Disappearing office cutlery

I've worked in this office, with a lot of the same people, for 13.5 years. During that time, we've had a continuing problem of never having enough cutlery in the kitchen drawer. When my husband moved in and we combined our kitchen utensils, I took my half-plastic set to work since they could be well used there.  Some of that set still sits in the drawer, but some of it is missing.

A few years ago, after moving into this new building, I went to Costco and bought a set of flatware. It was thicker and nice, and there were enough pieces that I figured it would solve the problem.  Currently there is one fork remaining, perhaps one teaspoon, and at least half of the knives. The question is: where is the rest of the cutlery?


I searched around on the internet to see if anyone had any comments on this problem. In addition to a fun scientific experiment, the common answers dealt with theft by children to use in their play (not an issue in this office), office workers who have kept the cutlery at their desks for exclusive use, or the utensils get thrown in the trash when the dishes are cleaned up.

Who throws metal cutlery in the trash?

If you're scraping a dish, how can you not notice the cutlery falling into the trash? Plate loss isn't generally attributed to trash disposal, so why cutlery (just because it's small)?  I have found office cutlery around desks, so some are being hoarded by co-workers. At least it's still in the building.  I just can't fathom how or why so many of these utensils go missing. My best guess is that people are putting work cutlery into their dirty Tupperware containers and taking them home, so the work cutlery gets absorbed into their home inventory.

What I couldn't find in my research was any way to alleviate the problem. Buying plastic cutlery means it can be thrown out, but then it ends up at the landfill. At least only some of the metal cutlery is ending up at the landfill. Buying new cutlery sets just results in the eventual loss of that set.  Bringing in my own cutlery will lead to others ignoring my name on it and using it anyway, and then it will get lost. Since I want to run the items through the dishwasher, I don't want to store cutlery at my desk.  Some who have had lunches stolen from work refrigerators suggest that kid-like bags deter theives, so maybe I should try getting kid cutlery in hopes that no one else wants to be seen using a Dora The Explorer spoon?

I'm not sure what the answer is, but soon I will be forced to start eating yogurt with a knife.

An open prayer

Hey God,

I don't usually type things to you, but I figured if I got it out in the open and visible, maybe it would help me.

Though I'm resistant to change, as you know, I think I've bashed my head against the proverbial brick wall long enough. I'm going to need your help to figure this out, and this time I really want to come to an answer instead of deferring the problem for 10+ years. I'll do the work if you can help me find some direction.

Please make this week easier than the last. It's so exhausting being the person who cares so much, compared to those who don't but should. I'm tired of being angry, bitter, depressed, and unhappy. I'd like that to change, I just don't know how to go about it. I could really use some light at the end of the tunnel, some hope that things are going to get better.

Hopefully you can show me the way.

Drained

I've been having a particularly stressful time since, well, the basement flood, really. Following the flood was work stress in one area, then John hurting his back, the usual Christmas stress, and since the beginning of the year more work stress in another area, John hurting his back again, concern about my health, and a relentless, punishing winter. This morning we shoveled and snow-blowed another 4' of drifts in our driveway. I also had a work meeting that had been building up and bothering me, and I got through it today fairly successfully, considering the topic. Between those two events today, I'm drained. But I'm committed to keeping up with my Zumba schedule, and think the exercise will help relieve the stress I've been feeling leading up to today. Or at least give me an hour's worth of distraction.

Lately I've been unable to feel like I'm getting a good night's rest. Sleep is never a problem for me, it's the quality that's the issue. I may have gotten 7-8h of uninterrupted sleep, but I still wake up feeling like a zombie.  In the evenings, when I'm trying to enjoy my free time, thoughts of the work stresses creep in and spoil my mood.  Yesterday I worked from home due to the impending storm. Many friends were sent home early and had some extra relaxing time, but I felt since I was already working from home, I'd better work until my normal time, so I did. I still didn't get as much done as I wanted. I wondered whether I should go back downstairs and work some more.

The hard part is knowing that the work stress ebbs & flows, but is far from over. This will be a year of changes that I don't want, but will have to find a way to accept and move forward.  The uncertainty of how it's going to pan out is only part of the problem.  I'm trying to deal with it based on the information I have now and get through each day, but I can't ignore that sound of the train horn nearby either. And that's wearing on me too.

I'm leaving for a meeting in just over a week. I'll be glad for the change in scenery, and to be somewhere where I won't have to shovel snow. But often when I leave, something happens to make things worse. I was contemplating a few days of vacation before the meeting, but had to cancel. I wouldn't have had fun anyway, I would have just worried about what went on while I was gone.  I'll only be gone for 3 working days. Hopefully in that time, things can stay normal.

Speedpass

I'm an avid supporter of Speedpass, the RFID tag used by Exxon/Mobil and Esso gas stations which enables you to pay at the pump without having to fumble with credit and loyalty cards.  So much easier and I'm not sure why it never caught on.

While attending my first tire software conference in Chicago in 2002, I went to a McDonalds and snapped this pic because I was thrilled to see Speedpass in a place other than a gas station.  I had forgotten all about this until today, when I was opening a few random files to make sure the copies I made were working.

Per Wikipedia:

At one point, Speedpass was deployed experimentally in fast-food restaurants and supermarkets in select markets. McDonald's alone deployed Speedpass in over 400 Chicago area restaurants. Additionally, Stop & Shop grocery chain tested Speedpass at their Boston area stores and removed the units in early 2005. The test was deemed a failure and McDonald's removed the scanners from all their restaurants in mid-2004. Speedpass has also been previously available through a Speedpass Car Tag and Speedpass-enabled Timex watch.

I didn't actually use my Speedpass that day because I keep it on my car key ring, which I didn't have with me. Interesting, and neat that I was there during that experiment, though.

Tiger lights up!

January 2014 photo - Day 19

Breakfast

I baked a mix for apple cinnamon muffins this morning, and wrapped them individually for the freezer.

January 2014 photo - Day 18

Happy place

Just picked up our new Yogibo bean bag chairs yesterday. So the Yogibo + Kindle = Happy Place.

January 2014 photo - Day 17

Tiny

The smallest of bears in my collection of Snuffles.

January 2014 photo - Day 16

Sun

[Skipped yesterday's Black & White]

Managed to sneak this pic in the day before.

January 2014 photo - Day 14

Three things

I walked past the Community Garden and picked out three compost bins. Perhaps I should have stuck with my original idea of 3 pieces of [colorful] garbage I saw on a different street.

January 2014 photo - Day 12

Colourful

January in Canada is definitely not a time filled with color. Even worse when the snow thaws and you're left with mud-colored landscape. But I did manage to see a bright red fire hydrant along the street to bring some color.

January 2014 photo - Day 11

Looking down

I tried a downward perspective before, of a streetscape, without much success. This works better.

January 2014 photo - Day 10

Man-made

By contrast, here is a man-made break in a tree, also part of the aftermath of the ice storm.

January 2014 photo - Day 9

Natural

We had a large ice storm just before Christmas, followed by plenty of days of cold which didn't allow the ice to melt. As a result, the tree limbs bent and broke. This is a natural break as a result of that storm from a neighbor's house up the street.

January 2014 photo - Day 13

Makes me smile

The older I get, the less I like winter. So seeing the green grass as the snow recedes during our January thaw makes me happy.

January 2014 photo - Day 8

Lucky number

I'm not sure I have a lucky number myself, but plenty of people consider 7 to be a lucky number.

January 2014 photo - Day 7

Upside down is the logo on my laptop.

January 2014 photo - Day 6

Happens Everyday -- the mail gets delivered. At least, until Canada Post stops door-to-door delivery.

January 2014 photo - Day 5

Missed My Town and Words to live by. May come back to My Town but I don't really have any words to live by.

With the January thaw, I was able to get out for a lunchtime walk and snap a bunch of pics to make up for the days lost.  Day 5 was Found, where I found a shoelace that had been exposed after the thaw.

January 2014 photo - Day 2

Begins with G: board games in our basement. Cropping help by John.

January 2014 photo - Day 1

Back on the wagon. Day 1 was Lunch. I wasn't eating lunch at lunchtime, but was waiting for the start of a free New Year's Day Zumba class.