Friday 17 August 2001

Pic of the day: Well, one needs some office humor. (And for what it's worth, this picture is taken at home, in case it's too dark to see.)

From now on, Dilbert

From now on, there is likely to be even less work-related stuff in my journals. Today, Management politely asked me to not write about my workplace, as I have occasionally done in the past. I have never identified my workplace, and even if someone knew, the people I mentioned have been so anonymized that I'm not sure even all of my coworkers would recognize them.

But they still worry. And I can see how they should not be required to read a daily journal in a foreign language for fear that I might reveal anything, or even fabricate stories. So if promising to not write about work means they save that time, sure. This should be the last entry they need to struggle with. But if I had known my bosses were reading my journal, I would have waved at them. "Hi boss!"

***

There is a reason why Dilbert is one of the most popular comics. It depicts, in grand exaggeration and parody, the reality of large office workplaces all over the world. The stuff that happens at my workplace could happen anywhere, and I think some of my readers will have recognized their own workplace in the small tidbits I have written. That certainly was the point. I don't have any agenda - I have no ambition to climb the corporate ladder, that's for sure. Nor do I have any known enemies.

But of course each of these thousands of workplaces is fearful that the world might find out. Everywhere they think "it is just us". So they ask (or probably more commonly, demand) that their employees not tell the truth. That's fine by me as long as I don't have to lie.

Some days ago in a hospital here in Norway, a hospitalized woman died from heart malfunction while the two assigned nurses were both sleeping nearby. The two workers were of course declared persona non grata in the hospital henceforth. In the aftermath it turned out that the place was understaffed and people often have to work two shifts in a row. (This is illegal in jobs where human lives are at stake, here in Norway. Well, mostly.) But of course no one had told. Loyalty to die for.

In perspective, we have a pretty carefree time at my workplace.

And if you want to know what happens at my workplace, from now on you have to use your imagination. Heh. Or you could read Dilbert. Funnier than reality. Well, mostly ...