Coffee for Everyone

Marisol started her new job in March. There were sixteen people in the office and almost no noise. Everybody looked at a screen. Even the phones rang quietly, as if they were sorry.

She was a bit shy. After three weeks she knew four names. She ate her lunch alone at her desk. She wanted to talk to people, but she never found the right moment.

On a grey Thursday the coffee machine died. It made a loud noise, then a small cloud of steam, then nothing. A note appeared on it: "Broken. Sorry." Nobody wrote a date.

"Wonderful," said a man from the second floor. "The nearest café is ten minutes away. In the rain." Two people looked at the machine and shrugged their shoulders.

Marisol looked in the kitchen. She found an old kettle behind the plates. It was dusty, but it worked. She washed it and had an idea.

The next morning she brought coffee, milk and a packet of biscuits. At eleven she filled the kettle and waited. Her hands were a bit nervous, because she hardly knew these people.

Then she walked through the office. "There is coffee in the kitchen," she said. "Would you like a cup?" She asked ten times, and ten times her voice got easier.

Two people came. Then a third, a quiet woman who worked with numbers. They stood there and talked for ten minutes. Her name was Ines, and she told a funny story about her cat.

On Monday six people came. Somebody brought sugar. Somebody else brought a small radio that played old songs. The kitchen was too small for everybody, so people stood in the door.

The break got a name: "eleven o'clock coffee". It was never longer than fifteen minutes, but it changed the office. People who never spoke to each other suddenly had plans for the weekend.

Marisol learnt every name. She also learnt that the friendly man from the second floor was afraid of dogs. She also learnt who can fix a printer and who cannot.

In May the boss bought a new machine. She put it in the kitchen and said: "The break stays. It's good for the team." The machine was big and shiny, and it made a friendly noise.

Marisol kept the old kettle on the shelf. "We are going to need it again one day," she said, and everybody laughed. It stands there today, next to the sugar and the biscuits.

Now new colleagues get the same question on their first morning. "There is coffee. Would you like a cup?" Most of them say yes. That is how a team starts.