| Consider for a moment one of the undisputed icons | | | | Now I don't smoke, but I do like a drink. But do they |
| of the office environment. I refer of course to that | | | | install a mini bar in the kitchen where we can gather |
| totem of colleague interaction, the bottled water | | | | mid morning? No. Instead what we have is the |
| cooler. Surely few items in history have taken such | | | | bottled water cooler, the one place we can get a |
| an ingrained place in the nation's psychology, yet | | | | screen break and complain bitterly about our lucky |
| there is a problem - what exactly is it for? | | | | smoking co-workers. |
| Ha - I hear you say: surely the clue is in the name. | | | | It all leads you to wonder if this is exactly what the |
| You can get much clearer than that can you? This | | | | inventor had in mind when he came up with the idea |
| must be a place were hard working workers can go | | | | in the first place. Who were they I hear? Well, we |
| to enjoy a cool thirst quenching glass of H2O. What | | | | can trace the water cooler back to Halsey Willard |
| could be simpler? | | | | Tailor and Luther Haws who came up with the first |
| But is it? Water may be the given reason for | | | | drinking fountain in 1911. |
| including a bottled water cooler in an office. After all, | | | | This was a far cry from the magnificent machines |
| who wants workers passing out due to dehydration? | | | | we know and love today. In fact back then man's |
| Not many to be sure. But it is so much more than | | | | only way of cooling down water was to supply it in |
| that. Its most vital contribution is to provide non | | | | large blocks of ice. But soon he put his ingenuity to |
| smokers with a much needed break from the screen. | | | | discovering a machine which could do this |
| This is one of the great injustices of office life - the | | | | automatically and once the ball was rolling there was |
| clear priority often given over to smokers in the | | | | no stopping it. |
| office environment. All they have to do is imply that | | | | Today's water coolers offer an almost unrivaled |
| without nicotine they may somehow lose the | | | | array of possibilities. Made from the finest materials |
| capacity for rational thought and suddenly the world | | | | they remain an indispensable part of any office. So |
| is their oyster. They get a break almost on demand. | | | | let's raise a glass the water cooler. Where would we |
| The rest of us soldier on regardless. | | | | be without it? |