British office etiquette requires you to ask your immediate colleagues if they would like a tea or coffee every time you head in the general direction of the kitchen. This annoys me.
Firstly, I have made five consecutive cups of tea for one of my colleagues, without even a hint of her getting off her butt to fetch her own. I think that she could be on the verge of unconsciousness due to dehydration and lack of caffeine, and she would still wait for me to go to the kitchen.
Secondly, I went to refill my glass of water just then and she asked me to make her a cup of tea. Sorry sweetie, but uh-uh, I draw the line there. I offered water, not tea. That’s like me offering you a tissue and you asking for one of my kidneys. Actually it is nothing like that, but all this tea drinking has got to be doing something to her kidneys, so she will probably want one of mine soon.
Thirdly, everyone likes their tea or coffee a certain way. I don’t really like requesting my “strong tea with one sugar and a dash of milk”. However, aforementioned colleague has no qualms in dictating her preferences to me: “a tea please, ooh and not too weak, no sugar thanks, just a teaspoon of milk – not too much, and if you could fill the mug to the top, that would be great thanks”.
From now on I am bringing a flask of java to the office with me; no more hot beverage runs people!
"One more cup of coffee for the road, one more cup of coffee 'fore I go"
One More Cup of Coffee, White Stripes
7 years ago
2 comments:
Mandy, I am ALLLLL over this. Start making really shit cups of teak. Add too much milk, make it weak and take her down to half a t-spoon of sugar.
Before too long, she'll be getting up off her scabby arse and making her own!!
More than 35% of office workers have considered leaving their job because of their colleagues' irritating habits, according to research by recruitment consultancy Office Angels.
The survey of 1,500 office workers identified the dos and don'ts of office etiquette and revealed the top five most irritating office habits:
#1 Being e-mailed by people who sit three feet away (85%)
#2 People who listen to voicemails on speakerphone (75%)
#3 People who swear at their computer (71%)
#4 Colleagues' choice of radio station (68%)
#5 Colleagues who do not share the tea-making duties (60%).
Technology has created its own irritations, with 85% of staff frustrated by overuse of e-mail compared to just 20% in 1999.
Flouting the rules of office etiquette can have serious consequences: 65% of office workers admit they are more likely to gossip about colleagues who make loud personal phone calls, while 40% of office workers would not cover for a colleague who had never made the tea.
There's a thought for the day..........
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