A blog about design, education and anything else that takes my fancy

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Software for Tea-Making Duties

In my first job, we used to have a tea trolley that would come round twice a day with a great big urn of well-brewed tea to which you could take your own mug and fill up for just 10p. It also had a good supply of crisps and chocolate and, on Fridays, freshly baked scones.
But staff shortages meant that the tea trolley soon became a stationary affair to which we would have to go and this brought with it a new duty: the tea rota. One of us would have to take a tray and a notebook, and everyone's money, and get the order (and the change) right.
I hated it, and soon started 'accidentally' getting things wrong in the hope I'd be excused the task.
When we moved to a different building without the canteen, we were given our own kitchen and the tea making duties became more serious. As this Wired article says if you make a cup for yourself you have to make one for everyone.
But my boss, I remember, started taking advantage of this - he drank more tea than me and had an unreasonably large mug ('the bucket' as it was known) so I opted out of tea making and became a Klix coffee machine addict instead (it was also partly due to the fact that instead of a kettle we had those wall-mounted hot water tanks that never quite boiled, and as any tea afficianoado will tell you, you have to have freshly boiled water to let the flavour flood out). So I never had to make tea again.
Even in my current job, I'd rather forgo the freshly boiled and free tea and instead pay a pound a time for the cafe's gross coffee than risk getting caught in the whole tea making ritual again.

Obviously my issues with tea making duties are not unique. As the Wired article says, one company has even gone so far as to write software that monitors who's pulling their weight and who's shirking their brewing responsibilities:

"In British workplaces, where etiquette dictates that anyone venturing to the kitchen must make a cup for everyone nearby, tempers can boil if colleagues neglect their tea-brewing responsibilities.

'Open-plan offices may have revolutionized working patterns but, in the ever-polite U.K., it creates a situation where you can't just make one cup, you must make one for everyone in the entire room,' said Roope, a designer with London-based creative agency Poke, where job applicants are vetted for their ability to make up to 18 cups a day."

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is hilarious! "The Bucket"

I know that I cannot go a day without a freshly brewed cuppa'... and let me tell you that I can only drink imported PG as the American stuff is really weak and horrible. You might also appreciate the little app Tea Timer if you ever get back into the tea making.

Jonathan said...

Ben, I really recommend Yorkshire Tea - you can get it sent to you. Nice and strong, two bags make one cup! Get the Yanks hooked on it and get them back for Boston... ;-)

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