The Important Things: I Threw Your Drink Away

I'm a heavy drinker at worker. Coffee, Diet Coke, water, all day. I'm more likely to have a tasty beverage with me than my phone. It's a pretty big part of our culture - just look around. Everybody's filling a big gulp, standing in line at Starbucks, or slinging a twenty ounce Mountain Dew around.

Today I threw yours away.

I make rounds everyday so I can give feedback to department leaders. Today I was out on your neighborhood and I opened the refrigerator in the resident lounge. I was checking for the thermometer, items that weren't dated or were more than three days old, and general sanitation. I was also looking for your drink.

It's hot. You're working your butt off. You've spent your hard-earned cash on a drink (and you're ticked that the pop machine prices just went up). I'm on a crusade, though. A crusade to...

GETCHA!

I open the fridge and there it is: Your [Insert Tasty Beverage Here]. It's unlabeled, half-full (or half-empty) and has "rule-breaker" written all over it. Victory is mine.

You know we have a rule here about keeping employee drinks in the resident refrigerators. Or at the nurses station. Or really anywhere really, besides the breakroom (that you think is gross). Maybe you don't know. Did that hit the "General Orientation" list? Probably not. Maybe you picked it up in your training. Obviously it's not consistently enforced, because there were three just like yours already in the fridge when you opened it. Whatever, you say...

And so I toss it.

I take your drink, which you paid for, which is not touching or harming any other item in the refridgerator, and I put it in the trash. Even though I am about to go back to my office and finish my coffee, I pitch your drink. Goes to show what a nice guy I am, huh. What a morale booster I must be.

Before we go further, the above narrative does not represent my real-life actions...

I've never solved this one. Bring on the comments please...

1. Has your facility solved the employee beverages on the job puzzle?
2. What is your solution?
3. Do you have a different way of eliminating the issue (besides throwing drinks away)?
4. Do you know why we discourage food and beverage around residential common spaces?

I appreciate the discussion.