New workplace business?

[not_austin]

My SO just forwarded an e-mail she received at work ;-

Dear all,

I cannot believe I am sending an e-mail of this nature out to an office, but someone is hiding a pint of milk in the ceiling of the LH cubicle of the men’s toilets on the 3rd flr.

Unbelievably this has happened more than once – can whoever is carrying out this idiotic juvenile prank please stop immediately.

Also, damage could be caused to the toilet, and also to you (whoever you are) as you are obviously standing on the toilet to hide it!

Many thanks,

My first thought was that someone was obviously trying to make cheese and would now need an alternate revenue stream.

Any ideas?

[NinetyWt]

Does the place have a common kitchen/break room? Some folks get tired of other people helping themselves to their bottle of ketchup/box of cheezits/whatever.

The ceiling is not a good place for milk though. Strange.

[not_austin]

They have kitchen/break areas on every floor, the milk (along with tea & coffee) is provided free by the company in plentiful amounts. No need to hoard it.

I have done something similar in the past but that involved pickled herrings and duct tape and was done on my last day with the company. This seems to have been done several times though, so I cannot really see revenge being a motive.

[hajario]

It’s a prank. The prankster is obviously not very original or clever. It says right in the email that it’s a prank. How could anyone possibly think that someone is trying to store the milk for later use?

Why would someone repeatedly do that? Mental illness, pettiness, idiocy…take your pick.

[Backcountry_Medic]

Meh, sounds like a manager trying to ‘prove’ their commitment to the cause. I work in the emergency department at a level one trauma center (ie- big time) and just yesterday we were looking at the last 3 months worth of emails from our director. If you put emails about beverage policy, locker room shoe policy and parking policy together they outnumbered emails about actual patient care by more than 3:1.

Consider this latest doozy:

Ladies and gentlemen,

It has come to my attention that people have started marking their coffee cups with symbols or the names of other staff in order to circumvent the number of beverage containers allowed in the beverage storage cabinet. This makes it effectively impossible to police our current beverage policy. Effective immediately, I will be monitoring the cups that people are drinking out of to ensure that each cup has the appropriate employee’s name written on the outside of it. Employees found to have other markings on their cups will first be given a verbal reprimand and will be written up if they continue to fail to follow hospital policy. This will also allow for better enforcement of people who leave their cups in the beverage cabinet while they are not working.

This sounds like a good job for someone making about 90,000 a year or so. What on earth would we do without her?

[Litoris]

@Backcountry_Medic

Meh, sounds like a manager trying to ‘prove’ their commitment to the cause. I work in the emergency department at a level one trauma center (ie- big time) and just yesterday we were looking at the last 3 months worth of emails from our director. If you put emails about beverage policy, locker room shoe policy and parking policy together they outnumbered emails about actual patient care by more than 3:1.

Consider this latest doozy:
This sounds like a good job for someone making about 90,000 a year or so. What on earth would we do without her?

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!!! What the hell is that about? You’re only allowed 1 drink a day or some such??? OMG, I would be in so much trouble with my 10 bottles of water per workday habit…

[Backcountry_Medic]

In a way. There isn’t a set limit on the number of drinks per day, but since about 30-40 people are forced to share 2 cabinets it can get full pretty fast. Couple this with a few drinks that have been ‘forgotten’ for a couple of weeks and all of the microbiology that ensues and policing the drink policy is now a director level task. The saddest part is that this is just the latest chapter from the new director of nursing resources- a three day barrage of director level meetings to solve the problems of the hospital and this was all we got.

I was just using it as an example of how semi-worthless bosses tend to latch onto any issue, no matter how ridiculous, if it makes them seem like they are part of the solution. I can’t imagine what result the boss of the OP was looking for. Give attention to the prankster? Encourage someone to rat someone else out for this prank? Does she really have nothing better to do than write a public notice for every silly prank some pissed off employee pulls? I’ll never understand it. Don’t they teach in manager school that the best way to curtail attention seeking behavior is to not give it attention? Or did she just want to put it out there that she’s aware and watching?