How to Keep a Healthy Level of Insanity in the Workplace
1. Agree to organize the company Christmas party. Hold it at
McDonald's Playland. Charge everyone $15 each.
2. Arrive at a meeting late, say you're sorry, but you didn't
have time for lunch, and you're going to be nibbling during
the meeting. During the meeting eat 5 entire raw potatoes.
3. Bring in dishes that you tried to cook but didn't turn out
quite right as special treats for your co-workers.
4. Build models of the Seven Wonders of the World using empty
soda cans.
5. Come to work in your pajamas.
6. Compose all your e-mail in rhyming couplets.
7. Decorate your office with pictures of Cindy Brady and Danny
Partridge. Try to pass them off as your children.
8. Determine how many cups of coffee is "too many."
9. Develop an unnatural fear of staplers.
10. Email nude gifs (graphic image files) of yourself to your
coworkers. Tell them you got them off the Internet.
11. Encourage your colleagues to join you in a little synchronized
chair dancing.
12. Every time someone asks you to do something, ask them if they
want fries with that.
13. Every time someone asks you to do something, ask them to sign
a waiver.
14. Find out where your boss shops and buy exactly the same
outfits. Always wear them one day after your boss does.
(This is especially effective if your boss is a different
gender than you are.)
15. For a relaxing break, get away from it all with a mask and
snorkel in the fish tank. If no one notices, take out your
snorkel and see how many you can catch in your mouth.
16. Grow mold in your coffee cup.
17. Hang mistletoe over your desk.
18. "Hi-lite" your shoes. Tell people that you haven't lost your
shoes since you did this.
19. Include a personal note on every email you send. "On a
personal note, I'm feeling a bit tired and grumpy today." "On
a personal note, I'm pleased to announce that I got my highest
score ever on Tetris last night."
20. Include a piece of your children's artwork as a cover page for
all reports that you write. (If you don't have children, draw
stick figures yourself.)
21. Insist that your e-mail address be
"zena_goddess_of_fire@companyname.com"
22. Install a set of buttons and lights in the arm of your chair.
Talk into your daytimer.
23. Make up nicknames for all your coworkers and refer to them
only by these names. "That's a good point, Sparky." "No I'm
sorry I'm going to have to disagree with you there, Chachi."
24. Name all your pens and insist that meetings can't begin until
they're all present.
25. No matter what anyone asks you, reply "Okay."
26. Organize a carpool. Go to pick everyone up in a taxi.
27. Page yourself over the intercom. (Don't disguise your voice.)
28. Plant a hedge around your cubicle.
29. Put a chair facing a printer, sit there all day and tell
people you're waiting for your document.
30. Put a picture of your mother on your business card.
31. Put decaf in the coffeemaker for 3 weeks. Once everyone has
gotten over their caffeine addictions, switch to espresso.
32. Put on your headphones whenever the boss comes into the
office. Talk in a loud voice. Remove your headphones when he
or she leaves.
33. Put up mosquito netting around your cubicle.
34. Put your garbage can on your desk. Label it "IN."
35. Schedule meetings for 4:14 pm.
36. Send e-mail messages saying free pizza, free donuts etc. in
the lunchroom, when people complain that there was none, just
lean back, pat your stomach, and say, "Oh you've got to be
faster than that." See how long it takes until the last
person stops believing you. Then start planting pizzas.
37. Send e-mail to the rest of the company telling them what
you're doing. For example "If anyone needs me, I'll be in the
bathroom."
38. Send e-mail to yourself engaging yourself in an intelligent
debate about the direction of one of your company's products.
Forward the mail to a co-worker and ask her to settle the
disagreement.
39. Suggest that beer be put in the soda machine.
40. When in conversation, no matter where you are in the office,
mutter, "I think my phone is ringing" and leave. Go get a
coffee.
41. When you go to a party at somebody's house, don't
automatically assume that the drinks are free. Ask, and ask
often.
42. While sitting at your desk, soak your fingers in "Palmolive."