It's funny how work settings tend to play out. For the most part, everyone tends to dial things down, because they don't want to cause drama or otherwise rock the boat. That doesn't mean that everything has to be entirely bland, but you also hear a lot fewer off-color jokes. It's just safer that way.
Still, every now and then, a situation calls for some wacky humor.
In this particular case, one of my coworkers was dealing with someone who just wouldn't stop talking. I wasn't there for the actual conversation, but apparently this person didn't catch any of the social cues and insisted on continuing the conversation. He just kept right on droning on, hoping to achieve some goal in the process.
As you can imagine, said coworker was not particularly thrilled. She looked around to see if anyone else could bail her out of this situation, but alas, no one was to be found. She was stuck.
Many hours later, she would then recount this tale of woe, and lament that no one had been able to catch her eye to see her plight. So, her solution was that she needed a much more obvious, and visible, emergency signal. What's more, in order to ensure that everyone knew what said signal was, she demonstrated it. Specifically, the signal was to feign tripping and falling on the ground.
Now, I wasn't there for most of this conversation. I hadn't seen the original conversation, and I wasn't present for the retelling. However, I did walk in to the room at the precise moment when she demonstrated her emergency signal.
Concerned, I asked if she was okay and tried to check on her. That was also the moment when I noticed that everyone else was laughing their heads off and making no move to help this coworker. That struck me as really odd, and stopped me in my tracks. They were laughing at the person who just fell. I don't think I've seen people be that straight-up mean before, so it confused the heck out of me.
Eventually, someone clued me in on the context, and I understood why no one was trying to help the poor woman on the floor. The best part, though, was that I must've shown my concern on my face, because someone else then started laughing at the timing of my entrance ("you should've seen the look on your face!").
Work sure does lead to some amusing anecdotes sometimes.
Still, every now and then, a situation calls for some wacky humor.
In this particular case, one of my coworkers was dealing with someone who just wouldn't stop talking. I wasn't there for the actual conversation, but apparently this person didn't catch any of the social cues and insisted on continuing the conversation. He just kept right on droning on, hoping to achieve some goal in the process.
As you can imagine, said coworker was not particularly thrilled. She looked around to see if anyone else could bail her out of this situation, but alas, no one was to be found. She was stuck.
Many hours later, she would then recount this tale of woe, and lament that no one had been able to catch her eye to see her plight. So, her solution was that she needed a much more obvious, and visible, emergency signal. What's more, in order to ensure that everyone knew what said signal was, she demonstrated it. Specifically, the signal was to feign tripping and falling on the ground.
Now, I wasn't there for most of this conversation. I hadn't seen the original conversation, and I wasn't present for the retelling. However, I did walk in to the room at the precise moment when she demonstrated her emergency signal.
Concerned, I asked if she was okay and tried to check on her. That was also the moment when I noticed that everyone else was laughing their heads off and making no move to help this coworker. That struck me as really odd, and stopped me in my tracks. They were laughing at the person who just fell. I don't think I've seen people be that straight-up mean before, so it confused the heck out of me.
Eventually, someone clued me in on the context, and I understood why no one was trying to help the poor woman on the floor. The best part, though, was that I must've shown my concern on my face, because someone else then started laughing at the timing of my entrance ("you should've seen the look on your face!").
Work sure does lead to some amusing anecdotes sometimes.
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