April 29, 2006

• id prolly deserve it ;) but my boss better be sexy
• Didn't appear to the the boss who attempting to humiliate the losers, but her peers.
• Spankings are a terrific way to develop interpersonal connection, but that is not the kind of connection I'd want to foster at work. Besides, my cow-orkers are just not that cute.
• Better forego the team-catching exercises, too... my wife was dropped at one of those many years ago and hurt her back. Bunch of pseudo-science bull.
• A "camaraderie-building exercise"?? Man, people never cease to amaze me.
• She was a loser. She deserved to be spanked.
• Ok, sorry. I presented this wrong. Think about being at your job, and you're going to go learn about team-building in a training session. (It happens all the time, but most sessions aren't as strange.) Your team lost, and the creep two cubes down is assigned the duty of whacking you on the butt. In front of everyone, including your boss. On the other hand, you might only have been required to eat baby food or wear a diaper. So, they're not only applying physical punishment for not falling into line, but they're implying rather strongly that you're an infant, and that they're the adults. And, I'd suspect the picture of you being spanked would stay with your boss, at least until the next salary review. Well, maybe it's just me who would be incensed. Sorry to get into moderation mode. Never mind.
• Never liked those stupid corporate indocrination 'team building' rituals and this one went way too far, even if the woman has a predilection for suing for sexual harassment.
• There is a real dearth of grown-ups in this world.
• Ttrying to build a tower out of sipping straws and rubber bands along with my 'team' on a weekend retreat, I realized that was quite stupid. As always, a couple people were doing the job, the rest just getting in the way. I said 'the hell with it' and dedicated myself to try and woo that troubled-looking woman from accounting (the weird ones, they're my weakness). My team lost, I didn't get the girl, quit that job a month later.
• The things they describe in the article are hazing, not team building. There's a definite difference. There's absolutely no place for this in the life of anyone above the age of about twelve.
• There's no place for hazing in anyone's life, period.
• This adds to my thesis that the corporate workplace is full of sociopaths.
• Y.A. reason I'm glad I quit my job to work for myself. Any spanking in my life can stay in my personal time, thankyouveddymuch.
• They're not all sociopaths. Most of them are just infantile morons.
• True. True.
• ...and they should be made to wear nappies and be spanked?
• I've often wondered about the repressed sexuality in the whole "paddling" hazing. And it is sexual. I'd give her the money.
• *dreams of being spanked by a couple of coworkers*
• Chyren: I agree that there's never a place for hazing but I can understand it somewhat in children who don't necessarily know any better yet. With adults... it's just cruel.
• This adds to my thesis that the corporate workplace is full of sociopaths. Excellent analysis, Chy, but may I specify these individuals are most commonly found in mid- and upper management?
• And sales, don't forget sales.
• Quite true, Koko. Whole PR departments can consist solely of sociopaths. Or would that be considered sales? Much research is yet to be done.
• jesus. I have never worked in a corporate environment, so I haven't experienced any of these 'team-building excercises' of which youse speak. what a contrived load of poo, for one thing and anyone who didn't see legal trouble coming out of this set-up is a grade-A fool, fool!
• My boss made me go to lunch with him last week. I'd have chosen a good stout paddling instead, if it had been offered to me as an option.
• TUM, that's part of the drill. I think it's supposed to be another "getting to know you" scenario. They don't want to do it anymore than you do, these days. Back in the early day, when I had a crew working for me, I'd take them all out to lunch, and we'd drink pina coladas, and laugh, and have fun. But, I was probably a bad "boss" since they never seemed intimidated by me. Later, it was supposed one-on-one, which doesn't work nearly as well, from my perspective.
• Whole PR departments can consist solely of sociopaths. Or would that be considered sales? I think it's the marketing department, GramMa. In the words of Bill Hicks:

  By the way if anyone here is in advertising or marketing... kill yourself. No, no, no it's just a little thought. I'm just trying to plant seeds. Maybe one day, they'll take root - I don't know. You try, you do what you can. Kill yourself. Seriously though, if you are, do. Aaah, no really, there's no rationalisation for what you do and you are Satan's little helpers, Okay - kill yourself - seriously. You are the ruiner of all things good, seriously.

  And to all you PR/Marketing monkeys out there, I cannot ethically apologize for another man's words, but I have to apologize to all the little children of the world everyday for what has been done to our humanity...
• path, I, too, like pina coladas, and getting caught in the rain... And for what it's worth, I don't think intimidation is necessary for a boss, just follow-through. For example: when you tell someone they can get fired for a repeated behavior and they repeat it, fire them. That's all ya gotta do to maintain that relationship is the follow-through, m'I right?
• Do you know how much plastic, light and mud it likely took to make that lady look like this at 76? Don't sweat the petty stuff, path, it's all smoke and mirrors anyways. For the record, I thought she was dead...
• Gah, wrong thread... damn that preview button for not helping me contextually. Can I get a mulligan?
• did someone say weeaboo?
• Real shame about Hicks.
• InsolentChimp - I do think there's more to it than that - like assuming that your minions are actually rational human beings and are capable of all sorts of learning and other good stuff. Follow-though is important, but it covers a lot more than firing. And, I think we might owe Fes an apology for the assumption that all marketing folks are sociopathic. I dunno where you work, but I can tell you that's not true in my experience. In fact, the marketeers in my industry were among the most rational and helpful people I knew. They were the main force that convinced the factory to build somthing that people might actually want to buy, and were incredibly patient in educating the rest of us about our products. And the "us" weren't dupes, and neither were our customers. T he only time I ever saw them pull any punches were at the end of the life for a particular model, and that was more because of potential shortages in supply than anything else. You might find that problematical, but it always worked out that the customer could get the newer and better product for about the same productive unit cost with added features, and were grateful that they could.
• vows to stay self-employed despite the myriad difficulties and shortcomings thereof...
• My boss made me go to lunch with him last week. I'd have chosen a good stout paddling instead, if it had been offered to me as an option. Your boss doesn't look like James Spader, I hope...
• It would be wholly inappropriate for me to say that if it were me and James Spader, I wouldn't complain, wouldn't it?
• yes.
• How about lunch with...Denny Crane!
• Your boss doesn't look like James Spader, I hope... God, I love that movie. Mrowr! *slap*
• SAdly, no. My boss bears an unsettling resemblance to Donald Pleasance.
• Why do I always read these things just as I'm picking up the phone, then guffaw in someone's ear?
• path, wholly in agreement, the firing I meant only as an example on how to maintain the relationship separating el jefe from los peons without being "bad" at it per se. As for Fes, I hope he knows when we're ribbing. Otherwise he could get his revenge by making us think we need something. What terrible power...
• My boss bears an unsettling resemblance to Donald Pleasance. Then he's trying to make you join in some dark, top-secret, world-threatening project. I'd go wired to the next lunch, if I were you.