8/3/2019 The case of the disappearing teaspoons: longitudinal cohort study of the displacement of teaspoons in an Australia

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~ The case of the disappearing teaspoons: longitudinalcohort study of the displacement of teaspoons in anAustralian research institute

S C Lim, Margaret Hellard,Campbell Aitkenor Abstract Methods

Epidemiology andPopolationealth Objectives To determine the overall rate of loss of TIle Macfarlane Burnet b1Stitute or Medical Research~C:;~e Burnet workplace teaspoonsand whether attrition and and Public Health (Burnet b1Stitute) based inInstituteorMcwcal displacementare correlated with the relative value of Melbourne, employs about 140 people, The institute~~~i~e:;'~, the teaspoonsor type of tearoom, has eight tearooms; our are "programme linked"-thatGPO ox2284, Design Longitudinal cohort study. is, predominantly used by the staff of a singleMelbo~e, Setting Research nstitute employing about 140 programme-and four are communal: two are attachedVic"tona,3001, , , ,Ausb"alia people, to fonnal meetIng rooms, one IS a large mulupurposeMegan CLim Subjects 70 discreetlynumbered teaspoonsplaced n staff room, and one is a rather barren corridor withffltaTrlI is/ani tearooms around the institute and observedweekly kitchen facilities.M~t E Hellard over five months.d".aor ,CaInbellK Aitken Main outcome measures nadence of teaspoon ossSell;';esearchffirer per 100 teaspoon yearsand teaspoonh~ life, Pilot studyCon-espondencew: esults 56 (80%) of the 70 teaspoonsdisappeared Between 5 February 2004 and 18 June 2004 we~ K Aitken during the study.The half life of the teaspoonswas81 carried out a pilot study to gain an initial impressionaltken@burneledu,au d 'Th I aIf lifi f ' al f th f I th " dys, e 1 e 0 teaspoonsm commun 0 e manner 0 teaspoon oss at e tnsUtute an toB,"1J005;33:1498-5()0earooms (42 days)w.as i~cantly. shorter than for refine our methods tor the full study.We purchased 32those n rooms assoaatedW1tllparucular research plain stainless steel teaspoons, discreetly numberedgroups (77 days),The rate of loss wasnot influenced with red nail polish on the undersides of the handles,by the teaspoons' alue.The incidence of teaspoon and disuibuted into a subsetof the eight tearooms: 16loss over the period of observationwas 360,62 per in tlle prograInme linked tearooms and 16 in the~ 100 teaspoon years,At this rate, an estimated250 communal tearooms. We carried out a weekly auditteaspoonswould need to be purchasedannually to over five months to assess ny changes n the disuibu-maintain a practical nstitute-wide population of 70 tion of the teaspoons hroughout the institute.

teaspoons.Conclusions 'The oss of workplace easpoonswasrapid, showing that their availability,and hence office Main studyculture in general, s constantly hreatened At the completion of the pilot study we carried out alongitudinal cohort study, We purchased and num-bered a further 54 stainless teel easpoons.n adclitionIntroduction we purchased and discreetly numbered 16 teaspoons

, of higher quality. The teaspoons were disuibutedIn January 2004 the authors found their tearoom (stratified by spoon type) throughout the eightber,efi of ,teaspoons.Although a flunky (MSCL) was tearooms,with a Ingher proportion allocated to tl10serapIdly dispa~ched o, purchase a, n~ batch, these tearooms with the highest teaspoon osses n the pilotreplacementsm turn disappearedwIthin a few months, tudExaspeI'ated y our conseq~ent na?ility to stir in our s rwecarried out counts of the teaspoonsweekly orsugar and to accu~te~y dispense Ins~t c~tIee" V~ two months then fortnightly for a further threedecided o respond m Ume honoured epIde1ll1ologIsts h D kt d th ' edi tel '. blont s, es ops an 0 er I1T1ffi a y VISI efashion and measure the phenomenon.A ch f th di al d th '-'" surfaceswere scanned or errant spoons,sear 0 e me c an 0 er SaeI1W!C ,Ii th h G I G I S h I d Mter five months we revealed Otlr prevIously cov-terature roug ooge, ooge c 0 ar, an . th '" ,_lr Thedlin ' th k ds " "" "ert research project to e msUultes S..uL. ey weree usmg e eywor teaspoon. spoon," k I "" I " d " "" aled . thin asked to return or anonymously report any markedwor pace, oss an atmuon reve no g , ,b th I f t I Lackin teaspoons that had made their way mto desk drawersa out e p Ienomenon 0 easpoon oss. g any ,'d fr m pre 'ous reseal'chers we set out to or homes. Two days after the revelauon, staff wereglll ance 0 VI, '. ,answer the age old question "Where have all the ask.ed o comple~ea bn~ ane~ymous quesuonnaJre,bloody teaspoonsgone?"We aimed to determine the which dealt wIth theIr atUtudes towards andoverall rate of loss of teaspoonsand the halflife oftea~ knowledge of teaspoonsand teaspoon hefLspoons in our institute, whetlier teaspoonsplaced incommunal tearooms were ost at a different rate fromteaspoonsplaced n individual tearooms,and whetherbetter quality teaspoonswould be more attractive tof\ spoon shifters or be more highly valued and respected - Details of the statisticalanalysis nd tudyimitationsre nand therefore move and disappear more slowly, m+ bmj,com

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On the case("'"\ g. 1.00 Resultsof follow-up easpoon uestionnaire:5~ No (%)01 esponses~ Questions nd ossiblenswe~ (11=94)., 0.75 Haveouever tolen easpoon?~ Yes 38 (381~ 0.50 -"0--- ,; 58 (621'e !! ee, rom wI1ere?

8- Work 22 (81) 025~ . Schoolr university 11 (311Home 1 riend r elative" 13 (~)'0 Shop r stolW ~, , 8 (17)~ ~n'n~ ~~~~~~ ~~,~~~~~~~~ ~ ~. . " " , " " Pubr estaUranl 10(281

Time days) -Aeroplane 4 (111 ::=Have ou stoI8II taspoon In UIeput YeeI?Fig 1 Proportion f teaspoonsemaining y final earoomype - Yes 18 (181

No ' '78 (81)if yes,rom here?' ---Results -~ :..10 (58)Schoolr university 5 (28)After five months, 56 (80%) of 70 teaspoons had disap- ~!!!~!!!~! relaliv8'; 9 (SOlpeared lne half life of the teaspoons was 81 days (that Shop r stOIW 4 (221is, half had disappeared permanently after that time) --~~~~!_r~~!!!!, .." 8 (331

compared with 63 days in the pilot srndy. The type of _Aeroplane ;,:..., 2(111teal"oom in which spoons were initia1ly placed did S!e~!i~g~~oo~}.S: wrong:-.,;:_sr th f I Th t f h~ te Strongly gree 31 (331=ect e rate 0 oss. e amoun 0 "e a aspoonurvived in its final room did, however, vary Agree; 23 (241.gnifi tl ..,- final half I:" Unsure 15 (18)Sl can y accorcwlg to tearoom type:...e Disagree 13 (14)42 days for communal rooms (observed 28, expected St Iy d. 12 (13)

205) and 77 days for Pro~mme linked rooms --.!~-- lsagree ---. e- -- How atisfiedre ouwIIh eupoon overagen UIenstitute?(observed57, expected64.5,P

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r-\ Although tile scientific literature is strangely bereftof teaspoon related research, the phenomena we havedescribed are capable of interpretation using somewell known theoretical perspectives. For example, in

,,0 his classic essay The tragedy of the commons;' Garrett;~ Hardin describes the destruction of commons (grazing:;\ land open for all local cattle herders to use) o\\mg to", individualherdersgrazing xtra cattleat the expense::~~ of their community. If every herder takes the same) approacll, eventually the commons is completely over-, grazed and useless to everyone.

11le tragedy of the commons applies equally well toteaspoons. In the Burnet Institute the commonsconsists of a communally owned set of teaspoons; tea-spoon users (consciously or otherwise) make decisionsthat their own utility is improved by removing ateaspoon for personal use, whereas everyone else's teaspoons are an essential part of office life.utility is reduced by only a fi"action per head ("after all, Simultaneously, the rapid rate of teaspoon loss showsthere are plenty more spoons. . :').As more and more that tl1eir availability (and therefore office life) is underteaspoon users make the same decision, the teaspoon constant assault Teaspoon displacement and loss(:ommons is eventually destroyed The fact that leads to the use of forks, knives, and staplers to meas-teaspoons were lost significantly more rapidly from the ure out coffee and sugar, inevitably causllig aBUlnet Institllte's communal tearoonts (tile "com- reduction in employee satisfaction; in addition, largemons") compared with programme linked rooms, cor- amounts of time may be wasted searching forrelates neatly with Hardin's principle.. teaspoons, both factors leading to decreased. We prop?se a somewhat more speculative ~e~ry employee efficiency. The cost of maintaining a(WIth apolo~es to Douglas Adams ~d Veet VooJagIg). workable teaspoon population, estimated at nearly~ome-:vhere m the co~mos, al~n~ WIth ~ the pl~ets $AIOO (43; $75; E63) a year for the stlldy settinginhabIted by humanoids, reptilolds, walking treeolds, alone must also be considered We recommend thatand superintelligent shades of the colour blue, a planet new institllte.~ design their facilities so that pro-is entirely given over to spoon life-forms. Unattended e linked tearooms predominate over commu-Spoons make their way to this planet, slipping away nalrammt d th t . tI. . tI.tute .d, .. earooms an a eXlS ng illS s conSl erthrough space to a world where they enJoy a uruquely. ..d li 1 din hi hi renovationso reduce he nsk of teaspoonoss.Wespoonol estye, respon g to g y spoon .. ... d . ul. d erall I dinth also advISe that buymg teaspoons of higher qUality has"Cc' onente Stlln 1, an gen y ea g e spoon . .~,q~ . al fth d li 4 no economic benefit Fmally, we suggest that the,,;"~ eqUlv ent 0 e goo e. I f fli . I . th,.-,~ 0 da~ . ht al b te plat d thro gh the deve opment 0 e ectlve contro measures agamst ecl~ ur ... ffilg so e con m e u . . .prism of counterphenomenological resistentialism, loss of teaspoons should be a pnonty on nationalwhich holds that les chases sont contre ntnl.! (things are research agendas.a~st us):' Resistentialis~ is the belief that inanimate We hank the employees f tJleBurnet Institute for tJleir unwit-objects havea natural antipathy towards humans, and ting participation n this project and or the vigorous debate hattherefore it is not people who control things but things followed its revelation (partiallarly Tony Stewart); thosetllat increasingly control people. Although it seems employeeswho were awareof the study and contributed to itsunreasonable to say that the tea.~poons are exerting desi~ and conduct-Steve Wesselingh, IaI~ Co.oke, Gregan influence over the Burnet Institute's employees Battistel!a.aIld staff from tile Centre for Ep,demlolo.gyandr. . PopulationHealtl1Research; ndrew Symon or help with data(~~ he ex~eptlon oftl1~ authors), their demonstrated collectionJane Hocking for help with statistical analysis, Nickability to I11lgrate nd disappear shows hat we have Crqfts for introducing us to the delights of resistentialism, ndlittle or no control over them. WSM Surnmerskill or calling the biroid phenomenon to our

Future studies investigating the pattern of move- attention.ment and loss of other types of cutlery or other equip- Contributors:All authors contributed to the conception,design,ment (perhapseven more expensive or important than and managementof the study and to the preparation of thete ) uld .d b ad . tur fth h manuscript MSCL collected the data, which were analysed by allaspoons co proVl e a ro er piC eo e p e- th CKA 'd M. hi . d Iii au ors. ISguarantor.nomenon under Stll y. lcroC ppmg an sate te C .. N declared.. ompeting Interests: one .tracking systemswould have enableddeterrnmatlon of Etllical approval:Our studywasapprovedby the director of tJlethe teaspoons' ultimate location (assuming they Burnet Institute.remained on planet Earth).We have no reason to believe that beverage. . 1 M Tech Nature Conservation, Tshw.ne Onivenity ofTeclmoR'S)'. retori..production or consumption or any other teaspoon Sc>uthAfiia.Apnolimirl;IJ"yassessmentofthea""ervatimlstafiJ.,ofmaritlerelated activities at the Burnet Institute are significantly tW1lesn MCYI;"nbique,ww.lists.ufl,edu/cgi-birl/wa1A2=ind050I&l.=