The labels on the shared mugs

Text: an original contemporary workplace-essay-style practice extract.

The kitchen shelf held twelve mugs with names underneath. I assumed the names told us who owned them. On my first morning, I used the mug labelled Helen because Helen was away. A colleague explained that it was the mug Helen had donated, not the one she had reserved. Then she took a different mug from the shelf and said nobody used that one because its handle was loose.

None of these rules appeared on the shelf. The regular staff knew which names described gifts, which mug needed care and which large cup belonged to the person who had brought it that morning. They called the arrangement simple because they seldom had to explain it. I spent the week asking questions that seemed excessive only to people who already knew the answers.

We added a small card saying which mugs were shared and removed the damaged one. The shelf did not become a complicated system. A little of its existing complication became visible. By Friday, I could offer a visitor tea without first apologising for being new.

In this extract, the writer tries to show how an apparently simple arrangement can depend on unspoken knowledge.

Evaluate how successfully this is achieved. Support your views with detailed reference to the extract.