A
cautionary tale of 2 people and their strategy for interaction
Two
people sat in the same office day after day with targets, of personal
and team achievement, to be met. The bosses showed no mercy and piled
on more work. The people were watched and their time keeping was meticulously
recorded. Time for toilet visits was reduced to 4 minutes. Lunch breaks
were cut to 10 minutes. Their stress threshold plummeted to an all time
low.
Some
people got feelings of being bored and frustrated, as their opportunity
for creativity went out the window. They had to keep their noses to
the grindstone. So, to relieve their their work load and have some fun,
so they thought, 2 people started to play games with each other.
When
the cat's away the mice will play.
They
started to pick on each other and poke fun. That made them feel better
for a while. Snide remarks such as;" Hey look at you - dressed
up like a dog's dinner", were followed by gestures, followed by
even more suggestive gestures. Then one person decided to hide the other
person's pen and had great delight in watching the other waste time
and squirm when the boss wanted to know what was going on. The other
person lied a little; saying he had lost his pen. Then the person retaliated
by messing up the other person's papers on the desk when out for a quick
toilet break. And so the games went on but got more devious and less
funny. They started making others feel small at the expense of friendship.
One person even felt like hitting the other. Thoughts of murderous rage
arose in the mind. After a while they got bored again, as the game didn't
seem as much fun as they thought it was.
So, they decided to start picking on other people in the office. Again
they had some fun, while feeling united against the rest.
Then
they found themselves alone and not being spoken to by the other people.
Their fun and games had created so much distraction and attention diverting,
that they were not working as a team anymore. Performance had fallen
and output was down. The atmosphere changed from happy friendly to grim
watchfulness. There were rumor's that Management was on the warpath
getting ready to remove non productive workers (most likely the trouble
makers -although they would protest that they were just joking and harmless
pranks).
Spoilsports?
So
much so, that the habit of poking fun and picking on people began to
affect the 2 people's social lives. Whether at home with their families
or with their friends, the fun had escalated from nudging people out
of the way into fights, pushing others while, on one occasion, picking
someone up and spinning them around. Then they started throwing things
at each other (as you do?), paper objects and cushions, then heavier
and finally bigger objects. Friends and family began to feel unsafe
around them.
The
last straw
The
Christmas party was to follow after office hours, the next day, but
the 2 people decided that it was not soon enough. A few drinks at lunchtime
made them feel bold, bolshi and aggressive even. They decided to put
sticky tape on everything that moved, holly inside places such as files
and cabinets and sticky sweets in the biscuit tin. Next day, by the
time the office party arrive, everyone was in a bad mood.
Out
of sight
Meanwhile
the family members, brothers and sisters had had enough. They decided
that they were going to have some fun and enjoyment without the spoilsports
and came up with a strategy. They stopped inviting the 2 people to their
events. And what a difference it made! Everyone enjoyed themselves,
without malice or embarrassment or wondering what next.
Time
for change
The
2 people found themselves more and more excluded, isolated, lonely and
alienated from contact with others.
One
of the people began to realize if behavior and attitude was the key
to was losing friends then perhaps it could be changed.
Next
day that same person worked steadily throughout the day, with a cheery
smile, while the other still kept up the banter and bitchy remarks.
Other colleagues began to notice and started talk. One person made an
effort to be friendly and gradually the atmosphere lightened. The other
person, (who was still trying to pick on people but couldn't seem to
find anyone to wind up - was feeling bored, miserable, frustrated while
blaming everyone else for the troubles), decided to leave the job.
And
finally
The
office held a party - not for the person who was leaving but afterwards
- as a reward for amazingly enhanced performance without pressure.
The
toast was; "to the one person who made a difference".
copyright
© 2002
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