Figure 1: Management Cookies.
I love having young engineers on my team. I also love cookies and we occasionally have cookies at some of our meetings – people might not attend otherwise, including me. However, our cookie selection is generally not particularly inspired.
One day was different. For a meeting of managers, someone stopped by a bakery and bought some serious cookies (Figure 1). Far more cookies were bought than the managers could eat and, after the meeting, the excess cookies were placed in our lunch room for anyone to eat. One of our young engineers, seeing the plate of exceptional cookies, exclaimed, "Where did these cookies come from?" The manager who placed the plate of cookies in the lunch room was standing near this young lad and said, with a straight face, "Those are management cookies."
Figure 2: Oliver Asking For More.
A sad look came over the young engineer's his face and he asked very seriously, "Can I have some management cookies?" We all broke out laughing. He sounded like the title character in "Oliver Twist" asking "Please, sir, I want some more".
Now, whenever we have cookies there is always someone who asks, "Are they management cookies?"