I don't drink coffee. It's one of those things that I have tried, over and over again, but just cannot bring myself to do. Every Christmas I go out of my way to try the Starbucks Gingerbread Latte. Every year it disappoints because it taste too much like coffee.
Though I do not drink coffee myself, I have no problem with most coffee situations. I am okay walking into Starbucks to get an iced tea or hot chocolate, the smell does not bother me. I'm okay with it as people walk by, or are even talking to me with coffee breath. I have found one way that coffee just rubs me the wrong way, and it's all thanks to Coffee Guy.
I don't know his name. He works in another office on our floor in the office building that I work in. I know who he is, which I think makes it more awkward. My issue is not that he drinks coffee. It's that he dumps his coffee in the sink in the public men's room. Again, not an issue if you know the proper etiquette, or what I consider the be the proper way to dispose of your (really mostly his) nasty smelling hazelnut coffee. It's as simple as splashing a bit of water from the spigot and rinsing the coffee down the drain.
What happens instead is that the coffee sits in the sink and just festers for however long it takes for someone else to walk in. There are certain smells that I expect in a public restroom, particularly a men's room. Hazelnut coffee is just not one of them. It just gets more pungent as the time wears on because of poor ventilation.
Just gross.
Every time that I happen to be the one who walks in after him I get that same feelings. Have the same thoughts.
1 - "HEY MAN. Just take less coffee! You do this every day needlessly."
2 - "HEY MAN. Your office has a sink, dump your stuff there"
3 - "HEY MAN. Just a simple rinse would stop the inconvenience of everyone else"
What I actually say: Nothing. What can I say? It's a public, share space. I have contemplated what a note left on the mirror would say, but have just never gotten up the nerve to write it. Since there are only two tenants on the floor, it's easy to eliminate most of the men from contention. He does not have any power that I know of, but deep down it's none of my business.
It IS obnoxious.
So, In an effort to get more comments on my blog than my brother does, I ask you this:
What would you do? Have you ever had this problem? Would it be wrong of me to smack this man in his forehead one day?
Okay - my thought - passive agressive (i.e., a note) is probably the worst you could do. Little things like that make BAD office politics.
ReplyDeleteI would make it a point to chat with him - get comfortable with him on a normal basis. and at some point when a bit of trust has been established, work it into the conversation that it's a pet peeve of yours. Laugh at yourself in the conversation, be nonoffensive, and beg him to humor you. :) But that only works if he feels you respect him as a person and you aren't "chatting him up" just to get him to stop with the coffee thing.
Oh - and likely the reason you don't like coffee is because it's Starbucks. They use awful, bitter coffee beans. Yuck. My brother is a HUGE coffee drinker - and likes dark roasts and strong gourmet stuff, and he doesn't Starbucks.
Try Bob Evans coffee with cream and sugar and chocolate cake.
I joke that I don't like coffee either. I like coffee flavored drinks. :)
So, competing with my 4 comments, huh? Depending on the situation, I would say that an introduction and personal request would be useful. You could easily build a "comfortable relationship" based on your mutual need of waste disposal after you've gotten that out of the way. What's the harm in asking him to be more careful? I would, however, stick with the rinsing it out option; that's much less superior than claiming the bathroom as your own.
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