It’s no secret that our co-workers are very peculiar people. The number of quirks people have in the office rivals the sheets of paper in a new ream of 8.5″x11″. Do we necessarily need to pay for our co-workers’ quirks? Absolutely not, but we do anyway. Not to mention that these quirks always seem to occur during the most inopportune times.

Unfortunately I fell victim to this issue last week. The worst part—it affected my most valued part of the day, the morning coffee break. To me, this break is sacred. Not only that, it’s a chance to really evaluate the day and to determine which direction it’s headed (good or bad).

It just so happens on this day I was right behind the person who still hasn’t learned how to use the office coffee machine after (at least) 3 years of brewing.

It’s really mind boggling that a person who I believe has great problem solving and analytical skills can throw them all out the window when they step up to bat at the coffee machine.

At our office, we use one of those “pod” style coffee machines that require 3 steps
1. Lift Handle 2. Insert Pod 3. Push button.

Where “jam pod in coffee machine” fits in is beyond me. It’s not that difficult.

After what seemed like 47 minutes of button pressing and lifting the handle up and down, up and down, the culprit turns to me with a stunned look in their eyes and proceeds to walk away. Last time I checked, raising your shoulders and mumbling is not a valid solution for the problem at hand. Oh well, at least there’s no longer that awkward scene with two people hovering over a broken coffee machine.

Turns out, all that needed to be done was to remove the “pod depository” and locate the jammed pod.

Voila—problem solved.

Ok, so the event wasn’t exactly catastrophic but it but no means was relaxing. It just makes you wonder how the “lack of common sense” quirk is so prevalent throughout the office at times. Sure there are personality tests that some companies use for hiring but “ability to perform 3 steps to make coffee” is not provided in the summary.

Myers-Briggs may need to rethink their assessment.

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3. 
   
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