27
Our office coffee machine broke on Tuesday, and by Friday nobody was speaking to each other.
The only backup was a $12 drip brewer from Goodwill that took 20 minutes per pot, and by the time someone got a cup the person before them had used half the carafe without starting a new batch.
2 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In2 Comments
gibson.seth8d ago
Strip away the coffee machine and you see how fragile all our little social norms are. It takes just one broken thing to turn a whole group into strangers. People forget that these tiny rituals like waiting for the pot or saying "who's next" actually keep the peace. Once that flow stops, everyone starts acting like it's every person for themselves. Same thing happens when the printer jams or the Wi-Fi goes down for ten minutes. We just don't realize how much we rely on those small agreements until they're gone.
6
rivera.jake8d ago
idk @gibson.seth, I actually think those norms hold up better than you're giving them credit for.
6