It happens. Sometimes a coworker cooks something in the kitchen and it stinks up the place for hours. Or, they burn something. Or something explodes in the microwave and lingers for years. In any case, office kitchens are a battleground and everyone loses.
Speaking of which, my best mishap was at a job 8 years ago. It was a small office and had a full kitchen with a dishwasher. The dishwasher needed to be run so I thought, “Oh, I’ll take care of it.” It was my first week and I wanted to make a good impression, you know. So I opened up the cabinet under the sink and found a big jug of dishwashing liquid.
Except… it was dish soap, meant for use in the sink, and not dishwashing liquid.
I didn’t notice this. I filled up the dishwasher’s cup and ran it. About 10 minutes later I found myself in the kitchen again and noticed a puddle and suds on the floor. I gasped, and rushed over to the dishwasher to stop it. The bottom of it was just loaded with bubbles! I was truly embarrassed.
I started working on getting all of the soap and water and soapy water with soapy soap out of the dishwasher and into the sink. I also emailed my boss, who was out of the office for a while, and let him know that I did it. I know he had a good chuckle over it, in the end, as did I.
Also, at least I didn’t burn any damn popcorn in the microwave.
Posted in Everyday Life, Food and Beverage
Ryan February 28, 2011, 8:12 pm
I’d never heard the dishwasher story… that’s great.
I may have told my own story before, but here it is again…
When I was in high school working at a physical therapy office, I had some donut holes that I wanted to heat up. Unfortunately, being in high school and an idiot, I put a few in the microwave and set the timer for 2 minutes (instead of 20 seconds) and walked away.
About a minute later, smoke filled the office. Everyone cracked open the windows and proceeded to laugh at me for the rest of the day.