Slashdot Mirror
Need A Few Post-Its Around The Office?
An anonymous reader writes "Like every company, we have an office prankster. So, whenever anything goes wrong -- say, your chair starts making unusual noises or your CD tray starts popping out for no reason, invariably you'll look up and see Dave, our esteemed leader, grinning foolishly at his handywork. So really, Damon shouldn't have been surprised when he came into the office one otherwise-normal Monday morning to find this. Nor should James have been surprised when he showed up early one morning to this birthday surprise. It certainly keeps us on our toes." Ah, the joys of not telecommuting ...
NOW I see why outsourcing to India is so much cheaper...
'Nuff said.
Mix the failings of Usenet with the shortcomings of the World Wide Web and the result is slashdot.
http://www.do-not-sleep.com/images/priceless.jpg
Boss : Uhh Dave, what was the quotation from India
....uhh I got it on a postit somewhere..
........
again..?
Dave:
Boss :
1) Wasn't done on work time, at least not creating the messes. The clean-up wasn't so bad for the balloons, evidently. Can't eb so sure about the Post-Its.
2) A good manager sees the value of good clean fun, and knows that it can be a morale booster in moderation. Happy workers == productive workers.
± 29 dB
Yup, Bill*, the network guy, is sure going to be surprised when he comes in this morning and finds that he's been thoroughly slashdotted! Post-It notes, balloons, HTTP GET....
*Simulated employee name
...
Now try finding the one he stuck under his desk that has his admin password on.
'Don't worry' said the trees when they saw the axe coming, 'The handle is one of us.'
I use to work for HP and they were no fun.. :( and any messing and you were out.. - well I live in the EU so it not that easy to fire me. :)
but my employer before HP saw that sort of messing good fun as long as the work was done and noboady or anything was dammaged...
I think its realy important to have a good laught in work it helps keep the stress levels way down...
is that why I am starting my own business.. ?
He was a great sport about it and is currently planning his pay back... :)
/.ing the server :) The admin won't like this ;)
Seems like he chose
We attached bungee ropes to his swivel chair, and arranged it so that when he sat down, he'd go whizzing across the floor.
It was really funny when he went through the window, landed, and went whizzing down the road.
Wonder if he's also planning payback for having his email inbox full of spam after having it posted on the website?
I find that the ol' gun to the head makes my employees much more productive than any amount of "fun".
Game... blouses.
Bosses who don't allow it usually find themselves with companies that fail. Sure, workers should be productive, but if you as an employer try and make the workplace into something too rigid and constraining, your employees will be demoralized and will not function as well as in a more relaxed enviroment. I know that you might be thinking of a company which is at the other end of the spectrum - where very little work is done, and it's true that that is not a desirable situation. The truth is, though, that the optimum level lies somewhere inbetween.
You have to allow a certain amount of goofing around, you have to arrange company braais (BBQs for you American folks), go-karting, bowling, golf, horse-riding, etc. What you want is for your employees to get along with you and with eachother. If you don't allow that to happen, your employees will either not care about what they are supposed to be doing, or try in vain to do what they are supposed to be doing in an enviroment that they hate. Noone wins.
Now a whole lot of people will say: "But the employer has the power! They can outsource! Your job is not safe! As an employee you have no right to complain!". That's true, to a certain extent. But remember: If an employer was thinking of outsourcing, it probably wouldn't make a difference how well you were or were not performing, the key factor to companies that outsource is saving money and increasing profit margins at all costs. They will learn in time that quality products do make a difference, however, and will be back at square one. I've dealt with outsourcing first hand, and there are pros and cons to it, like with anything. In reality, what most companies will probably end up doing is outsourcing things that make sense to outsource, and bring things that make little sense to outsource back to the physical office. So that "but you'll be outsourced" argument goes out the window.
As for people having no right to complain and being forced to be happy that they have a job at all, this might be true for a lot of people in the current economy, but it still doesn't mean that slave-driving will produce good results. You'll end up with an employee-base that really hates working at the company, and every time you fire someone and get someone new in, the same thing will happen. They will start detesting their working conditions and perhaps even deliberately go on go-slows or worse.
Both employers and employees have to find a balance in the work enviroment. Employees must understand that they can't party at work and goof off for 6 hours a day, and employers must understand that trying to impose draconian rules and policies will not benefit them in the long run.
Those post-its remind me of a scene from the movie "Bruce Almighty" about an hour into the film. Bruce decides to 'hear' all the prayers in post-it note form and the result puts James and Damon to shame. It's interesting how striking a common office/household item can be when displayed in large quantities like that.
That is awesome, got to love your friends eh :) Reminds me of that friend that covered his friend's apartment in tinfoil.
/. gets to them.m ons_off ice/e s_offi ce/
Um yeah here is a mirror if the wrath of
http://catsdorule.torpedobird.com/slash/da
http://catsdorule.torpedobird.com/slash/jam
Sometimes you drink something because you are thirsty. It doesn't matter what it is, but every now and then you will drink something and it'll taste just right, and you will feel good.
:)
This is one of those drinks, well story, that puts a smile on your face.
With all the cr*p that goes on in the world, it is great to see that there are people who get the job done but also have a good laugh doing so. People are too serious. It's good to have practical jokes and people that appreciate them for there good clean simply fun
Good choice on story.
chris at darkrock dot co dot uk
http colon slash slash www dot darkrock dot co dot uk
Update: Sunday, March 21nd, 2004
We shared our story with 3M, the makers of post-its, and they must have got a kick out of it because they sent us 3 cases of post-its "for future decorating".
Aha! The missing step revealed:
1. Decorate office with products from Corporation X
2. Take pictures of said decorations
3. ??? = Send story and pictures to Corporation X
4. Profit! (as Corporation X sends you free product)
I suspect in a few months we'll hear a new story. Damon gets revenge on Dave by stapling a yoga mattress to every surface of his office. They share the story and ACME Yoga Mattress Co. responds by sending three trucks filled with yoga mattresses. Dave quits his job, sells all of them, and becomes the newest dot-calm millionaire. (Oh, you knew the punchline would be bad!)
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
I vote yes.
For a colleagues farewell I once had all 6 external auditors blowing balloons to fill his office to the roof. We then over-decorated the entire floor. Sure we was embarrassed (marginally) but the entire staff had a great time and the target was flattered we went to the effort.
Unfortunately I had to work all weekend to meet board schedules!
Repeat after me, harmless office pranks build teams! - They also build relationships
Stopping myself...Abort (core dumped)
Some companies actively encourage it.
Where I worked a few years ago, we had something called a 'friday meeting' the 1st friday of every month. A colleague of mine got severely ridiculed because he thought it wise to bring a pen and some paper for his first attendance --- which was about playing hockey in one of the empty studios. On other occasions we've been out go-carting, and even to a grand casino (complete with free pool-side buffet).
Sure this costs the company money, but they do get return value for it.
"Good news, everyone!"
Everything in his apartment is wrapped in alumium foil, except for a copy of Penn and Teller's book "Cruel tricks for Dear Friends".
The REAL storyline goes something like this:
Boss: Hey, Dave, what's the capacity of our website software?
Dave: What do you mean?
Boss: Well, a client asked me how much traffic load it can handle.
Dave: I dunnow, we never REALLY stress-tested the thing. Want me to find out?
Boss: Yes, please do!
Dave: OK, I'll need 400 post-it note pads, 650 balloons and a digital camera.
Boss: Huh?
SIG: TAKE OFF EVERY 'CAPTAIN'!!
No one has mention that there are downsides: if someone is hurt in a workplace practical joke, then the employer is liable. So it's good to have fun, but be sensible and play it safe
The two pranks listed in this article are fine, but you need to be aware of the danger.
Generally, (a) keep the pranks and humour safe and non-dangerous, watch out for anything that could be considered offensive, (b) if it's a large scale prank, make sure you have some "informal" chat with people (say, your supervisor) before hand just to get a verbal indication that it won't cause any problems. Your supervisor may tell you that the global CEO is going to be in the office that day so you might want to try your prank the next day
Some pranks I have experienced that don't work well: (a) giving people supposedly "funny" birthday presents (a vibrator), taken the wrong way and employee was really quite offended, (b) publishing prank photographs on internet newsgroup that also included a couple of shots that a person considered offensive. I don't think there were any legal issues in these cases, but it quickly turned from fun into a problem.
I'm a natural cynic and the deliberate nod to 3M at the end of the article makes me think this is a viral marketing campaign.
On the other hand, I've mentioned 3M twice in this short reply so perhaps *I'm* the viral marketer.
Back in the mid 1980s, I was working for a division of a large multinational. Some of the employees had quite a creative sense of humour (including, fortunately as will soon become apparent, the department manager).
At the time, there was a lot of hiring going on. On the manager's birthday, he was conducting job interviews most of the morning. His last applicant of the morning was a plant! You need to understand that, while blessed with a good sense of humour, he was happily married and quite conservative. The "applicant" was an attractive 24 year old redhead, very well endowed, and as sexually dressed as was consistent with a possible job applicant. The interview started normally, but gradually the young lady started making more and more pointed hints that she really wanted the job and would be willing to be very grateful if hired. Eventually, she was draping herself all over our leader who was desperately trying to ease her out of his office and looking as if he was about to suffer a coronary. [We had arranged to catch everything on video tape for checking out later.] When he finally managed to get the young lady across his office and open the door, the whole department was outside ready to wish him Happy Birthday. That was his first intimation that it was a setup!
I work in a camera store as the manager. Including me, there are six people who work at that location.
We received about one hundred Russ brand stuffed bears, to be sold "as a deal" with film processing. As you can imagine, it didn't really take off, and in April I still have 70 odd bears lying around my store.
We had been playing games with each other involving the bears but for several months it was fairly quiet.
Until I took several days off following Easter.
I walked in on Thursday to start my week, and upon opening the door to the back room, discovered a curtain of bears in my way. The two girls at work used kite string to bind the bears about the neck and waist to suspend them, and tied all of their paws together so that they all faced the door. There was a sign in the center that said "Supplies!" (Referencing UHF)
On the white board on the door, there was this note:
"
24 Russ bears: $599.76
Kite String: $4.99
The look on your face right now: Priceless (We hope)
******* Camera, it's everywhere you want to be.
"
Somedays my job isn't so bad...
Back in 98, I installed a screensaver on a few file servers (NT 4.0). What was nifty about it was that it showed the total RAM count and was performing a filecheck that actually read the files (RAID activity can be heard) and flagged them as corrupted. Of course, the files were perfectly fine in reality.
Oh man...did I catch hell from my manager when he dropped his coffee mug and ran into the server room and pulled the plug on the RAID. Though I laughed really hard...he obviously didnt.
From that point on, we had to restore the file server because the system wasn't shutdown properly. Fuck...he only needed to move the mouse or press a key to kick the screen saver off.
Life is not for the lazy.
I see the `preview` Button has been changed to a `post with wrong spelling` button, Taco you prankster!!!!!!
I was going to say that.
/they/ get a bonus for Christma
I must confess that when I visited my American colleagues I was, to put it mildly, nonplussed by their relaxed attitude to actually doing any f'ing work at all while at the office. They have a nice canteen, great Internet access, big cubicles, we had to book ahead for lunch at the local restaurants... AND
No wonder we get the contracts. And six weeks off a year.
So you're telling me superglue is like perl?
Hell yeah it is. Nobody understands it, everybody screams about how great it is, promises to work forever but in reality only works for about three hours.
Hell yeah superglue is just like perl.
Like what I said? You might like my music
Case of Post-It notes to plaster office: $74
650 Ballons for birthday prank: $55
1 air pump: $20/day rental
Advertising one last fun place to work to a million potential candidates on
Seriously though, it great to see that there are cool places to work still. One more sign of the IT recovery @!
"Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech."--Benjamin Franklin
And some do!
Maybe I'm the only guy on slashdot to feel this way but shit like that would just annoy me.
I've had a few jobs where there was strong office comraderie like that, but in general, I think I prefer a slightly more conservative set of relationships in the workplace even if it comes at the expense of office morale.
I'm not suggesting that things should be sterile. I do, however, think one's workspace should be respected.
Mr Party Pooper
I should point out that my victims always get me back, usually by spraying anti-static cleaner through the back of my desk fan when I'm not expecting it (instant winter wonderland), or by stamping "REFERENCE COPY ONLY" across my forehead with the drawing office stamp (permanent).
biopowered.co.uk - catalytically cracking triglycerides for home automotive use since 2008. Just say no to big oil!
once got so bored in college we started drawing smily faces on a couple thousand postits of varying size and color (the smily faces and post it notes for that matter); once we were done with that we stuck them all over the campus; she even went so far as to go into the ladies room; unravel the toilet paper; slap a post-it in there somewhere and then ravel it back up.
Book on depression in the library, no problem. We took a post-it with a smily, wrote under it don't worry be happy, and stuffed it somewhere in the middle.
Hell, I'm sure there are still post-its from us in some of the books that were covered under and inch of dust when we got there, let alone now.
Yes, the devious things you can do with post-its when you're bored.
We got a memo with weirdly over-specific instructions for how to live in our offices several weeks back. It included several bullet points like this:
And so on. This memo's content was completely ignored by everyone, but it's had its bad effect anyway. After we got it, people sat around talking incredulously about the thing, spending untold hours of company time just bellyaching about it. The thought of those on high in this massive company spending time writing and approving stuff like that is just utterly despiriting.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
...birthday presents (a vibrator), taken the wrong way and ...
Indeed. A vibrator taken the wrong way can bring tears to the eyes, I am sure.
Last year our group moved from a satellite office into the corporate building. Gone are the parking lot BBQs, etc.
Last month our manager turned 40. We spent 3 hours after work decorating her office with black balloons, streamers, static stickers with over the hill slogans, a walker... You know the drill.
The next morning we were all called into human resources and for 45 minutes admonished for what they perceived as "age discrimination".
Yep... Isn't corporate fun?
I went on a week vacation and the regional secretary who relied on my technical support made sure that I knew she'd call me at home if there was anything she needed.
I never got personal calls at home during working hours. So, on my first day of vacation, I forwarded my phone to her.
She tried all week to get a hold of me. When she called me her line two would start ringing. Waiting and waiting finally she'd hang up and answer line two but no body was there.
She'd try again and line two would start ringing. She'd try putting me on hold to answer the other line. No one was there, so she'd hang up and come back to me, but because she had answered and disconnected, the line she was calling me on was now a dial tone. She figured I had probably answered and hung up.
Apparently this went on all week. Every time she'd call me her other line would ring and then all the stuff with disconnects and no one on the other line... She never figured it out and by the end of the week was very frustrated.
When I got back she went on and on about how she tried to call me. Then all the stories about how every time she did the other line would ring and then the disconnects.
I fessed up and told her what I did. Everyone in the office was laughing their ass off, except for her. She was stunned. I could see her thinking back and then putting two and two together. She finely got over it, probably after spitting in my coffee for a week or something to get even.
No. I just work when I'm at work. Outside of work I play hard.
You get time outside of work?
Seriously though.
Here in the US, I'd say I've never seen this prankster phenomenon except in places characterized by many if not all of the following factors:
(1) Predominance of bright creative people.
(2) Creativity is a core value; breaking expected norms is an expected norm.
(3) Egalitarian businss culture emphasizing and things done over managerial hierarchy and perogatives.
(4) Main hierarchy is not managerial, but brainpower pecking order with intense competition to establish superiority.
(5) High intensity, pressure cooker atmosphere with long hours; people need to blow of steam.
In other words if I heard these kinds of hijinks were going on at a competitor, I'd take them very seriously rather than dismissing them as a bunch of goof offs. If you go head to head with them, you just might be facing a bunch of hard driving high IQ workaholics who think outside the box, and have both team cohesiveness and the flexibility to self-organize in novel ways to solve problems. In other words a competitive nightmare. Since in programming work (for example) there is easily a ten fold if not greater difference between the best teams and the mediocre ones, having a three or fourfold difference in compensation might not be enough to avoid getting squashed like a bug.
Then again, they might just be a bunch of immature goof offs with managers who are asleep at the switch. Paging Dr. Von Neumann: which assumption miminizes our maximum loss?
Culturally speaking, there's different ways to get things done. Having a little fun doesn't hurt.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.