Results tagged “Office” from Joe Lavin's Humor Column

Last year, Joshua Ferris wrote one of the best books I've read about office life called "Then We Came to the End." Admittedly, unless I'm mistaken, there are not a lot of novels in this genre. I don't think many are yearning to read about life in a cubicle. Or perhaps I'm wrong. Perhaps there are legions of pirates, astronauts, and superagents longing for some good old escapist fare set in an office. There's nothing like taking the edge off some dangerous espionage with a bestseller about the trials and travails of reading spreadsheets and making PowerPoint presentations.

Now that Father's Day is behind us, it may be time to retire the necktie as a present. In a recent survey, only 6% of men said that they wear a tie daily. A full 67% of men never wear a tie to work at all, which is only 66.999% ahead of the percentage of men who never wear pants to work.

If you're sick of e-mail, then do I have the employer for you: US Cellular, where every Friday is No E-mail Friday. According to an ABC News report, US Cellular has banned all Friday e-mail for the last two years. No matter how much employees need to e-mail each other, on Fridays they simply can't. Instead, they must pick up the phone, or stop by each other's office in person, or just go home for the day because, you know, it's not like they can get any real work done without e-mail.

Unlike many, I am greeting the release of Office 2007 with some trepidation. Microsoft's newest version of its dominant office suite looks radically different than earlier versions. While many are excited about this, I am seriously worried. It's not that I have anything against progress. I have something against unnecessary progress. Sorry, I just have better things to do than change when there's no need to change.

Recently, I was killing time at a productivity web site (It's the guilt-free way to procrastinate!) when I came across this advice on how to let co-workers know when not to disturb you:

"Pick a hat or scarf or something and wear it whenever you're "in the zone." Educate your coworkers and customers that if you have that article of clothing on, then they should turn around."

Every office has that guy.

Whenever there's a big meeting, you'll find him lurking just outside the conference room, ready to pounce on whatever food is left over. Somehow, whenever there's food in the office, he knows exactly where it is. The better the leftovers, the earlier he's there. Sadly, I think I have become that guy.

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Lately, there has been an important and meaningful development in my career: I now have caller ID. Until recently, I never knew what to expect when the phone rang. At any moment, the person on the other end could have been either a friend inviting me to lunch or a colleague calling about some report I had not yet finished.

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