They Must Be Republican

In all of the American workplaces I have been a part of one rule stands: take responsibility for yourself and your coffee cup. Let a science experiment grow from the seven-day old coffee in it if you would like, because NO ONE but you will ever clean it. Imagine my surprise on my second morning of work after using my favorite coffee cup shipped all the way from the U.S. to see it washed and in the kitchen cupboard with all of the others. The cleaning crew actually pick up all dishes and cups from people’s desks and put them in the dishwasher and then unload the dishwasher before they leave for the night. I thought to myself, can I just live at work? This is a good deal! But I also stopped using my personal coffee cup and just picked a generic company logo cup from the cupboard to start using since it felt a little bit like an invasion of privacy having my personal science experiment taken from my desk. I know, I am a little too territorial about a cup. But you may be wondering, what does any of this have to do with a U.S. political party. Well…

We have a new cleaning crew. The morning after the U.S. Presidential elections I went to the local newsstand and bought some newspapers, and put them in a shopping bag in my office to mail in the future. My friend M in Birmingham has been a champion of Obama from day one and I wanted to mail her some international coverage. This bag was very far away from the trash can in my office but I noticed the other day, the bag had disappeared. The over-zealous cleaning crew threw away the newspapers! And not even in the recycling bin for newspapers! I wasn’t sure what upset me more since we have to go through great pains at home separating kitchen waste from non-recyclable waste, to glass, to cardboard/paper.

Sorry M! I tried! I’ll have to pick you up some Inauguration articles and mail them promptly!