I've started writing down a list of things that really annoy me, most are related to office etiquette and corporate cultural ills.
So here goes the first group.
1. Preemptive "Excuse me"
This happens in the cube farm I work in all the time. Americans love to say "excuse me" even when it's completely unnecessary. For example, I see a guy walking down the hallway about 20 feet away. As I wait to get water at the water cooler, he passes me and says "Excuse me". Dude, I saw you coming from 20 feet away and I was stationary this entire time. There was no probability of us ever running into each. And, why do you need to apologize for walking on a shared hallway? Americans are so afraid of touching another human body that even the 1% probability scares them enough to preemptively say "Excuse me"!
2. Holding the door open for you when you are 20 feet away
This unfortunately also happens quite often at my office. Between 8AM and 9AM when people rush into the office, I'm bound to have someone holding the building door open for me when I'm barely out of my car. Sometimes this happens when I'm a good 20 feet away. I'm not one to run towards work, so I walk at a medium pace. But those determined folks will hold the door open and look at me smilingly for a good two minutes. In fact, they look so friendly that I feel obligated to half-run up to the door and say "Thanks". Maybe one day my triceps will shrink because I never open doors anymore. Good grief!
3. Phone messages that say "I just wanted to touch base with you...."
No one calls and leaves a message if they want nothing. Yet in America, the most common way to start a voice mail message in the office is called "touching base". I get it's a baseball reference, but what does touching base have anything to do with asking me to change the requirements spec for you? That's called a request, NOT touching base. Say what you want and do what you said you were going to do, world peace achieved.
4. The equaling of "being engaged" and carbon copying someone in email.
If you work in an office environment, I'm sure you've been asked to get someone "engaged" in the project that you are working on. Perhaps it's a corporate virus, but the most common way I've observed people complying to that request is CC'ing the person in question on mass emails and meeting invites. Yeah, flood them with this ambiguous electronic communication and wait for synergy to sparkle!
More to come in the near future.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Sunday, June 15, 2008
I've been tagged by Amy
1. Post the rules of the game at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read the player’s blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.
What were you doing five years ago?
Good thing I backed up my old pictures when I migrated from Windows XP to Fedora.
Looking through the photos, it appears that I moved to the Castle apartments 5 years ago in May. At the time, I was working at my co-op at Honeywell in Oracle, AZ. I worked in Engineering Sciences dept, but really I just processed BOM (Bills of Materials) requests and "worked" on a database project to address parts obsolescence issues.
Some of the other co-ops that worked there: Patrick Kelly, Kristie Wilson (Manalo), Clay Condon, Eli Minson and John Hughes.
There was a giant forest fire burning on Mt. Lemmon in June. The Honeywell plant had to issue air quality warning to the workers due to the smoke. Good thing the fire was contained before it got to the plant site. The woman who started fire ended up going to jail later on; she got lost while hiking, decided to light a fire to get rescued. I say she deserved it.
What are five things on your to-do list for today?
1) Laundry
2) I'm listening to Sia right now.
3) If Roberto and Ruben come back today, I'll go talk to them while they work on our patio. We are putting in a 20x20 paver patio in the backyard.
4) Go to Whole Foods and get ingredients to make Mapo Tofu. I'm a hipster but the main reason I go to Whole Foods is that it's 2 minutes from my house.
5) Maybe go to the gym...I want to look fitter when I get married.
What are five snacks you enjoy?
1) Ice cream, most kinds. I especially love Toscanini's Burned Caramel flavor.
2) Kimchi, yeah, I can eat it without rice. :)
3) Japanese fruit flavored gummies and Chinese white rabbit brand taffy candy.
4) Smoothies. Xoom Juice was my favorite in Tucson.
5) Beef Jerky. Jack Links' peppered is my favorite.
What are five things you would do if you were a billionaire?
1) Lobby American politics and get a Libertarian elected to office.
2) Booked a space tour like the one Sergey Brin did.
3) Give my family and friends money so they are not burdened by lack of money.
4) Establish a foundation like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the goal would be to popularize free-market thoughts to help developing countries. Maybe I should name it the Milton Friedman Group.
5) Enjoy life as it comes.
What are five of your bad habits?
1) Snorting my nose. Sorry, it is gross.
2) Leaving used tissue around, related to the previous item.
3) Getting angry. A lot of things in this world bother me and I get angry really fast. I'm a weirdo for sure, an ENTJ female.
4) Shoes. I buy too many shoes and throw them out almost just as fast.
5) Impatience. A good example is that my Mom and I don't talk much these days because I get impatient with her on the phone.
What are five places where you have lived?
1) Chengdu, China (until 6)
2) Hangzhou, China (until 15)
3) Pittsburgh, PA
4) Tucson, AZ
5) Woburn, MA
There are a few more.
What are five jobs you’ve had? (a short list)
1) University of Arizona main library
2) Nortel Networks
3) UAPD
4) UA College of Public Health
5) Honeywell, IBM, Raytheon....
I put 3 in the last box, too many jobs!
You are tagged:
Kristian
Mette
Chad
Clay
Mai
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read the player’s blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.
What were you doing five years ago?
Good thing I backed up my old pictures when I migrated from Windows XP to Fedora.
Looking through the photos, it appears that I moved to the Castle apartments 5 years ago in May. At the time, I was working at my co-op at Honeywell in Oracle, AZ. I worked in Engineering Sciences dept, but really I just processed BOM (Bills of Materials) requests and "worked" on a database project to address parts obsolescence issues.
Some of the other co-ops that worked there: Patrick Kelly, Kristie Wilson (Manalo), Clay Condon, Eli Minson and John Hughes.
There was a giant forest fire burning on Mt. Lemmon in June. The Honeywell plant had to issue air quality warning to the workers due to the smoke. Good thing the fire was contained before it got to the plant site. The woman who started fire ended up going to jail later on; she got lost while hiking, decided to light a fire to get rescued. I say she deserved it.
What are five things on your to-do list for today?
1) Laundry
2) I'm listening to Sia right now.
3) If Roberto and Ruben come back today, I'll go talk to them while they work on our patio. We are putting in a 20x20 paver patio in the backyard.
4) Go to Whole Foods and get ingredients to make Mapo Tofu. I'm a hipster but the main reason I go to Whole Foods is that it's 2 minutes from my house.
5) Maybe go to the gym...I want to look fitter when I get married.
What are five snacks you enjoy?
1) Ice cream, most kinds. I especially love Toscanini's Burned Caramel flavor.
2) Kimchi, yeah, I can eat it without rice. :)
3) Japanese fruit flavored gummies and Chinese white rabbit brand taffy candy.
4) Smoothies. Xoom Juice was my favorite in Tucson.
5) Beef Jerky. Jack Links' peppered is my favorite.
What are five things you would do if you were a billionaire?
1) Lobby American politics and get a Libertarian elected to office.
2) Booked a space tour like the one Sergey Brin did.
3) Give my family and friends money so they are not burdened by lack of money.
4) Establish a foundation like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the goal would be to popularize free-market thoughts to help developing countries. Maybe I should name it the Milton Friedman Group.
5) Enjoy life as it comes.
What are five of your bad habits?
1) Snorting my nose. Sorry, it is gross.
2) Leaving used tissue around, related to the previous item.
3) Getting angry. A lot of things in this world bother me and I get angry really fast. I'm a weirdo for sure, an ENTJ female.
4) Shoes. I buy too many shoes and throw them out almost just as fast.
5) Impatience. A good example is that my Mom and I don't talk much these days because I get impatient with her on the phone.
What are five places where you have lived?
1) Chengdu, China (until 6)
2) Hangzhou, China (until 15)
3) Pittsburgh, PA
4) Tucson, AZ
5) Woburn, MA
There are a few more.
What are five jobs you’ve had? (a short list)
1) University of Arizona main library
2) Nortel Networks
3) UAPD
4) UA College of Public Health
5) Honeywell, IBM, Raytheon....
I put 3 in the last box, too many jobs!
You are tagged:
Kristian
Mette
Chad
Clay
Mai
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