Things we take for granted

We don't mean family, friends or a good book (although we probably don't appreciate those enough). A friend (Marian, pictured on the right) recently told the world how much she takes 'Fairy liquid' for granted. ‘ It makes her life so much easier, it has so many uses, it's always been there throughout her life’..................you get the idea.  We all thought she'd gone slightly mad. 

Then our fantastic water boiler broke. 

For anyone that has been on our courses you will know our hot-water-on-demand machine. At break time all the course delegates pile out of the training rooms & grab tea and coffee, fruit and biscuits.  Quite often this is really needed by then (having been on some of the courses, I understand why!) Brains hurt from concentrating, fingers are sore from laminating, everyone wants to stop for a break.

As an office we love the machine too. No boiling kettles, no urns chugging away all day, just hot water on demand. It means we probably drink too much, but never mind. We completely took it for granted. Until it STOPPED working.

Unlike most things in our throw away culture it IS cheaper to have it fixed than to buy a new one.  The lovely repair man didn't have the part with him, which means a return visit, but maybe we were a bit naive to assume he would? So hopefully when this new part gets in, we'll have the boiler back online.  Until then our tea drinking delegates this week have to use the old smaller, noisier, spare model (we kept just in case).

So here's our top 10 office 'taken for granted':

1.  Good plumbing & heating (obviously!)
2.  Phones & internet
   
3.  Computers
4.  Great lighting ( we have twice the lux level lights throughout, for accurate work, making it nice & bright here)
5.  Our compressor (what use is an air tool with no air?)
6.  Our office Elf (every office has one, ours is Sharon) the person who ALWAYS fills the print paper, replaces toilet rolls,  empties the shredder, puts staples in the stapler etc. & only occasionally complains.
7.  Customers (thought we should probably state this one too)
8. Suppliers (and this one!)
9. Nice work colleagues
10. Tea & coffee making facilities!
    

In this season of shopping & gifts take a leaf out of my 'Fairy Liquid' friend's book & spend a minute to create your own top 10 at work (then save money by removing anything not on the list & blaming your staff).