The Death of the Water-Cooler Moment
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by Danny Chadburn
Del Boy falling through the bar in Only Fools And Horses, the tear-jerking climax of Blackadder Goes Forth, elephant Lulu making a mess of the Blue Peter studio, Jeremy Paxman asking Michael Howard the same question over and over on Newsnight, Den serving Angie with divorce papers in EastEnders on Christmas Day - key events many of us will remember from TV history, which no doubt sparked mass workplace discussion the following day.
A 'water-cooler moment' is described on dictionary.com as “a segment in a television or radio program that is controversial, shocking, or exciting enough to be discussed the next day, especially in the workplace around the water-cooler.”
TV-on-demand, Sky+, cheap DVDs and streaming Internet television have all meant that the chances colleagues will watch the same programmes at the same time are pretty slim, so are we heading towards the end of debates around the big TV topics of the day?
Ask the co-workers around you now if they watched the same show you did last night. I’m certain you would have got a better response when there were only four channels to choose from.
Programmes such as Big Brother and X-Factor can still capture audiences who relish the opportunity to discuss their views on their favourite (and most hated) contestants. For anyone who has missed out on “that bloke making a fool out of himself again”, a quick Internet search will most likely lead to a video clip so you can catch up on the action.
Key sporting moments will always keep their place as mass viewed and debated events, with some companies using them as a chance to get their team together and boost internal morale.
For those of us who are left in the dark when it comes to ‘popular culture’, there are countless places to share your views or grind your axe, most notably Internet forums and chat-rooms. If you want to chat about the last frame thriller in the snooker you watched last night but nobody in the office is in the slightest bit interested, type “snooker forum” into Google and you’re instantly in touch with thousands of people you can debate with till your heart’s content. Or at least until your lunch hour is over!
General workplace relationships don’t seem to have deteriorated due to this reduction in common interests, so what has it been replaced by?
A simple one word answer – email.
Games, pictures, YouTube links, jokes and countless other Internet phenomena are sent in their millions across offices every day – your bosses may not like it, but there’s very little they can do to stop it happening. Placing blocks on certain email attachments and content is an option used by many IT departments, but as these limitations can affect your ability to get on with your job efficiently, this can cause more problems than solutions.
So if you want a quick break from the grindstone to chat with your colleagues, you’re more likely to get a reaction asking “have you seen the Numa Numa video?” than “did you see that programme on BBC2 last night?” Sites such as digg.com, del.icio.us, and stumbleupon.com are all useful tools to keep you up to date with the latest e-news.
