How to Be Your Coworkers' Favorite Person
In my last post, I mentioned that I've just left my job at the grocery store. I have mixed emotions. While my newfound flexibility and freedom are wonderful, I'm going to miss work. My job gave me a sense of purpose and fulfillment in life, was an excuse to get out of the house even in the midst of lockdown, and provided a lot of entertainment along the way. Most of all, I'm going to miss the friends I made, with some of my customers but especially with my coworkers.
Which brings me to the topic of today's post. How do you make friends with your coworkers? Obviously, the golden rule is a good place to start. Treat them as you would want to be treated.
If you treat your coworkers to homemade chocolate chip cookies, you're guaranteed to become extremely popular at work. At least, it worked for me. Here's my foolproof recipe for the best chocolate chip cookies you've ever had:
1 cup butter (2 sticks)
2 eggs
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
2 3/4 cups unbleached white flour
2 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Farenheit.
Put the butter in your mixing bowl and microwave it until it's almost entirely melted-- about 1 minute, if it's straight out of the refrigerator. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs. Stir the eggs and sugar into the butter until thoroughly combined.
Add the dry ingredients and vanilla. Be sure to stir the flour thoroughly into the wet ingredients. At this point, the mixture should form a soft dough. Add the chocolate chips and mix them in until they're dispersed evenly throughout the dough. If you're one of those barbarians who likes nuts in your chocolate chip cookies, you can add them at this point. :) But keep in mind that some of your coworkers may have nut allergies.
Help yourself to a spoonful of the incredibly delicious dough. For medium sized cookies, drop the dough onto a cookie sheet about a tablespoon at a time, with at least an inch of space between them. Bake for fifteen minutes, then let cool before removing from the cookie sheet.
A single recipe yields 3 dozen medium-sized cookies and great joy on the part of your coworkers. Put them in the break room and watch them disappear.
