I had a co-op position not too long ago at a large, American based, computer oriented business downtown. I actually enjoyed making the coffee… I got to hang around the break room, make smalltalk with the people I hardly ever saw due to cubicle confinement, etc. That, and the smell of freshly opened coffee packets was almost as good as the first few sips of the brew itself.
People say I should have been an engineer, with the way I have to know how every machine I use works. I’m surprised the “real” engineers you work with aren’t that way.
P.S. - Nanoda has, in his entertaining life, dissected coffee machines, tv’s, radios, computers, vcrs, r.c. cars, printers, clocks, and much more. Soon-to-be-terminated parental supervision has thus far prevented the list from including cars and microwaves, but the future looks bright.
It’s a little, non-chain gourmet shop here in Texarkana. I don’t know where they get their coffee beans, but they have a dizzying array of flavors and roasts, including one 100% Jamacian Blue Mountain that goes for $40/lb.
Similar rant: Once, when I was here with one other person, the phones went nuts and she ignored them. When I asked her why she didn’t pick up the phone, I was informed “That’s not my job.”
Three days later, she rang my doorbell cause she had locked her keys in the office and needed mine to get in. My response? “That’s not my fucking job.”
I commiserate with the OP - few areas bring out my hatred and scorn for my fellow human beings as poor coffee awareness.
In my office it goes beyond the timing aspect - we have a snazzy little grinder that grinds whole beans out of a hopper: you pull a lever, it drops a measured amount into the grinder, hit a button, and it grinds for about 20 seconds. You need two “grind cycles” to brew a decent pot - it’s even posted: “GRIND TWO BATCHES”.
Imagine my surprise when I go and pour myself a cup of coffee that was so weak I could see the bottom of my cup through 4" of liquid. The old grounds in the filter accounted for perhaps half a batch. Who drinks this shit? why bother?
I retaliate by “nursing” the grinder, pulling the lever repeatedly during each grind cycle which results in 50% more coffee, which translates into what I affectionately call “Mongolian Death Coffee”. You can always add water to strong coffee. With weak coffee the only choice is to not drink it.
That said, I’ll contribute the following filk created during a late night of drinking coffee and reading Dune:
It is by coffee alone that I set my mind in motion.
It is by the juice of Java that thoughts acquire speed,
the hand acquire shakes, the shakes become a warning.
it is by coffee alone that I set my mind in motion
Very nice. I’ve sometimes suspected that if I drink enough of the sweet jitter brew, I might gain melangesqe abilites. Need to fold time and space? Time to go to Starbucks!
I think what is happening in most of these situations is that everybody thinks that somebody else will do the job, but since everyone assumes another person will eventually do it, it never gets done. I recall one time seeing a sign on someone’s wall that said something to the effect of “Here’s the story about four people, Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody thought that Somebody would do it.” I don’t recall how the rest of it goes, but it ends with saying that Nobody ended up doing the job.
If you think brewing coffee seems to be a challenge to all your co-workers, how about those who seem to pass the buck when it comes to cleaning out the break room refrigerator? At my last job there was a pop spill in one of the compartments in the door. It sat there for three or four days, all the while thinking and hoping that the person responsible for the mess would clean it up. After it still sat there I finally took it upon myself to take care of it. :rolleyes:
Message to co-workers at my present job: When something you have left in the refrigerator begins to stink and has long surpassed the threshold of edibility, please, THROW IT THE FUCK AWAY! It’s already spoiled and it’s not going to get any better by leaving it in there!!!
What the hell is it with SOME guys assuming that if there’s a woman around, she’s the one who’s responsible for food/coffee, etc?
One summer in college I worked in the cast house of an aluminum plant. In 130 degree working conditions, no one’s drinking coffee, but I somehow came to be in charge of keeping the Gatorade stocked. One day our foreman gave us a steakfeed as a reward for meeting a certain production level. Actual words out of coworker’s mouth “Well, she’s the only girl. She oughta’ do the cooking.” I seriously contemplated burning myself and collecting workman’s comp.
I’m not a coffee drinker, so I can observe with detached bemusement. John was in charge of the coffee fund for years. He was a nice guy - everybody liked John. He seemed to enjoy his monthly collections visits from cube to cube. Then he retired.
Paula inherited “the book” - Paula got fed up with it very fast. No one wanted to take over. Paula got her own personal coffee maker on her own personal desk. Other people did the same. Finally Jack took “the book” - but by then, hardly anyone was involved in the fund. Still, he collects and buys coffee and makes it first thing in the morning. If Jack has to go on travel, a half-empty, cold pot of coffee will sit there for the whole time he’s gone. It just cracks me up!!!
Tom never pays. Tom goes to whichever pot has coffee - whether in our office or the adjacent group. Tom is a leech.
And the refrigerator is another fiasco entirely. I gave up on it years ago. I bring my lunch in a small cooler and I can avoid the coffee/fridge corner unless I need to nuke my lunch.
I can’t wait till I can leave this place. Oh yeah - I work with a bunch of engineers and logisticians. Big surprise, huh?
Oh, don’t even get me started on the coffee making habits (or is it NON-coffee making habits) of my co-workers.
Add to the list the fact that we keep minor headache pills and such in the first aid kits (located, oddly enough, near the coffee pots) and not a SINGLE STINKIN’ PERSON IN THE ENTIRE OFFICE KNOWS HOW TO CLOSE THE COVER AND LATCH THE GODDAMNED THING WHEN THEY’RE DONE!!! Yeah, like I really want that band-aid that’s probably dropped into the sink ten times because you couldn’t figure out how to close a simple metal lid!
