Caught red-handed

In one corner of the office there is a drinking water fountain for staff use. There is no dedicated person to refill the empty bottle. I know for a fact that nobody likes to mount a full 5-gallon bottle onto the stand because it is quite heavy and you have to grasp the bottle tightly with two hands.

In the past the admin girls were the ones who would replace the empty bottles with the new refills. But after a while the girls started complaining why they were the ones to do the heavy work when everyone was using it. Now the practice is for the last person who use up the water should remove the empty 5-gallon bottle and replace with a new refill.

This morning I went to the water fountain to refill my personal bottle with water. After I finished I noticed that there was still a bit of water left and it didn't occur to me that I should be the one to replace the almost empty bottle with a new canister.

"Mr Ng you forgot to refill the empty bottle," a female staff said as I walked away from the fountain. Clearly this lady was patrolling the area waiting to catch someone to refill the fountain.

"OK I'll refill the water fountain," I replied and promptly went to the pantry to look for the new stock of bottles. It took a while to mount the new bottle as it was quite heavy.

At first I was a little bit irritated that I was caught red-handed by the lady. Then on further reflection I realised that it was all my fault. I was acting selfish and inconsiderate, behaving like most people in the office, always expecting others to do the work.