The case of the disappearing teaspoons: longitudinal cohort study of the displacement of teaspoons in an Australian research institute
BMJ 2005; 331 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.331.7531.1498 (Published 22 December 2005) Cite this as: BMJ 2005;331:1498All rapid responses
Rapid responses are electronic comments to the editor. They enable our users to debate issues raised in articles published on bmj.com. A rapid response is first posted online. If you need the URL (web address) of an individual response, simply click on the response headline and copy the URL from the browser window. A proportion of responses will, after editing, be published online and in the print journal as letters, which are indexed in PubMed. Rapid responses are not indexed in PubMed and they are not journal articles. The BMJ reserves the right to remove responses which are being wilfully misrepresented as published articles or when it is brought to our attention that a response spreads misinformation.
From March 2022, the word limit for rapid responses will be 600 words not including references and author details. We will no longer post responses that exceed this limit.
The word limit for letters selected from posted responses remains 300 words.
Dear Editor,
The importance of refreshment facilities (most commonly for tea/coffee making) in workplaces, and especially communal refreshment areas, has been contentious for decades. Some have concluded that they create unnecessary wastage of employee time and productivity, encourage sloth and procrastination, and incur undue costs on the employer (the cost of teaspoon loss and replacement is an example). Indeed, the closure of such communal facilities in NHS hospitals (historically known as the ‘Drs’ Mess’) have shown a significant change in working behaviours and productivity, with almost total eradication of computer-gaming and television-driven time-wastage during Junior Drs’ working hours.
However, in the modern social climate, Healthcare must continue to show at least an outward appearance of ‘compassion’ to its own human workers. Hence the drive for NHS providers to cooperate with external businesses to provide High Street-quality refreshment and dining facilities, at the employees’ own cost, whilst providing financial benefits to the hosting hospitals.
The findings of this study provide concrete evidence of the cost benefits of controlling workplace environments and facilities, and the authors are to be lauded in their endeavours.
Competing interests: Ambitions to rise through NHS/Healthcare management. All opinions expressed are solely to impress future bosses and to climb the management ladder as quickly as possible, and bear no resemblance to my personal opinions or policies in any way.
I have just come upon this article having worked in my present
building for the best part of a year, with common tea room facilities
shared amongst some thirty different and independent tenants with an
estimated hundred or so staff. My experiences suggest that the previously
postulated One Spoon Effect (Rapid Response, 12 Jan 2006) is a factor
which should be better researched and understood for its implications in
the subject study.
When I commenced at the start of 2008, the supply of teaspoons had
been completely replenished with fresh spoons, all older spoons being
removed (more about them later). Spoon retention conditions seemed
favourable, in that offices in the building are fairly sparse and
uncluttered, the only washing facility for spoons in the building was in
the kitchen where the spoons initially came from, and washing duties were
undertaken for all tenants by the landlord's staff, who (presumably) could
be relied upon to restock spoons once washed. Over the course of a few
months, however, a hundred spoons had dwindled to a half dozen.
However, at this point, the Tragedy of the Commons Effect seemed to
come undone, as suggested by the proponent of the One Spoon Theory. While
people still used spoons, they were generally quite diligent in their
return, knowing how few spoons were left, and attrition almost ceased. In
each case thereafter where spoons did disappear permanently, within two to
three days previously missing spoons, themselves considered permanently
lost, reappeared. When the landlord, noting the low numbers of spoons and
the complaints received, recently reintroduced the old spoons (which had
been stored in a box "just in case"), spoon attrition immediately
recommenced, returning the group to the equilibrium of six spoons within
barely two weeks. The unsatisfactory number of spoons per head (resulting
in frequently missing out on a spoon) and the high levels of
dissatisfaction with the prevailing situation seem to combine to reinforce
the awareness of spoon users of the need to ensure their timely return.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests
It is not clear why the topic of disappearing teaspoons has again
been raised. The initial article on this topic was in your Christmas
edition of BMJ in 2005 . The most recent input to this debate, other than
from “john q publick” this week, was in a rapid response to the BMJ of Jan
29, 2008. These responses can hardly be regarded as “rapid” and I am
suspicious that the proximity of Dec 25 is relevant. Is “john q publick”
a pseudonym, he does not identify his location or his affiliation, if any.
In order to record his contribution I highlighted the text and requested
“copy” and then “paste”. The result was 41 pages containing 67 rapid
responses on this topic of disappearing teaspoons! I extended my search to
Goggle with 53100 hits and to Google Scholar with 3680 hits. A search of
Medline for “teaspoons” provides no hits but the BMJ website identifies 6
relevant publications, all selected from the 67 rapid responses to the
2005 article.
My activity identifies several problems. One is the excessive use of paper
to print a single response, as all “rapid responses” on that topic are
printed. Another is the failure of a search of the bmj website or of
medline to locate many of the rapid responses submitted; although these
can be reached by using the links provided from articles or letters
appearing in the print version of the BMJ. The third is the failure of
contributors to the problem of disappearing teaspoons to appreciate the
possible contribution of case reports to elucidate this unsolved problem
that is resisting a range of statistical approaches. These problems are
unimportant when the topic is teaspoons but attention to them might help
readers with topics of greater importance. Those interested in
disappearing teaspoons may wish to consider a case report:
In Bristol in 1976 a fatality among the livestock of the Professor of
Medicine was initially unexplained. The dead pig was transferred to the
University Department of Veterinary Science for an autopsy. The post-
mortem diagnosis was a perforated bowel, penetrated by a teaspoon. The
handle of the teaspoon was marked “Royal Bristol Children’s Hospital”.
The initial suspicion was larceny by a senior member of the academic
staff. I am pleased to record that a more credible explanation was
available. The Professor on his route home regularly collected discarded
food from the Children’s Hospital - to supplement the dietary intake of
his pigs. This “index” case should direct any serious workers in this area
of scientific enquiry to careful searches of garbage . Careful “field”
studies of garbage may establish that teaspoons lost may equal teaspoons
in the garbage.
I now live in Melbourne, the source of the original “Christmas”
report of the disappearing teaspoons, and I could offer practical help if
there is a decision to pursue this avenue of investigation. I may,
however, be too busy preparing future alternative topics for publication
in Christmas editions of the BMJ. I consider that disappearing teaspoons
have had enough attention.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests
It is necessary in any serious research involving the witting or
unwitting actions of humans to eliminate some few variables known to exist
in culturally reinforced rule-based social settings, such as the workplace
your sterling project was carried out in.
One of the few flaws this researcher has noted is the lack of
elimination of these variables, chief among which is the well-known
'borrowing effect'. While admittedly a subset of the Tragedy of the
Commons this effect is magnified greatly in the burrow-like settings of
office life, to the extent that it becomes the dominant wiggly line on
your x/y-axis diagram, tossing its weight around and forcing all the other
variables to shift with it.
In brief, the 'Borrowing Effect' is the subconscious intent to "just
use [object] for [vague time value] and then bring it back". If the B.E.
(Borrowing Effect) is multiplied by the 'Delayed Good Intentions' response
(amount of [object] x [length of study], divided by the '(Varied) Mind-
Numbing Ego-Blows' ) the result is the mean number of [object] that would
have been part of the 'disappeared' whole, i.e.;
BE(o x vtv) x DGI(n(o) x (los)/(v)mneb) = [o]/'d'
It might also be noted that the effects of other variables such as
'now what did I do with...' or 'hey, that's mine!' were also not noted
within the stated research parameters. Overall, however, this researcher
finds that the team did a commendable job given limited budgets and
staffing considerations.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests
I think that all contributors are missing the obvious. They are
simply taking Annual Leave. This must be the case because they usually
come back. Not very scientific but then neither am I
Competing interests:
None
Competing interests: No competing interests
I have noticed spoons on display in second hand shops. It is my
theory that these shops are actually a front for the black market
distribution of spoons and explains the regular disappearance of spoons
from our tea room.
Sorry.......I have to go. Two men with dark sunglassses and overcoats have just turned up.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests
Clearly Departmental budgets would be best served if, upon
appointment, employees were issued with a personal teaspoon, etched with
their name, and furnished with a key ring attachment via a hole in the
handle. Alternatively the spoon could itself function as a key "ring".
Lost spoons should be replaced at the owner's expense. Prominent
individuals should be entitled to higher quality spoons, with gold ones
given as momentoes when long-serving employees retire.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests
A simple problem deserves a simple solution - issue every employee
with a teaspoon on commencement of their working life with the
organisation concerned, ensuring their name is engraved thereon. Before
they can receive their final pay when leaving the organisation they have
to hand in their teaspoon. If they should lose the article they would have
to replace it with an unengraved teaspoon in order to be paid their final
pay.
This may have some unwanted outcomes, such as a total decline in the
production of teaspoons which may result in significant job losses.
However One expects the desired outcomes would at least be met: viz.
full availability of individual teaspoons for stirring; reducing errant
behaviour across the workforce; ensuring proper distribution of milk
and/or sweetener through, for the most part, the desired legal drug-laden
refreshment; a drastic reduction in the endless teaspoon-related jibes
experienced in the tea room - of any variety etc. etc.).
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests
I have been responsible for the maintenance of our office's coffee
club for approximately three years, and I was surprised to see a
scientific article published upon this phenomenon. I'm thrilled to see
that this was not a unique experience, however, I have several comments to
add to the authors' studies.
I did lose a metal spoon, not once, but twice, from our club's
possession. Not having kept records, I can't state absolutely, but I'm
pretty certain that our spoonlife was much longer. As I said, our spoon
disappeared twice. On the first occasion, emails were sent out to
everyone, and after many weeks, it surfaced in the women's rest room. It
was thoroughly sanitized, to be safe, and restored to its rightful place,
where it remained for a shorter spoonlife before permanently evaporating
to parts unknown. Its replacement has been with us for approximately two
human years, but I've taken the measure of chaining it down.
I totally agree with the value of the spoon having no effect upon
spoonlife. We also have two plastic spoons (one for sugar, one for
powdered creamer) that have been with us for unusually long spoonlives,
but occasionally one will wander off to happier haunts, never to
resurface.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests
Re: The case of the disappearing teaspoons: longitudinal cohort study of the displacement of teaspoons in an Australian research institute
Dear Editor,
At my small business (two engineers, two technicians, a secretary and a dog) we also suffer teaspoon loss.
The fact that this can be controlled was shown by the fact that, when secretary Jennifer's grapefruit spoon (similar to a teaspoon but with a serrated edge) went missing she refused to process salaries until it was found. No less than six teaspoons (only one of which was the grapefruit spoon) were recovered.
However, teaspoon loss continues. This is made more puzzling by the fact that no office worker uses sugar, and coffee is provided by a machine. Consequently stirring is unnecessary.
Competing interests: No competing interests