Deep Freeze!

I should probably be blogging about this ‘after’ my next blog regarding the transition (in its entirety) from home office to commercial premises however it bugged me so much, I couldn’t wait! This blog is about a fridge!

So generally how a commercial lease works is you have your rent each month plus you have outgoings which are things like general upkeep of the actual building, maintenance, cleaning and security of the common areas (you pay separately for these for your own office). On our floor, in the Highpoint Building at Erina, there are four offices sharing one kitchen. In that kitchen, there’s a fridge – the kind that a single person would probably own, cupboard space, space for a dishwasher – without one in it – a sink and a hot water unit. It’s nothing flash and we pretty much have to maintain it ourselves bar the bin emptying, but the annoying thing about the kitchen is the fridge.

The fridge, as I mentioned, is typically one that a single person would need and use so its not very big, particularly for four offices and its not in the best condition. There is only one workable shelf in the main part of the fridge and only one rail in the shelving within the fridge door. So after putting up with it for a good part of the year, I decided to contact the real estate to advise that it probably needed replacing. The real estate was very compliant and advised they would contact the landlord and get it resolved.

You can imagine my surprise when a few weeks later, a bar fridge was delivered and inserted into the space where the dishwasher would normally go. Okay, its a workaround solution but as tenants of a pricey commercial premises paying outgoings etc weren’t we entitled to a new fridge or at least a second hand workable one? Okay and just quietly, I did want a nice shiny stainless steel one but anything would have been better than what we currently had. I spent the next week staring at the bar fridge, cursing it and telling myself I was going to refuse to use it. Upon further investigation, my office neighbours (Big Click Studios) and I worked out that the offending bar fridge wasn’t even working – it was plugged in but there was nothing, no cooling, no ice in the freezer compartment, nothing!

So back to the real estate I went with a definite bee in my bonnet and advised accordingly. They then advised they would contact the landlord again.

To my surprise (again), a few weeks later, I had a visit from my landlords Secretary who asked me to show her the bar fridge. Strange in itself considering it is the only bar fridge in the kitchen. Off we went to peruse the offending bar fridge and confirm that it indeed wasn’t working. I took the opportunity to voice my confusion as to why the main fridge just wasn’t being replaced although that was greeted with a shrug. Nonetheless, a few days later, the said Secretary came back to the office to advise me that the non-working bar fridge had been replaced with another one. I totally lost it! I asked why it was being replaced when the big fridge should be the one to be replaced? The reply “But it works”.

This may seem long a long-winded blog about nothing but its the principle of the thing. Commercial leasing is quite high at the best of times plus outgoings and every other expense that goes along with renting an office so I did not see the sense in just adding to a problem rather than fixing it. My conclusion was, it was a cheaper way of fixing the problem. It wasn’t about the fridge(s), it was all about the money!