Good Boys and Girls
My bosses are trying out a new system to encourage their workers. They made a huge cloth racetrack and hung it on one of the walls, and all us employees get a little matchbox car with some velcro stuck on the bottom. If we reach certain individual goals at work, we get assigned points, and then we can advance our respective car that much farther down the track.
If I were a 6 year old boy, then this would be incredibly exciting and effective.
The thinly veiled contempt behind this ploy is incredible. I am an adult, and I work with adults, and management is passing out matchbox cars and hanging up colorful racetracks like we’re in a first grade classroom.
I have no doubt that my lack of enthusiasm about this endeavor, coupled with my inability to work overtime due to my school schedule will mean that I’ll finish towards the tail end of the pack. I don’t have a problem with this, as I refuse to allow myself to be motivated in such an insulting manner.
And anyway, my last day of work here will be on August 1st. I’m happy to work here, and I appreciate what this job has facilitated in my life. But I’m starting to look for my own checkered flag.
Categories:
January 27th, 2004 at 9:41 am
Egad.
January 27th, 2004 at 10:55 am
I am currently in fourth place, because the trainer gave me a glowing thumbs up when I went the “extra mile.”
January 27th, 2004 at 12:44 pm
I’m in a training all day today and tomorrow and when we ask “good” questions we are given ACS bucks - which at the end of today whoever has the most will get a prize –> we have been promised it won’t have our company logo on it. I have 100 “acs bucks” so far….I’m behind.
January 27th, 2004 at 1:50 pm
Alexis - does “What is the point of all this?” qualify as a good question?
January 27th, 2004 at 2:22 pm
Now I have 200 “bucks”. I’m not sure what qualifies as a “good” question. I guess if it relates to our work, then it “qualifies”.
January 27th, 2004 at 2:24 pm
Please NOTE; there usually isn’t a “point of all this”. Gee….I wish I had a race car. =)
January 27th, 2004 at 3:07 pm
The black guy that sits next to me painted white rims on the wheels of his car with White-Out. For some reason I thought that was funny.
January 27th, 2004 at 3:19 pm
That’s a heck of a lot of white out. Do you know how many bottles he used?
January 27th, 2004 at 3:20 pm
One time, when I was bad, I smeared a package of lard on the rims of someone’s tires and plastered crackers all over it. That was bad.
January 27th, 2004 at 3:22 pm
Did you seriously do that, Burt? Did you know the person? Did it smell delicious?
January 27th, 2004 at 3:28 pm
I didn’t know the person, so if you’re reading this, person who I did that to, I’m really sorry. I was not making good decisions in that time of my life. Peter: seriously, I did do it, and surprisingly, it didn’t really smell like anything.
January 30th, 2004 at 8:49 am
This “extra mile” bit is almost as heinous a crime against dignity as the “Who Moved My Cheese” video we were subjected to a few weeks ago. “Smell the cheese often, so you know when it’s getting old.”
Indeed.