I could easily do my job at home, like a lot of us. Unless you work in the health care business, law enforcement, or you're a lineman for the electric company, you could probably find a good portion of your work load that could be accomplished from a desk in the corner of your dining room.
But here I am at work, in an office, with other people, and no cats. There must be something I can bring to the table while I'm here. A few days ago, I decided that what I can contribute to the greater group of office workers is a coloring contest. I had a cohort in the editorial department--she provided a very silly coloring page, and I provided the crayons. We mumbled to various people in graphics, editorial, and marketing and asked if they wanted to participate in a coloring contest. I expected a few people to have fun with it, which is why I only bought five small boxes of Crayolas. By the time we were finished, I bet 20 people had colored their page. It's at the end of this post in case you want to color, too.
We were all given a copy of the same page and no rules, just crayons. On Friday afternoon, the entire marketing department sat at a table and colored, just like in kindergarten. One of the accountant types even emailed to ask if he could play, too. Men and women alike turned in their artwork, and yesterday morning, we taped them all to a glass wall at our end of the building. We chose the winner, who turned the picture and caption on its ear and made it entirely different--she won a mini-sketching kit with a sketch pad, drawing pencils, and an eraser. Then everyone was invited to match the pages with the participants--the winner of the matching portion of the contest won a Pez dispenser. Every participant was given some kind of distinctive paper ribbon award for distinctions like brighest hair, scariest, prettiest eye color, and best Aryan girl. That one went to a guy with two bi-racial children, ironically. One guy colored the girl bright blue, gave her a unibrow, and modified the caption.
So, I bring a few minutes of fun and as much work disturbance as I can stir up. What do you bring to the table?
But here I am at work, in an office, with other people, and no cats. There must be something I can bring to the table while I'm here. A few days ago, I decided that what I can contribute to the greater group of office workers is a coloring contest. I had a cohort in the editorial department--she provided a very silly coloring page, and I provided the crayons. We mumbled to various people in graphics, editorial, and marketing and asked if they wanted to participate in a coloring contest. I expected a few people to have fun with it, which is why I only bought five small boxes of Crayolas. By the time we were finished, I bet 20 people had colored their page. It's at the end of this post in case you want to color, too.
We were all given a copy of the same page and no rules, just crayons. On Friday afternoon, the entire marketing department sat at a table and colored, just like in kindergarten. One of the accountant types even emailed to ask if he could play, too. Men and women alike turned in their artwork, and yesterday morning, we taped them all to a glass wall at our end of the building. We chose the winner, who turned the picture and caption on its ear and made it entirely different--she won a mini-sketching kit with a sketch pad, drawing pencils, and an eraser. Then everyone was invited to match the pages with the participants--the winner of the matching portion of the contest won a Pez dispenser. Every participant was given some kind of distinctive paper ribbon award for distinctions like brighest hair, scariest, prettiest eye color, and best Aryan girl. That one went to a guy with two bi-racial children, ironically. One guy colored the girl bright blue, gave her a unibrow, and modified the caption.
So, I bring a few minutes of fun and as much work disturbance as I can stir up. What do you bring to the table?
Comments
The colouring competition sounds really cool, and a great office morale booster. I'd try it here, but Architects are notoriously grumpy and we honestly don't know which end of a pencil is which.
That picture is so scary! It's almost as spooky as the New Happy Knudsen.
And the prize for the "Best Aryan Girl" makes me REALLY glad your office staff are four thousand miles away!
And you mentioned linemen, which means I'll now be stuck singing Witchita Lineman all day …
"And I need you more than want you,
And I want you for all time …"
Join in … You know you want to … hee hee.
And I WILL NOT sing Glenn Campbell tunes.
Yikes!
Another one for our transatlantic dictionary, Robyn.
Over here, they are coloured pencils; crayons are the waxy things they give to little kids who then try to eat them.
am a lineman for the county
And i drive the main road
Searchin' in the sun
For another overload
I hear you singin' in the wires
I can hear you through the whine
And the wichita lineman
Is still on the line.
"I know I need a small vacation.
But it don't look like rain.
And if it snows that stretch down south,
won't ever stand the strain.
And I need you more than want you.
And I want you for all time.
And the Wichita Lineman,
is still on the line."
To my office, I bring distraction. I'm chatty.
When I did work, I liked to think that I brought a certain amount of calmness. I'm not a panicky person in a crisis. People could come to me and discuss problems (work related and not) and come away hopefully feeling better.
Sassy, we used to have what we called "chat patrol" here so that if you were chatting and were about to be caught, you could hurry and get back to work.
Gina, do you find that you bring that same calmness to the group at home?
Sorry. I'm cranky today.
Thats been several years ago now...he has gotten used to my coloring whims now!
I'd have loved the colouring-in practise. I never liked staying within the confines of someone else's lines though; i always wanted to draw my own design to colour-in. Yes crayons are waxy. Coloured pencils are - coloured pencils in the UK.
I'm not sure how this would have been received generally in offices over here. My suspicion is that they'd have looked at you like you were mad (i wouldn't), asked you how this was going to earn the company money, then told you not to waste time.
A colouring comp in the place where i used to work would probably have cut down on the burn out factor.
Currently I'm working in alternative education for kids who are close to being expelled.
Once they finish their school work for the day they get to do clowning classes, we're teaching them face painting and balloon twisting and stuff.
Just a small incentive for getting on with their work. Works wonders.