white_hart (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
white_hart) wrote2021-05-10 07:15 pm
white_hart) wrote2021-05-10 07:15 pm
Tea matters (130/365)
The trouble with architects is that they seem to see buildings as primarily artistic, and not functional. Which is why every time we have a meeting about our new building it ends up overrunning with lots of people asking questions such as:
Where are people supposed to make tea?
Will there be a quiet space for people to sit and eat lunch?
If the kitchen is in the open foyer area, how do we make sure that people don't take other people's food, or personal mugs, or wine that's cooling for receptions? And who is going to tidy things up when (inevitably) people don't put their cups in the dishwasher?
Yes, but really, tea is actually important, and it just feels like it's been shoved in here as an afterthought. And no, saying "but there will be a cafe in the building" doesn't help, because who wants to pay through the nose for a teabag and some indifferently hot water?
And that is why this afternoon's committee meeting overran by 45 minutes and left me incapable of spending the rest of the day doing anything other than filing my email. Which, to be fair, did need doing.
Where are people supposed to make tea?
Will there be a quiet space for people to sit and eat lunch?
If the kitchen is in the open foyer area, how do we make sure that people don't take other people's food, or personal mugs, or wine that's cooling for receptions? And who is going to tidy things up when (inevitably) people don't put their cups in the dishwasher?
Yes, but really, tea is actually important, and it just feels like it's been shoved in here as an afterthought. And no, saying "but there will be a cafe in the building" doesn't help, because who wants to pay through the nose for a teabag and some indifferently hot water?
And that is why this afternoon's committee meeting overran by 45 minutes and left me incapable of spending the rest of the day doing anything other than filing my email. Which, to be fair, did need doing.
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It was almost worse. In one iteration of the plans, the path between the loading dock and the technical services department, which processes the incoming materials, went directly through the quiet study area.
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The building I used to work in (Petty France, in London) had an electricity supply that was said to trip if too many people boiled a kettle or ran a fan at the same time. So they banned kettles and fans on desks, and wondered why we were pissed off and hot.
They did provide kitchens, but they were always one kitchen for 75 staff, and so were busy and mucky. And only one person among the 75 staff took the trouble to find out how the dishwasher worked.
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