I have now seen lack of common sense and courtesy rise to a new level in regard to the office coffee station: someone today took an iced-tea bag and put it on top of old coffee grounds, then brewed it into the half-full coffee pot.
For this occasion, laziness (throwing the bag on top of the old grounds) actually combined seamlessly with stupidity (not realizing this was a filter bag containing iced tea). This cannot even be categorized as average stupidity, since the iced tea filter bags are located two cabinets away from the coffee pot, in a drawer with a box obviously labeled with the Lipton Tea logo. Coffee filters and coffee bags are stored in the drawers directly under the coffee pot. Beyond all this, there are SIGNS posted above the coffee pot giving specific instruction on filters, coffee, and brewing!
Once I discovered the "coff-tea" (after filling my cup, I immediately got the unmistakable whiff of tea-odor), I considered for a moment whether I should leave it there as a sort of social experiment: 1) Will people actually drink, even enjoy, the coff-tea? 2) Will someone eventually take the action necessary to dump it out, rinse the pot, and make normal coffee? or 3) Will the coff-tea stay there through the day, with people recognizing it as undrinkable, but doing nothing?
I broke down and took care of the problem myself, of course; not necessarily because I wanted a cup of coffee that badly, but because it just seemed wrong to let the mutant coff-tea hang around. My friendly co-workers are always reminding me that I should help people out of their ignorant state; as a precaution against a repeat creation of the offensive liquid, I left a coffee filter and a bag of coffee right out on the counter next to the pot. Hopefully people will see this and a light bulb will pop over their head like "Oh! That's what coffee looks like!.
What we really need is a security camera in the breakroom (or even just one of those 'fake' security cameras that isn't a camera at all, just something to make people think they are under scrutiny). We could see who flings the sugar all over, who rocks and kicks the vending machine, and most of all---who brews the coff-tea.