Two of my sales reps nearly came to blows earlier because one of them stepped on the other’s cell phone. The cell phone was on the floor because its owner wanted to recharge it and did not have an outlet free at his cube, whereupon he placed plugged it into an outlet in the walkway and placed the phone on the floor. The other rep, while walking to his cubicle, did not see the phone there and stepped on it.
Rep A is upset. He feels that either the company or the “guilty” party owes him a new phone. Apparently he comes from Krypton and does not realize that most portable technology on this world is somewhat fragile, and that people WALK on the DAMN FLOOR and don’t expect expensive electronic devices to be placed in the walkway.
It’s the fault of people like this that we now have signs everywhere like - “warning - coffee may be hot”, or “may contain nuts” on a bag of peanuts. Idiots. Just saying, you’re going to end up posting a sign “Caution - people walk on floor” or something.
There is already a notice posted reminding reps that it is a violation of company policy to leave items in the walkway that may obstruct the path of others. I asked Rep A if he’d like me to write him up for his (repeated) violations of this policy, of if he’d rather we consider the loss of the phone sufficient chastisement.
Duct tape. Stick the (new) phone to the wall. Problem solved. (Well, that particular problem. The one where the guy is something of an idiot, maybe not.)
I dunno, I think duct taping idiots to the wall would create thousands of new jobs (there woudl be a huge spike in the need for duct tape), plus it would get them out of the way.
Since it was your idea, by committee law I now place the responsibiilty for implementing this new project on you.
It’s totally the idiot’s own fault. It’s his problem and nobody else’s responsibility to replace the phone.
The guy sounds like a man that came to the company picnic and played volleyball. He took off his $250 sun glasses and laid them on the ground two feet from the playing area. Five minutes later he’s hassling one of the employees who stepped on the glasses while playing. Everybody else told him it was his fault and he left, which was a bonus for us since he was ass in the game too.