Reader question:

What does this sentence – Now, these are not events that will create crowds at water coolers – mean? Particularly, "water coolers"?

My comments:

That sentence means "these events" will not draw much interest from people. Water coolers stand for gossip.

How come? Well, the water coolers are the place where office workers come to fetch cold water during office hours. Here colleagues meet and what do they do? They chatter¹. They say hey, how are you doing, haven't seen you for awhile and stuff like that. And of course they talk about the weather, promotions², bosses and their secretaries... That's how water coolers come to stand for gossip at the workplace.

Next time you hear water cooler (or watercooler, water-cooler) gossip, you know it's just chatter at the water coolers. It is American English – in China, especially in big organizations in the old days, more often we see water heaters instead, or boilers³, 锅炉房, 水房that is.

No water heaters or boilers though when you speak English, only water coolers. Here are examples:

1. BOOK VALUE; Learning to CelebrateWater-Cooler Gossip

Laurence Prusak and Don Cohen, two lifelong students of business learning, are champions of the chance encounter. They believe that people in business learn most effectively (and most often) from their colleagues, typically in unplanned exchanges that are as likely to occur on a staircase as in a conference room.

Most vitally, they say, newcomers adapt like pups entering a pack. They absorb a company's values and identity from experienced colleagues, who speak with unmatched credibility. Bonding happens over beers after work.

In their earnest new book, "In Good Company: How Social Capital Makes Organizations Work" (Harvard Business School Press, $27.50), Mr. Prusak and Mr. Cohen make a familiar case that successful businesses rely on foundations of trust, commitment and community. The book's novelty and appeal lie in the loving attention to the power of commonplace conversations and everyday life.

- New York Times, February 25, 2001.

2. MSU Psychologist Takes Workplace Romance from Water Coolers to Scientific Journals

Ah, spring. Time for a young man's heart to turn to ... the woman sitting at the next computer.

According to one of the foremost scientists studying such workplace romances, that may not be such a bad thing.

Charles A. Pierce, a professor of psychology⁴ at Montana State University-Bozeman specializing in industrial and organizational psychology, says scientific data shows workplace romances can result in productive employees. Instead of a blanket policy forbidding them, Pierce recommends workplace romances be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

"In certain circumstances, workplace romances can be okay. In fact, they can be beneficial," Pierce said. "Employees often channel romantic energy to work tasks. They bring enthusiasm and energy to their work."

As one of the few psychologists in the country studying workplace romance, Pierce is taking workplace romance out of the realm of water cooler gossip and into the pages of scientific journals. The MSU professor's work has recently appeared in a number of scholastic⁵ publications, including a recent article in the Journal of Organizational Behavior.

- www.montana.edu, May 3, 1996.

3. White House used 'gossip' to build case for war

The controversy⁶ in America over pre-war intelligence has intensified⁷, with revelations that the Bush administration exaggerated the claims of a key source on Iraq's alleged⁸ weapons of mass destruction, despite repeated warnings before the invasion that his information was at best dubious⁹, if not downright wrong.

...

But by summer 2002, his claims had been thrown into grave doubt. Five senior BND officials told the newspaper they warned the CIA that Curveball never claimed to have been involved in germ weapons production, and never saw anyone else do so. His information was mostly vague, secondhand and impossible to confirm, they told the Americans – "watercooler gossip" according to one source.

- Independent, UK, November 21, 2005.