21 June 2006

Quirky Work Happenings

As you may know I started my new job on Monday. Perhaps it is just the life event I need to revitalize my blogging... maybe.

My first quirky work happening comes from my first meeting at the company. There were 5 of us in a little conference room. The table was squeeky. I did not understand what was being talked about in the meeting so I thought about how to de-squeeky the table. Perhaps this would be my most valuable contribution to the meeting. I discovered that it was loose laterally and that if I leaned against it with signficant pressure the squeeking would stop. I did so for the rest of the meeting. I am a Multi-Discipline Systems Engineer.

The second quirky thing is more of an idea. Bathroom breaks are acceptable during work hours as are the occasional trip to the vending machine. Well let's say you walk to the vending machine, buy some skittles for 75 cents and return to your office (All this while your computer was rebooting and there was nothing else to work on of course but certainly you aren't expected to clock out!). Well, the whole operation, if skillfully executed probably takes 3 minutes, perhaps 4 minutes. If you make $25/hr, for the sake of this example, in 4 minutes you earn $1.67. Maybe you should buy two packs of skittles (one for me) and take home 17 cents for your efforts and generosity.

3 comments:

bcj said...

I would think that vending-machine breaks are also acceptable even if they are not part of a trip to the bathroom, and also even if your PC was not rebooting (as long as you don't abuse).

Any employer knows that employees will spend some unproductive time in buying candy, and therefore the salary that you are paid probably already accounts for this (i.e., it is lower than it would be if you could commit to full-time concentration). Because of this, you'd better take advantage of such breaks at any time, not just when you cannot work. In addition, the company is probably charging a rent to the owner of the vending machine and making a profit from your trips to it.

Unknown said...

I count on you to pick up all the incentives I miss, juan carlos.

bcj said...

Well, there are additional incentives that should deter you from taking vending-machine breaks too often. One is building up the reputation of being a hardworking person (something very important at the beginning of your career). I'm sure there are many other incentives I am missing too.