LornaJane

Coffee Politics

Wednesday, November 8. 2006

There are some coffee politics happening in my office right now1. I’m not going to write about that though, at least until it blows over. I thought I’d share a couple of previous coffee politics experiences though.

Spare-hand Drink


At one workplace where I had a temporary job one summer, the vending machines were paid for and the etiquette was this: When you decided you wanted to fetch a drink, you announced this fact and opened offers for the spare-hand drink. The person who shouted first (or loudest) would then get the hot drink that you could manage in the other hand from the hand you fetched yours in.

Silver Spoon


Another workplace had us all sat in a long, narrow office and facing outwards. Someone who sat a long way away used to rattle his spoon against his mug repeatedly until someone made him a cup of tea if he was thirsty and thought it wasn’t his turn. That got annoying after a while!

Speedy Operation


A co-worker of mine at a previous job managed to master the art of fetching the tray, offering a drink to each of twelve people in the office in turn and leaving the room with the cups – in the time it took me to visit the ladies! I did enjoy the times that people deliberated on whether they’d liike a drink or not and he didn’t quite make it. I was never quite sure what to think about him …

1 Unless you like warm water, room temperature long-life milk, instant coffee and sweetener added to your cup in that order, this is entertainment rather than deprivation

Posted by LornaJane in work at 15:02 | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0)

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Ah the joys of making drinks for everybody. If anybody misses me off, they never get asked again and I’ll say no to them, should they ever ask me again. You soon learn who the selfish people are, who accept drinks but never make them.

#1 Simon on 2006-11-08 16:14 (Reply)

In view of the quality of the coffee available, I’ve recently bought myself a little thermal mug which I bring to work sometimes. It’s on my desk just now and its getting towards that sort of time … mmmm!

#2 LornaJane (Homepage) on 2006-11-09 15:11 (Reply)

Mercifully, we are free of coffee politics – because most people have offices to themselves, everyone gathers in the dining room at coffee time (1030) and helps themselves. The filter machine does take ten minutes to run, so sometimes mean looks are cast at the person on "gash" (cleaning & domestic duties) if they didn’t put the coffee on at 1020!

#3 MichaelP-J (Homepage) on 2006-11-11 14:34 (Reply)

Michael, you mean you get water to boil in Antarctica?! (just kidding)

Well, working for myself, coffee is up to me alone. Cafédirect in the Russell Hobbs for me at the moment. Either that or tea made using my new tea set.

#4 dotjay (Homepage) on 2006-11-18 13:08 (Reply)

Michael, that sounds very civilised, having an official coffee gathering in the middle of the morning. Also if the stuff isn’t available on tap then its much harder to drink too much of it I should think.

dotjay, I do think you have this sorted! On the odd occasion I have worked from home then I like to put the filter machine on first thing and then dip into it throughout the morning. It gets chewy by lunchtime but its still better than instant :)

#5 LornaJane (Homepage) on 2006-11-20 13:12 (Reply)

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