Three days in a row last spring, someone decided that my frozen entrée was theirs. Such is life in the cube farm. Everyone shares a small fridge in the break room, yet it seems every company has someone that will help themselves to other people’s lunch. It would not be so bad, I guess, if we could leave campus to get something, but by the third day of eating chips and a coke for lunch instead of the meal I had planned to eat, I had had enough. I bought a small fridge to keep under my desk at my cubicle. When my supervisor spotted it she said, “What’s next, kitchen furniture?” I explained what had happened and she understood and then said that she too had been struck by the break room bandit. After that, I let her keep her lunch in there too.
That small fridge was a good little investment, not only did I preserve my good attitude at work, but because my supervisor appreciated the fact that I quietly solved my problem and she in turn benefitted, guess who was promoted to her position when my supervisor was promoted.
Now that I have a bigger office, I bought a slightly larger and colder small fridge and put the one that I had in my cubicle in the garage, along with some inexpensive kitchen furniture. Now, when I have just finished mowing the lawn I can cool off in the garage with a cold drink before I go back into the house.
A small fridge is not just a piece of mandatory dormitory kitchen furniture. It can be used to reduce traffic to your main food storage refrigerator. It can also be used at the office or in an outdoor room to store beverages and what not. They also make an excellent gift to a student going off to college or a friend who works in a cubicle in a big company.