I know that probably sounds a little creepy to the new generation, but it really wasn’t. We worked long office hours together and finished them off quite regularly with drinks after work. During the day, we would take a leg stretch to the water cooler where you were almost certain to find one or two other inmates and it became a (mostly) happy exchange of what and where you were up to with your daily chores. Problems were solved (sometimes quite by accident) and differing points of view raised to poke holes in what you imagined was a bullet proof solution. Some of my strongest friendships grew around the water cooler. Some that I still enjoy today (except the water cooler has now become Mr Pants for a glass of wine after work, if you can inveigle anyone to change out of the schloof clothes that they spend the day working in from home). I am certain that there are a million reasons why the water cooler is defunct, or how it could be shot down in flames and cancelled, but I cant help feeling a pang of mourning for the loss of it. It was a largely positive invention and the birthchild of a trillion relationships, scandals, great ideas, and solutions. The ice cold, solitary, silent world of our phone or laptop is a lonely place and I really do believe has a lot to do with a largely depressed generation of people and a climbing suicide rate – we need each other. I say bring back the water cooler. |