Why do people take the last cup of coffee without making another pot, in an office of 50-some people? This is a law firm, for chrissakes; people mainline coffee all day and well into the evening! Why do the culprits leave half a teaspoon in the bottom of the pot, so they can delude themselves into thinking they weren’t the one to empty the pot, and then they leave the burner on underneath so that the remaining half-teaspoon turns into crusty black stinky burnt gunk?
Did they not notice that it takes about 20 seconds to rinse out the bot and filter basket, pop in a new filter, dump in a packet full of handily pre-measured coffee, and press the button? For chrissakes, we don’t even have to fill up the pot with water, because the coffee maker is hardwired into our plumbing system! Or do they just not give a damn about the welfare of their co-workers, at least one of whom is very, very grumpy right now because she has to re-write 20+ pages of technical jargon because her boss neglected to mention a major piece of information ahead of time?
I have sort of an opposite gripe to this (although people that don’t make a pot of coffee also raise my ire). Why is it that at 8am, when the coffee turnover is at its highest and a pot of coffee doesn’t last longer than it takes to brew the next one, some yutz will stand right in the middle of the kitchen with a bovine stare directed at the coffee machine, waiting for a new pot to finish with there’s half a pot on the side burner? For fuck’s sake, the half pot on the side burner can’t be more than 3 minutes old. The coffee we get is not of the gourmet caliber that you’re going to be able to discern the difference between “just finished dripping” coffee and “brewed 3 minutes ago” coffee.
Give me a break. Get out of the fucking way. Some people would just like to grab a cup of coffee and get the hell out of there, and you’re standing dead center in the middle of the ebb and flow of morning kitchen traffic like Moses parting the Red Sea.
These are probably the same people that leave their cruddy coffee cups in the sink, too, like the Coffee Cup Gnomes are going to wash their dishes for them overnight. They should be flayed of their skin and then attached to a broomhandle and used as a Swiffer.
The only time I brew a pot of coffee is when I’m very desperate and can’t find the Guest Services chick.
Thank god we have a coffee maker that brews right into a ceramic carafe because if we didn’t, Jadis may very well be talking about me, too. I’ll always opt for the fresher of the two pots if the coffee’s in the glass carafe that sits on a burner.
What really gets up my nose is when people line up ahead of us to get our coffee. The company supplies generic office-coffee, but a couple of us prefer to bring our own. We’ll get some French Market coffee and chicory, Trader Joe’s French Roast, Löfsberg Lilla Skåneröst, or whatever. Occasionally someone will come in and wait at the pot for the coffee to finish. Then someone else will come to chat with this person and wait for the coffee to finish. There might be three or four people waiting for our coffee. And you can’t really say anything, since these people are higher up in the company (department managers, directors, etc.). There was one time when we were patiently waiting for our “special” coffee when our dept director came in just as it finished. He asked if the pot was our “good coffee” and took some. Then another couple of directors came in, and our director started offering our coffee around. We had to make another pot.
Okay, it’s coffee; not gold. But we bought it with our money (which we get a lot less of than they do). We had been waiting for our coffee to brew, not jumping in at the last second and taking someone’s coffee.
I think that’s my husband doing that- he seems to be coffee-making-impaired, but not coffee-drinking-impaired. I could try to talk to him for ya, but I don’t think it will help.
I have a perfect solution; it has been my mainstay through years of cheap, foil-pouched, bad-tasting coffee.
I put a coffeemaker in my cubicle. No-one drinks my coffee unless he pays.
I don’t use it these days, though; we’ve changed coffee services, and the new coffee is quite drinkable (we also have Peet’s, but not enough to drink all the time).
I also am fed up with the damned lazy shits at my office. The coffee maker is ALWAYS empty except when I make coffee, and I don’t think it has EVER been cleaned. And then there are the spilled coffee grounds and coffee stains all over the place…
Oh well, I guess that’s what I get for having my own coffee maker in my office.
Plus, you can get just as much caffeine from a Coke or Pepsi, plus you get carbonation and all of that sugary goodness without having to add sugar yourself.
We’re all refreshed and challenged by your unique point of view.
I have this same problem at my job too. And not only that, but they’ll turn off the burner before 10:00, as if to suggest that they’re not making more because there is no further need for coffee that day.
Excellent idea. Personally, I stick with the tea. I don’t have to rely on anyone else to make it for me, and no one else has to rely on me to make it for them. Besides, the coffee service coffee here is really nasty. I’ll switch when they put in an espresso machine.
According to the table here, http://www.cspinet.org/new/cafchart.htm, brewed coffee has 135 mg of caffeine per 8 oz cup, while Coca Cola has 34.5 mg per 12 oz can, and Pepsi clocks in at 37.5 mg per 12 oz.
Almost 4 cans of Coke for the same caffeine I could get from one cup of coffee? I don’t have the time (or the bladder capacity…).
