Kitchen Supplies
The two most essential ingredients for maintaining sanity in an office kitchen area? Teabags, and freddos.
My desk is opposite the kitchen, so I have ample opportunity for observing my coworkers' reactions to various shortages.
If we run out of milk, the general reaction is "Oh. Darn. Oh well..."
If we run out of free newspapers, no-one really notices.
If there aren't any clean teaspoons around, everyone starts shaking their mugs, gently enough so that most of their coffee won't spill onto the floor, but vigorously enough that the sugar will hopefully get stirred in.
If there's no more sugar, everyone starts frantically looking for more. If the cupboards don't seem to have extra sugar supplies, someone will make a trip around to another kitchen area, and steal their sugar.
If we run out of paper towels, everyone just shrugs and assumes the spill will get cleaned up eventually.
A lack of coffee will be enough of an incentive for people to go on an emergency shopping trip to restock the cupboards.
If there are no clean mugs, people will start deciding that a quick rinse is all the dirty dishes really need.
If the fridge breaks down, no-one will really worry. After all, what's a bit of salmonella?
If there's no water, people will just wait patiently for it to be switched back on.
BUT,
If the teabag stash is empty, people start to riot.
I think it's sort of an 'underdog' thing. Tea drinkers already feel oppressed by those smug coffee drinkers, with their snazzy percolators. They get an entire room smelling like their favourite freshly brewed beverage-of-choice, while we get one lousy tupperware container. And we don't complain. We put up with being considered an inferior species. But when that tupperware container is emptied... I've seen people yell, or throw the teabag container across the room, or simply burst into tears.
You might infer from this that the tea-drinkers really are an inferior species - that these temper tantrums are proof that they should simply grow up, and start drinking coffee.
Not so.
Because when the fundraising box of freddos empties, tea- and coffee-drinkers alike will simply refuse to work until we've found more. Never mind just pinching some from the kitchen area round the corner - teams of normally rational adults will go on full-on raiding expeditions, and steal freddo boxes from every other floor of the building, just to make sure that we never run out again.
It's like having free movies to watch, right here at my desk...
My desk is opposite the kitchen, so I have ample opportunity for observing my coworkers' reactions to various shortages.
If we run out of milk, the general reaction is "Oh. Darn. Oh well..."
If we run out of free newspapers, no-one really notices.
If there aren't any clean teaspoons around, everyone starts shaking their mugs, gently enough so that most of their coffee won't spill onto the floor, but vigorously enough that the sugar will hopefully get stirred in.
If there's no more sugar, everyone starts frantically looking for more. If the cupboards don't seem to have extra sugar supplies, someone will make a trip around to another kitchen area, and steal their sugar.
If we run out of paper towels, everyone just shrugs and assumes the spill will get cleaned up eventually.
A lack of coffee will be enough of an incentive for people to go on an emergency shopping trip to restock the cupboards.
If there are no clean mugs, people will start deciding that a quick rinse is all the dirty dishes really need.
If the fridge breaks down, no-one will really worry. After all, what's a bit of salmonella?
If there's no water, people will just wait patiently for it to be switched back on.
BUT,
If the teabag stash is empty, people start to riot.
I think it's sort of an 'underdog' thing. Tea drinkers already feel oppressed by those smug coffee drinkers, with their snazzy percolators. They get an entire room smelling like their favourite freshly brewed beverage-of-choice, while we get one lousy tupperware container. And we don't complain. We put up with being considered an inferior species. But when that tupperware container is emptied... I've seen people yell, or throw the teabag container across the room, or simply burst into tears.
You might infer from this that the tea-drinkers really are an inferior species - that these temper tantrums are proof that they should simply grow up, and start drinking coffee.
Not so.
Because when the fundraising box of freddos empties, tea- and coffee-drinkers alike will simply refuse to work until we've found more. Never mind just pinching some from the kitchen area round the corner - teams of normally rational adults will go on full-on raiding expeditions, and steal freddo boxes from every other floor of the building, just to make sure that we never run out again.
It's like having free movies to watch, right here at my desk...