Tagged as: Crom, Gross, Outrageous, Work
Jul
28
Snip, snip, snip. The familiar sound can be heard at my workplace. Imagine the surprise of myself and my coworkers as we were chatting when we heard it. The sound is rather unmistakable and usually reserved for the bathroom in one’s home. However, we were actually at work on a weekday.
It came as little surprise to us that Crom would do this. He is a man of little social reservation. He is the first to (eagerly) get his food. He is the first to go back to work so that he can leave earlier (without helping to clean up of course). He talks (sometimes loudly I might add) on the phone with his girlfriend (as I understand it, it’s a long term kind of thing). Truthfully, I would not be awfully surprised if he picks his nose and eats whatever treasure he finds.
Once you hear your co-worker cutting his toenails at work, all bets are off.
Tagged as: Crom, Work
Jul
08
I have a co-worker who I will call Crom (thankfully not his real name). He is a balding, single, middle-aged computer programmer. There are numerous things about him that I do not understand. Some of them are very amusing and some of them are difficult to understand.
I have decided that my own thoughts (while arguably interesting and intriguing) are not the only thing that I want on this blog. I want to season the meat and potatoes of this blog’s content with some posts about my everyday life. You will be able to judge the amusement factor of these posts for yourself.
Anyway, back to Crom. He sits in a nearby cubicle and has been working in this office for over a decade. That makes his tenure longer than the newer people (like myself) but definitely not as long as the old timers (of which there are a whole lot, some of whom have been around for a couple of decades!). He works rather autonomously on single-main projects. I suspect that he and I do not share the same sense of humor. We also do not share the same idea of manners but more on that later. For now, just take note of this man as he will very likely come up again.
Tagged as: Gross, Seen-Around, Work
Nov
26
Aren’t bathrooms full of such interesting happenings?
In the movie Meet the Fockers as Bernie Focker is giving everyone a tour of their house, he eventually gets to the bathroom. When he’s there, he tells them the rule of the house is
If it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down.
-Bernie Focker
I think that I’m working with someone who has taken that to heart.
No, scratch that. Some of them don’t even flush it down. Decency people, decency!
Tagged as: Gross, Seen-Around, Tip-For-Life, Work
Jan
31
There are some things that happen in life that cause you to become speechless. For some, this happens more often than for others. For me, it just happened. What in the world do you say when you walk into a stall and someone is sitting on the toilet doing their business?
Wait a second, something is not right. Oh yeah, I’m not supposed to go into a stall when another person is already in there.
- “You forgot to lock the door, you ninny.”
- “Surprise! I’m here!”
- “How are those TPS reports going?”
- “Ah ha, THAT’S where the smell was coming from!”
- “How’s that crossword puzzle going for you?”
- “Whoa…you know that’s not normal.”
- “Room in here for another?”
Really, how do you respond to that? You can’t. You’re speechless. This is one for the scrapbook (i.e. the blog). It’s even better when this person is from work and you see them around but don’t actually know them. Super!
Tip for life #2340987: Lock the little latch on the door when you are in a stall
Tagged as: Seen-Around, Work
Nov
09
So I just finished traveling for work. It was quite an interesting experience. First of all, I’ve not traveled for work before. Secondly, it was supremely interesting getting to watch this whole slew of people that I would not normally get to watch.
People watching was probably one of the more interesting things that I got to do.
Why do we like to watch people?
I’m of the mind that we (well at least I) like to watch people because we are interested in the human experience. Well that and because very often it’s pretty amusing. Or perhaps at the very heart of the matter, we like to see how we stack up against everyone else that’s around. Sometimes they’re stranger, sometimes they’re scarier, and sometimes they’re just like us. Alright they’re never just like us. We wouldn’t ever want to admit as much anyways.
People are interesting. Even the boring ones. Because the boring ones are very interesting when they don’t know that they’re being watched.
Benefits of people watching
-
Laughter
You gotta hand it to people, they’ll do some ridiculously hilarious things when they’re unaware that they’re being watched
-
Entertainment
Just because you forgot your electronic device or book, you’ll still have something to do. Almost no matter where are (unless you live as a hermit in which case this post is not for you).
-
Learn
Other people have had different experiences in their lives. Perhaps watching them will teach you lessons about how you can be a better person.
-
Smile
Catch those “cute” moments that nobody was supposed to see. You know, that darling thing that a child did or that self-sacrificing act that someone does for another. It’ll brighten your day and maybe next time you’ll be the one who puts a smile on somebody else’s slightly-creepy-people-watching face. 
-
Help
If you’re not aware or watching, someone could need your help and you would have never known. If you’re people watching, you’re (by definition) aware of your surroundings. So that makes it easier if you see someone getting hurt or in need of your assistence because you’ll see the need and lend a hand, won’t you? Let’s hope so!
People watching is a great thing to do. And it’s even more fun to do when you are surrounded by people that you would not normally be around (as I was this past weekend for my work conference). I didn’t know the vast majority of them, but I still enjoyed getting to watch them. I got to see how they interacted, I got to laugh at humorous things that I saw, and I got to amuse myself even (hopefully nobody really noticed me doing so).