My Employer is Insane
OK, we all get memos from time to time that make us go "Huh?!" Well today my boss decided that we needed to stamp out a wretched vile plague around the business(nevermind increasing competence of incompetent employees, assigning personal responsibility for work-related tasks or improving profit margin) so a memo was written. What is this plague so vile it needed to be dealt with in a company-wide memo you ask?
Post-its!
We have post-it proliferation.
The text of said memo is as follows:
"Effective immediately (and permanently), the use of "post-it" notes (or any other type of scrap paper) is strictly prohibited from use anywhere in the building. There will be no exceptions of any kind. All post-it notes in the building are to be immediately turned in to me by placing them in the box outside my office. No additional post-it notes or small notebooks will be purchased, made available or used."
Well, that is that. The thing is, this is just the symptom of a much larger problem. Firstly, this is a PR nightmare(there have been other memos) by punishing everyone for the screwups of a few. Secondly, it is not well explained, making people think it is just crazy. There is actually good reason not to use them in certain areas of our business, but punishing everyone to not deal with a few people is..well...off.
It occurred to me that during the fall of communism, when russia was attempting to convert to capitalism, it had a rough go. Some people longed for the comfort that communism brought them by knowing they would have a little to depend on from their government instead of making a go of it for themselves. Businesses had it especially rough, with a shortage of quality business supplies. I think maybe I will find our sister city in Russia and send them these post-its. It will becoma a nation wide program. We will call it:
Post-its for Petrushka Dolls.
For every case of post-its, they will send us Petrushka Dolls, and it will show our support for their heritage, culture and new found lifestyle of capitalism. It will also end the terrible post-it proliferation my boss finds so unseemly.
Post-its!
We have post-it proliferation.
The text of said memo is as follows:
"Effective immediately (and permanently), the use of "post-it" notes (or any other type of scrap paper) is strictly prohibited from use anywhere in the building. There will be no exceptions of any kind. All post-it notes in the building are to be immediately turned in to me by placing them in the box outside my office. No additional post-it notes or small notebooks will be purchased, made available or used."
Well, that is that. The thing is, this is just the symptom of a much larger problem. Firstly, this is a PR nightmare(there have been other memos) by punishing everyone for the screwups of a few. Secondly, it is not well explained, making people think it is just crazy. There is actually good reason not to use them in certain areas of our business, but punishing everyone to not deal with a few people is..well...off.
It occurred to me that during the fall of communism, when russia was attempting to convert to capitalism, it had a rough go. Some people longed for the comfort that communism brought them by knowing they would have a little to depend on from their government instead of making a go of it for themselves. Businesses had it especially rough, with a shortage of quality business supplies. I think maybe I will find our sister city in Russia and send them these post-its. It will becoma a nation wide program. We will call it:
Post-its for Petrushka Dolls.
For every case of post-its, they will send us Petrushka Dolls, and it will show our support for their heritage, culture and new found lifestyle of capitalism. It will also end the terrible post-it proliferation my boss finds so unseemly.
posted by Buddy Cole at 10:19 AM
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