We have, in my wing of the building, four pots (vacuum caraffes, actually) of coffee — French Roast, Costa Rican, Vanilla, and Decaf.
I make, on the average, 3-4 pots of coffee a day at the office.
I usually start a pot when I come into work. When I go back to the coffee room, I’ll start a new pot while pouring from the one I just made.
Despite having a large cup and a significant caffeine habit, I can guarantee you that I don’t drink that much. I probably don’t drink more than a single pot, over the course of a day.
But each time I go in to pour myself a cup, especially if it’s before lunch, I check to see if any of the pots are empty. And, if so, I start a new one.
I don’t understand why folks leave empty pots of coffee, or pots with just a little bit left in them. Really. It’s not difficult to start a new pot. It’s not even time-consuming. (I timed myself once. Under a thirty seconds.)
Are folks lazy? Are they just unaware? Are they parasites upon the citizenry?
I just don’t understand.
(Any more than I understand why, with all the Good Coffee Pot Filling Karma I must have built up over the years, am still just as likely to find my preferred flavor gone whenever I go into the coffee room.)
It that “social contract” thing, I think. You are upholding your part of the contract where as others are benefiting without contributing. Although things are better here at my present job, when I worked in title insurance (which is fueled on caffine and grease) it was a fight to get a cup. In fact, that’s where I perfected my “put the cup under the stream of dripping coffee and pour from the unfilled pot” in order to be assused of getting a cup. I did, however, make another pot when I emptied one – it’s only fair.
parasites.
Ah. It’s the Tragedy of the Commons. When folks can get away with not contributing, but only taking, they ruin it for everyone else. Bastards.