Buttergate.....An internal email.

Faith177

We had this e-mail go round "It may just be due to the sudden climate change with Winter approaching, but we seem to have had a migration of tea spoons from the 1st floor kitchen again! This does seem somewhat strange as most of you use the drinks machines, but please look on your desks and in your draws to see if you have any. If you do find you are providing sanctuary for said items, please kindly return them to the kitchen."

Attached was this study

"
"Where have all the bloody teaspoons gone?" is an age old question in the workplace. In this week's BMJ, researchers at the Burnet Institute in Australia attempt to measure the phenomenon of teaspoon loss and its effect on office life.


They purchased and discreetly numbered 70 stainless steel teaspoons (54 of standard quality and 16 of higher quality). The teaspoons were placed in tearooms around the institute and were counted weekly over five months.

After five months, staff were told about the research project and asked to complete a brief anonymous questionnaire about their attitudes towards and knowledge of teaspoons and teaspoon theft.

During the study, 56 (80%) of the 70 teaspoons disappeared. The half life of the teaspoons was 81 days (that is, half had disappeared permanently after that time). The half life of teaspoons in communal tearooms (42 days) was significantly shorter than those in rooms linked to particular research groups (77 days).

The rate of loss was not influenced by the teaspoons' value and the overall incidence of teaspoon loss was 360.62 per 100 teaspoon years. At this rate, an estimated 250 teaspoons would need to be purchased annually to maintain a workable population of 70 teaspoons, say the authors.



The questionnaire showed that most employees (73%) were dissatisfied with teaspoon coverage in the institute, suggesting that teaspoons are an essential part of office life. The rapid rate of teaspoon loss shows that their availability (and therefore office life) is under constant assault.

One possible explanation for the phenomenon is resistentialism (the theory that inanimate objects have a natural aversion to humans), they write. This is demonstrated by the fact that people have little or no control over teaspoon migration.

Given the widely applicable nature of these results, they suggest that the development of effective control measures against the loss of teaspoons should be a research priority.

Source: British Medical Journal"

time2deal

Oh dear - that study has me giggling at work!

tea_lover

time2deal wrote: »

Oh dear - that study has me giggling at work!

It's funny 'cos it's true! Wherever I've worked there's never enough teaspoons, no matter how many you start off with.

time2deal

tea_lover wrote: »

It's funny 'cos it's true! Wherever I've worked there's never enough teaspoons, no matter how many you start off with.

And I'm totally fussy about teaspoon quality too. I'd be the one stealing the better quality ones to take home.

Tiddlywinks

time2deal wrote: »

And I'm totally fussy about teaspoon quality too. I'd be the one stealing the better quality ones to take home.

Here's a novel idea... Buy your own!

time2deal

It's more theoretical really. My work have rubbish machines that give you strange tasting tea in a plastic cup.

In fact, it was more of a joke, but that may have passed you by.

missprice

I work in a new build office, we moved in in Jan this year and already there is a major teaspoon shortage, and mugs although not quite as bad.
In Jan I noticed kitchen drawers (14 kitchens in whole building) were choc full of all cutlery but double full of teaspoons.
The liner tray thing had the normal knife forks spoon area and 2 areas for teaspoons.
however only last week I had a looksie and found teaspoons in single figures. My best guess is maybe 3000 teaspoons were bought and there is around 140 left 9 months later.
Oh and lots of people at work seem very distracted and throw teaspoon out with teabag that's where a whole lot disappear to, in the bin.

olias

Once had an email sent to everyone in my company. 'Can the guilty party who is spraying their !!!! up the back of the cistern please desist, you are obviously malformed as you appear to have an anu5 half way up your back'............:rotfl:

Olias

Kildare

Gosh - ours in mild by comparison to most of these! A sign went up in the newly refurbed ladies loo "please do not stand on the toilet seats!". Was totally confused until I found out several ladies had been caught standing on the seats (causing them to break) so they could look in the mirror on the wall above the sinks

aileth

The things people do in toilets at work is bizarre. At my old place there were two 'private' toilets, so not cubicles, which were shared with the office across the floor.

We had to put a sign up saying 'TOILET - NOT TELEPHONE BOOTH' on the door as a lady from the other company would sit in the toilet for literally hours at a time (I remember her being in there for a solid two hours once) on the phone. You could hear her talking from outside and she would totally ignore you when you knocked on it.

On a couple of occasions (from which we found out earlier was boyfriend trouble) she would be wailing and crying so loud the entire office could hear her from the toilet. Most of the time though she was avoiding work and gossiping on her mobile, how she didn't get fired I'll never know.