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I never thought I’d miss the dull routine of corporate life, but here I am, two years into working remotely, nostalgic for the weird, stifled interactions in hallways and break areas of my office. I miss bothering others with my banal thoughts. I miss curt, tight-lipped smiles flashed between you and the people you’ve only met in meetings. I also miss the deskside candy dish, the catalyst for so many of these endearing yet uncomfortable bursts of small talk.
In the office candy is the currency of social exchange, and the candy dish is a toll booth for the socially deprived. For menacing extroverts like me, having a deskside candy dish, piled high with tempting, brightly-wrapped gems, functions like an anglerfish’s glowing lure. You want a Mike and Ike? Go ahead, but it’ll cost you, at the very least, five seconds of courteous acknowledgement. If the dish ensnares a fellow extrovert, it can lead to several minutes of time-thieving conversation. At my old job I’d engage in candy dish talk with one colleague so regularly that her cubical neighbor once tweeted, “Chatty coworkers make me want to kill.” Lol!
You want to think carefully about your candy dish look: Its appearance has power in determining the kinds of social interactions you bait. A spectacular cut-crystal compote bowl will gleam across a cubicle farm, catching a wide range of unsuspecting cross-departmental victims. On the other hand, a more reserved dish, perhaps with a lid, will limit exchanges to “those in the know,” and people who are brave enough to ask.
We’ll be returning to the office (or RTO in obligatory opaque corporatespeak) in February. While many are understandably reluctant about the idea of resuming office life after two years of figuring-it-out-as-we-go remote working, I’m plotting how I’ll coax passersby with little morsels of dopamine. Of course, the candy contained in said candy dish will be individually wrapped for public health reasons, but the promises of idle chitchat will be all the same.
And even if you’re working remotely or staying holed up for the foreseeable future, a candy dish has a place at home as well. Valentine’s Day is a nice excuse to keep some candy around and to buy a candy dish to keep it in. And in the dull days of winter, brightening your at-home desk space—or your living room or entryway—with a sugary offering could be just the thing to beat the blues. Maybe you’ll be the only one eating it for now, but the promise of future candy-instigated chatter, whether it’s in the office or an at-home dinner party, just might carry you through February. Find a few favorites below.
