Coffee mishaps:
I was working at the head office of a big media company a few years ago, as a visitor. In their reception area was a coffee machine, intended for the use of important guests rather than passing contractors like me, but I would sometimes treat myself to a decent coffee rather than a cup of instant in the site office. So, one lunchtime I'm walking through reception, there's nobody around so I decide to use the machine. It was the sort where you chose a sachet from the display, and then loaded it into a drawer in the front of the machine. Inside, hot water was injected into the sachet, which would burst and allow the coffee to come out. I put a cup on the tray at the bottom, I chose a sachet and loaded it into the machine,
While the coffee was brewing I probably looked around and admired the reception area. Lots of chrome and glass. Everything was brand new and gleaming clean - lovely clean work surface, lovely new wooden floor, lovely new leather sofas nearby and an immaculate glass table with expensive magazines for visitors to browse. Still nobody else there.
Then the machine made a gurgle or two and a steaming black puddle emerged from underneath and started to spread across the counter surface. Argghh ! I looked around for something to mop up with, but there was nothing as mundane as a roll of paper towel or any cloth. I tried the visitors' toilets, nothing useful in there either. I returned to reception, where the steaming black puddle was now dripping onto the (previously) immaculate wooden floor.
Well, dear reader, I then had a decision to make. I could either spend the next fifteen minutes hunting around an unfamiliar company to find a cleaner or some means of dealing with the mess myself, or I could walk away whistling, get on with my work, and avoid the reception area for the rest of the day. See if you can guess what I did.
-R