03 November 2006

go duck yourself; plus, 40 days to summer in december

so you know I work at a subsidiary of dunder mifflin paper co, right? maybe you don't know. whatever. anyway, it turns out that at a mid-level staff meeting the other day, somebody comes up with the idea that they should hand out awards to people that don't do their job. [really, this happened]

the official language is that it's for people that "could have handled things a little better" or "could have been a bit more organized". why the duck? well, because if one has their sh*t together, they are said to have their "ducks in a row". and if they don't, then they should get one, right? splendid!

even better: the creators of the award want to give the award as a department, so that the, ahh, honor, as it were, comes from all of us. collectively. splendider!

makes a lot of sense to me; negative reinforcement is a wonderfully effective motivational tool. it will accomplish the following:
  1. whomever gets the "duck you" award will hate your guts for years, effectively sabotaging your working relationship, for, umm, ever.
  2. the awardee's co-workers will hate your guts, effectively sabotaging ... etc. and so forth.
  3. Your department, as a group, will attract all sorts negative attention, effectively ... hmm... blah ... zzzz ... [what? nodded off there for a second.]
Rumor is that not everyone was "on board" with this canny personnel motivator, so "we" probably aren't going to implement it. Probably.
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in other news, since daylight savings time ended i started counting the days until I leave for summer in december. and january. 40 days a/o today. get excited.

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