team player.

I learned the importance of restocking early and often when I was waiting tables. I also learned the importance of balance, charm, and efficiency, and all of these skills have helped me in my post-server life. But who knew that restocking had anything to do with being a software engineer?

As a waitress, restocking is important as a part of a team. If you have a second to refill the creamers or cut more lemons, you should do it. Period. Because later, there won't be time for silly things like refilling creamers, because there's not even time for important things like taking orders or delivering food to increasingly hungry and angry customers. You will appreciate yourself later. What's more, your coworkers will appreciate it. They will think that you are a Team Player, and they will be more likely to do their own restocking in an effort to help you out. I know I'm getting all pre-game pep talk on you, but you should always restock. Also give 110%.

Restocking is not important as a software engineer per-se. In fact, it only comes into play in the kitchen of my company, where the free soft drinks live. Some of them live in the refrigerator, and some of them are on the refrigerator waiting list, living on the floor off to the side, huddled together in groups of six. Obviously, when someone wants a drink, they take it from the fridge. Drinks taste better when they're cold, or at least the cold covers up their flaws.

When a software engineer takes the last Dr. Pepper from the fridge, what should he do? Would would he do, if he were a Team Player?

Sadly, I do not work with Team Players. Well, not in terms of the fridge. They're actually great Team Players when it comes to getting software done, but not in keeping a steady supply of frosty beverages. I probably shouldn't complain about the far less important matter. Maybe it's all those years of restocking creamers, but an empty fridge drives me nuts.

For a while, I would faithfully restock the fridge every afternoon. It was lovely. There were always plenty of drinks for any taste. I didn't just refill the Dr. Peppers, I would refill the Diet Cokes and the Sunkists and the root beers, because I am a Team Player. But I gave up, because I was obviously the only one who gave a crap. No one else bothered to even refill the drinks they liked, much less the drinks they didn't care for. So I quit my daily restocking ritual to leave them to their lukewarm sodas. That'll teach 'em.

It didn't. Rather than someone else becoming conscientious, the fridge became something you might see in a bachelor pad. Occasionally someone would restock, but he would do so by taking an entire 24 pack of Coke and shoving them wherever they fit. That is called Looking Out For #1, and it is the antithesis of being a Team Player.

Yesterday afternoon, I sighed and gave in. The constant disarray of the refrigerator was driving me even more nuts and I realized that restocking was a pretty stupid thing to get worked up over in software. Fine, you win. You shall have a well-stocked fridge. There will be cold beverages for everyone. No one will appreciate or help me or even notice that someone had to put the cherished Diet Mountain Dew in the fridge for it to be cold in their hot little hands. But I will do it anyway, because I am a Team Player.