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jaunthieI believe I've mentioned before that I work at a company that tends to hire Type-A, high-powered, somewhat obsessive individuals. In other words, the kind of place where there's a lot of compulsively competitive individuals - not to mention folks who tend to think creatively about solutions to problems posed to them. This makes for an interesting workplace most of the time. Also a workplace filled with a lot of highly-strung folks. And every so often, the powers that be decide that they're going to mess with our heads.
Today's example?
Never mind that Easter was last weekend for the Western churches, and isn't until this Sunday for the Eastern churches - or that a goodly number of employees aren't Christians. TPTB decided last night to hide Easter eggs in our offices, among other places. And then they sent us mail about it.
Specifically, they told us that each person's office/cube had at least 5 eggs hidden in it.
Okay, this is amusing in a way. You know that the first thing everyone has to do is to find those darn eggs. It doesn't matter what your plans were; now the first thing you have to do (and remember the kind of people we tend to hire - this IS GUARANTEED to be the first thing on everyone's agenda as soon as they hear about it) is to find the eggs in your space. ALL the eggs. There will be NO REST for you or ANY PRODUCTIVE WORK DONE until you've found at least five eggs. You will rip your space apart looking for these things. The more hyper-competitive among the workers (and remember, we hire for this trait) will then go out to the public spaces and look for MORE eggs.
(And yes, this includes me. I had to find all the eggs in my office before I could move on to checking the rest of my email and getting on with the morning's workload. And the fifth one was hidden pretty well.)
However... remember that this is also a business full of out-of-the-box thinkers and creative-solution types. The following idea occurred to at least one person immediately, who promptly shared it with me and the other early birds already in the office:
Practical Joke of the Day: Sneak into the offices/cubes where people haven't come in yet, and find and take *just one* of the eggs.
The look of amused horror on our faces as we all contemplated what would happen...priceless. Everyone IMMEDIATELY knew the kind of chaos, anguish, and insanity that would ensue.
As far as I know, no one has actually *done* this - but it's a fairly obvious thought, and I'm sure someone, somewhere is going to do it. I'll be listening for the frustrated screams and/or sounds of breaking furniture all morning long. Which isn't terribly productive, either, but there you are.
Today's example?
Never mind that Easter was last weekend for the Western churches, and isn't until this Sunday for the Eastern churches - or that a goodly number of employees aren't Christians. TPTB decided last night to hide Easter eggs in our offices, among other places. And then they sent us mail about it.
Specifically, they told us that each person's office/cube had at least 5 eggs hidden in it.
Okay, this is amusing in a way. You know that the first thing everyone has to do is to find those darn eggs. It doesn't matter what your plans were; now the first thing you have to do (and remember the kind of people we tend to hire - this IS GUARANTEED to be the first thing on everyone's agenda as soon as they hear about it) is to find the eggs in your space. ALL the eggs. There will be NO REST for you or ANY PRODUCTIVE WORK DONE until you've found at least five eggs. You will rip your space apart looking for these things. The more hyper-competitive among the workers (and remember, we hire for this trait) will then go out to the public spaces and look for MORE eggs.
(And yes, this includes me. I had to find all the eggs in my office before I could move on to checking the rest of my email and getting on with the morning's workload. And the fifth one was hidden pretty well.)
However... remember that this is also a business full of out-of-the-box thinkers and creative-solution types. The following idea occurred to at least one person immediately, who promptly shared it with me and the other early birds already in the office:
Practical Joke of the Day: Sneak into the offices/cubes where people haven't come in yet, and find and take *just one* of the eggs.
The look of amused horror on our faces as we all contemplated what would happen...priceless. Everyone IMMEDIATELY knew the kind of chaos, anguish, and insanity that would ensue.
As far as I know, no one has actually *done* this - but it's a fairly obvious thought, and I'm sure someone, somewhere is going to do it. I'll be listening for the frustrated screams and/or sounds of breaking furniture all morning long. Which isn't terribly productive, either, but there you are.
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no subject
Date: 2009-04-15 04:42 pm (UTC)Me - I got booted (months ago) from my office on the guise it was going to be turned into a "break" room. It's a break room alright...for the yard dogs.
I'd much rather find easter eggs. Don't get me wrong, I like the yard dogs, more than I like most of the people I work with even.