What does pizza have to do with drawing solutions?

Our lubricant supplier for the drawing machine solutions likes to bring in some pizzas for the plant. I’m not inherently opposed to pizza. In fact, I like a few pieces of pizza from time to time. I’m not inherently opposed to promoting goodwill between the customer and supplier. However, this past week, I was left wondering, “What does pizza have to do with drawing solutions?”

Recently, I had asked this particular supplier if any elevated temperature studies had been performed using their products. Most of our production (90%) ends up being processed at elevated temperatures. My review of the literature left many question marks flashing in my mind regarding the stability and reactivity of components within these products at elevated temperatures. They indicated that no one in the industry has completed these analyses. They also said that they have five chemists. Basically, this translated in my mind, “How dare you even suggest our product could pose problems at elevated temperatures because we have five chemists. Because we have five chemists, why would we even think about doing elevated temperature studies?”

So meanwhile, I’m back in my makeshift lab conducting elevated temperatures studies when this smell starts permeating into the room. It is the smell of pizza. I hear the representative socializing with one of our maintenance workers (I’m not sure what that has to do with lubricants either). This is frustrating. So I make a request: “Why don’t you use our ‘pizza fund’ as the start of a research and development project for the products that we buy?”