Sometimes when a consultant is at the client site, he (or she) may need their afternoon coffee fix. And since you don’t want to take off looking for the nearest coffee shop, because your client is paying for you by the hour, you have no choice but to head on over to the kitchen area to forage for a cup of drip.
If your client happens to be a big technology firm who shall remain anonymous for certain reasons, then you’re in luck since they have some halfway decent machines that grind and brew your coffee as you wait. And they also have real milk, a bait, 2% but that’s better than nothing. They also have plenty of latte options in the various cafeterias scattered across their various campuses and buildings. But if you have your ordinary everyday client, then you sort of cross your fingers when you come to the kitchen during the first day site tour. As the client ‘proudly’ shows you around the kitchen. There will usually be the coffee pot and some no name brand of coffee grounds… or even worse, instant coffee…
One thing you find pretty commonly at many offices are the creamers. You have your liquid creamers that try to be gourmet with names and flavors like Irish Cream (for those of you who want some alcoholic flavored coffee), almond and French Vanilla. I’m sorry, who on earth came up with this idea of adding such contaminates to coffee?
Yet in the consulting world, the use of these signal desperate times. You know, those times when you have not other options other than what is available in the kitchen
What I have learned is if I will be working out of a certain office for a while, I will buy whole milk and leave that in the fridge. The added benefit of using whole milk is that most of the folk in the office most likely will not drink whole milk due to the ‘high’ fat content. I tell you, they don’t know what the are missing…
