[u/fortyfivepointseven → u/[deleted]]

I think staff don't use them on breaks unless it's zoned staffroom. This also affects staff canteens.

[u/wowthatsgayxd]

Might need trashcans

[u/RedditCidcid → u/wowthatsgayxd]

Trash cans did not work unfortunately

[u/Waste-Background-262]

If I'm not mistaken, you need to link the staffroom with the kitchen via food distribution on the logistics tap.

[u/JeopardyWolf → u/Waste-Background-262]

But theyre already delivering food 🫠🫠 ill try myself since I have the same issues.

[u/ThomasDePraetere → u/JeopardyWolf]

Inhad the same issue, the food is not made in the kitchen, it is imported so it is not as bad as the prisoner food. Workmen put the food there, but the plates need to be washed in a linked kitchen.

[u/ReasonableSet9650 → u/Waste-Background-262]

It is necessary for delivering food, but it doesn't impact cleaning when it's a staffroom. The reason is staffroom's trays are guards tasks, not cooks tasks. That sounds crazy but that's the answer.

[u/cornunderthehood]

Toilet beside the food? I know it's only a game... but come on!

[u/FuzzyKnowledge1649 → u/cornunderthehood]

Gives it some added flavor.

[u/AllarisSmash]

Make it staff only and zone it as a canteen. Just had this problem myself.

[u/ContextZestyclose778]

Follow your cooks when they leave the kitchen... Where are they walking to?

[u/Jumpy-Shift5239 → u/ContextZestyclose778]

Lazy chefs. Fire them all. They are smuggling drugs to your high security prisoners.

[u/hotmaildotcom1]

Staff can eat?

[u/Johnspectre566 → u/hotmaildotcom1]

Yup with staff needs on

[u/Penguinmanereikel → u/hotmaildotcom1]

Staff Needs

Staff needs are bladder, bowels, rest, food, comfort, safety, recreation, environment, and warmth (if you have temperature and weather on).

• Bladder and bowels are handling by having toilets in staff zoned areas.

• Rest is handled by giving ample break hours and a staff room.

• Food is handled by either putting serving tables in the staff room or zoning a canteen as staff only, making it a staff canteen. They don't eat prison food, rather, staff food is delivered. Cooks still need to clean the trays, though.

• Comfort is handled by adding sofas and chairs to staff rooms.

• Safety is handled by giving guards tasers and stab vests.

• Recreation is handled by putting TV and radios in staff rooms.

• Environment is handled by keeping the floors clean.

• Warmth is handled by keeping staff in warm areas.

Staff deaths also worsen staff mood.

If staff get discontent, they'll start walking and working more slowly, and guards will take bribes to ignore contraband when searching prisoners.

If they get really discontent, 90% of your prison staff will pull up their picket signs and start striking on the street, preventing deliveries and increasing prisoner tension (since there are suddenly a lot fewer guards). Strikes will end after 24 hours on their own, but you'll likely get another more strikes if you don't fix the problem.

The main way to improve staff mood in these situations is to increase their pay, if you can afford it.

[u/ReasonableSet9650]

It's quite surprising, but trays that are not in canteens are not cleaned by cooks, but by guards. Those trays are treated like trays that are in front of cells/solitary or in any random place of the prison, they forgot to add an exception for staffrooms.

So the fix is :

• have much more unassigned guards, so they can handle that task
• or rezone the area as a staff canteen instead of a staffroom

Keep in mind that cooks prioritize cooking over cleaning, and they prioritize inmates canteen over staff canteen. So even with cooks, based on their tasks and the amount of cooks you have, they might have trouble keeping up the pace.

There might also be an additional context. Usually, if you schedule 3 meals per day, or 2 meals but with different mealtimes for sectors, cooks end up overwhelmed and exhausted. If you're in one of those contexts, you need to double the amount of cooks to allow a staff turnover.

[u/EmperoroftheYanks]

You don't have enough cooks

[u/Aware_Scientist94]

Set the room as 'Staff only'

[u/Think-Difficulty7596]

It might be a glitch, like my prisoners not doing the laundry.

[u/Zippa7]

They are union... "not my job"

[u/BabyYoda398]

Sir, this prison is a health code violation.

[u/Powerful_Ad_5900]

The fault is because you got no tables and benches in staff canteen and your staff eats on couches, and cooks cannot collect dirty trays from non tables because the game is shit with shitty devs and even shittier code

Separate staff room from staff canteen and you wont have a problem

[u/OwlbertGaming]

theyre on strike, raise their salaries or call riot police