Around the Water Cooler

This is really lame, but we actually have people in our office that hang out and “shoot the breeze” next to the water cooler at various times during the day.  Unless you have experienced this in your office, you might be thinking that I just made that up.  Trust me, it happens.

Because I find this practice so hilarious, I make a point (every once in a while) to play pranks on this particular set of individuals in the office. My particular prank this morning started out really funny, but ended up pretty bad.  Here’s how it happened…

We have this really fancy water “cooler” that spits out ice-cold water, sorta cold water, room temperature water, and piping-hot/almost-boiling water.  Being the mischievous lad that I am, I stayed a little late on Friday and figured out how to remove the front cover of the cooler and switch the tubes around so that nobody would get the water temperature that they desired.  Sounds funny, right?  Well here’s what happened this morning…

My desk has a distant, but clear view of the water cooler, so I made sure to get to my desk a bit early so that I didn’t miss any of the action. Like clockwork, one of the ladies went over to use the boiling water for her tea.  Out came ice-cold water.  Assuming the machine was broken, my co-worker mumbled something under her breath and walked away.

What happened next was completely unforeseeable and, frankly, a bit unbelievable unless you were there to see it.  But believe me, it happened.  One of our new interns (and by new I mean 4th day on the job) walked over to the water cooler, knelt down, and went for a “waterfall” out of the ice-cold water tap.  I was speechless!  Not only was I appalled that someone would forego using a cup and put their mouth directly below the spout, but I also knew that boiling, lava-hot water was about to burn this kid’s face off.  I couldn’t say anything, it happened too fast.  Seconds later, there was a lot of yelling and a lot of confusion around the water cooler.

I felt bad, but I couldn’t own up to that one.  I quietly went back to work while some other folks in the office helped the young intern.  I think his mouth is a little burned, but I think he’s okay.

Bet you he’ll never try to waterfall off of the water cooler again.