 Melonyce McAfee is the brand new Senior Producer for CNN Living and she aims to make the break room a better place to be. It’s time for some water cooler talk. No, not gossip about the Real Housewives or the latest office romance. We need to have a chat about the water cooler itself, and its fraught place in office life. It may seem like an innocuous source of refreshment, or a gathering spot to pass the time between tasks, but the water cooler can be a wellspring of workplace weirdness. Confusing queues Lax jug replacement Dirty spigot Some tips: If you cause a spill, sop it up. If tea splatters from your mug when you go in for a hot-water refill, wipe it up. Nobody wants to see a Jackson Pollock installation on the water cooler. Don’t touch your water bottle’s mouthpiece to the spigot. No wonder the black plague makes its way through the cubicle farm with alarming regularity. Don’t crowd the cooler. If you’re done filling up, back away and continue the conversation with your office crush at a respectable distance from the water spout. If the well has run dry, you must resupply. Even if there’s a thin trickle of water coming out of the spout, acknowledge that you’ve reached the bottom of the tap, and don’t leave it to the next thirsty soul to replace the bottle. If you’re physically unable to replace the bottle, ask for help. Weak upper body strength is no excuse to be a lazy water cooler user. Let’s all band together to keep the water cooler the friendliest spot in the office. Previously - The politics of the office coffee pot and The spaghetti incident: when office lunches go AWOL |
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These are so critical views.
Water Coolers
Drink water from the tap... Problem solved!
Bottled water coolers are old fashioned and are a breeding ground for bacteria on the inside of the cooler AND bottled water is a major source of pollution. Filtered bottle-less water coolers are the way to go
Way to spout rhetoric. Nothing creative going on here.
Most of today's population has no idea what proper manners are. Etiquette cannot even be spelled by them, let alone adhered to.
all the dudes posting and complaining about the ladies not changing the water bottle: It's not all of us, let's just be clear. I'm 8 months pregnant but if the water runs empty and there aren't any of the fellas around, I change the bottle myself. If there is a guy working, I ask for help. Common curtesy, y'all.
I am really impressed with your writing skills as neatly as with the layout to your blog. Is this a paid topic or did you modify it yourself? Anyway keep up the nice high quality writing, it is uncommon to look a nice blog like this one nowadays..
My company supplies bottled water for us. No water cooler necessary.
Water cooler?
That's so '50s.
Is this a retro movement in response to "Mad Men"?
Our office doesn't have one any longer as the bloddy crook that ran the money pool was skimming – more like scrapping- off the top with the monthly collections. He was summarily executed.
Your life must be very small if this is something you think is worth thinking about.
What a stupid question. according to manners that would be the person that emptied the bottle. maybe some people are so spoiled they dont know what its like to work like a hebrew slave in the summer sun consuming 5 gallons of water each.
Lard Assed Ladies! If you want the same money as men, then share the workload. If there are two of you who are not gossiping on the phone, playing video games, out pregnent, out PPD, out with female problems, etc. you can work together and the two of you can put a bottle back.
I doubt it will happen as it is just easier to sit doing your nails while you complain.
At least every other day I go up and get 1 oz of water from the cooler before it runs out. I know I am one of few males that work here, but C'MON! Replace the jug, ladies!
Okay, invent a cooler that doesn't require us to lift a five gallon jug of water over our heads.
It's just above the waist. And no one wants to stoop to floor level to fill their cup/glass/bottle.
Already done and in use, Red.
http://www.purewatertech.com/
Jugs???
My office/team doesn't have a water cooler. I have a big water bottle/jug/mug (holds 32 oz) that I fill up in the cafeteria with water and ice when I get my breakfast/morning coffee.
We have an uber filtration system at work. No replacements required. However, if I was to redesign water coolers, I would make that thing-that-looks-like-a-drain a real drain. All manner of people use it to dump out the last dregs of their beverage (regardless of the beverage, coffee, tea or soda) and figure someone else will dump it out when it's full. Nasty.
Or better still, *rubbing hands together and smiling diabolically*, as good as graphics are today, I'll make it look like a drain, but it will really be a ramp. Just three or four degrees of tilt. Just enough so that the wingnuts who dump out their coffee get it running right back onto their shoes. Mwah-ha-ha-ha!
Oh... those are beautiful ideas!
Ditto. Diabolical CAN be beautiful.
Same scenario at my office, no bottles, it's filtered.
But let us know when you have the drain/ramp worked out, and put me down for 3!