Food Fight

A common practice for any financial sales & trading group is to provide a steady stream of free food for the staff. Our group is no exception. This is done primarily to induce traders and other staffers to remain on the floor during trading hours. Each day has its own designated offering. For example, Monday is fresh fruit and yogurt day. Without question, the most coveted of these daily offerings is the Thursday bagel spread, i.e., "Hol(e)y Thursday". Every type of bagel you can imagine with all of the fixings including cream cheese and veggies. Every Thursday morning, I dash over to the bagel table and grab one of the highly-desired Asiago cheese bagels, tossing it immediately into the toaster oven. It has become a weekly ritual. This morning, however, I was alarmed to find, as were the three other early birds, that the vendor had omitted the Asiago bagels. Consciously or unconsciously, what began as a simple gripe amongst the four of us soon developed into a conspiracy of organized dissent and was building towards an all out revolt "to topple the current regime". Sure, office politics is oftentimes petty and counterproductive. But these are toasted cheese bagels damnit! As I have learned in my management courses, motivation in the workplace is a fragile thing. It often hangs by a thread. Or in this case, a strand of Asiago cheese. Expect a revolution next Thursday if the Asiago fails to reappear.