This isn't sad, per se, but your story reminded me of my story. Years ago I was working at a global, faceless . . . oh, what the heck, they layed me off after 31 years of service last February, I can say the name - it was IBM. Anyway I was working at IBM back when most of we workers at the lab sat together in the computer lab to get our work done, because the lab is where the 'terminals' were and PCs were not yet invented.
This was also back when we shared a feeling of camaraderie instead of being isolated and fearful and mostly working from home so we wouldn't have to face coming to the dismal, dreary office but that is besides the point.
Back to the point, we had an office supply cabinet upstairs from the lab stocked full of all sorts of office supplies for all of us to use whenever we wanted, and this supply included pens. I would bring two pens to my table when I was working in the lab, and sometime during the day not one but both of my pens would go missing. This happened every day.
I'd go upstairs and get a couple more pens but I became frustrated at this so I started an experiment.
One morning I took a box of pens, probably 24 of them, down to the lab and set those out. They lasted longer, but they did not last the week, so then I decided to see if the demand for lab pens was infinite, or is it was possible to actually satiate the apparently huge demand for lab pens.
I continued to bring a box of pens down to the lab and replace the box when the last pen was gone, and I determined that for our lab the steady state requirement for pens was 127 pens, give or take five, with a loss rate of about one pen a day.
I suppose I could have suggested we put a supply cabinet in the lab itself but where is the fun in that?
On Evening Bonus: A Look Into My Soul
This isn't sad, per se, but your story reminded me of my story. Years ago I was working at a global, faceless . . . oh, what the heck, they layed me off after 31 years of service last February, I can say the name - it was IBM. Anyway I was working at IBM back when most of we workers at the lab sat together in the computer lab to get our work done, because the lab is where the 'terminals' were and PCs were not yet invented.
This was also back when we shared a feeling of camaraderie instead of being isolated and fearful and mostly working from home so we wouldn't have to face coming to the dismal, dreary office but that is besides the point.
Back to the point, we had an office supply cabinet upstairs from the lab stocked full of all sorts of office supplies for all of us to use whenever we wanted, and this supply included pens. I would bring two pens to my table when I was working in the lab, and sometime during the day not one but both of my pens would go missing. This happened every day.
I'd go upstairs and get a couple more pens but I became frustrated at this so I started an experiment.
One morning I took a box of pens, probably 24 of them, down to the lab and set those out. They lasted longer, but they did not last the week, so then I decided to see if the demand for lab pens was infinite, or is it was possible to actually satiate the apparently huge demand for lab pens.
I continued to bring a box of pens down to the lab and replace the box when the last pen was gone, and I determined that for our lab the steady state requirement for pens was 127 pens, give or take five, with a loss rate of about one pen a day.
I suppose I could have suggested we put a supply cabinet in the lab itself but where is the fun in that?