I think this is a great plan and the OP should go right ahead and do it. I see no negative fallout from this at all.
If you’ve gottento the extent of discussing it here, you’ve probably discussed your dissatisfaction with people at work. As I said earlier, do not make the assumption that people who nod along and say “yes” are on your side. In the most charitable case, one will speculate over coffee (if that’s allowed) to a group that includes the office snitch “I bet it was that Bong guy. He seems like the sort who would do this and he hates the policy…”
In many states, that’s all it takes for them to decide to fire you. Worst case from their point of view, someone got fired and any other whiners should be even more shit-scared.
Best case, he makes everyone’s life hell fo no good reason.
As for the “no cartoons on the wall” policy, that was the subject of a dilbert cartoon too. http://dilbert.com/dyn/str_strip/000000000/00000000/0000000/000000/10000/5000/100/15112/15112.strip.zoom.gif
I make it a point to keep only as much personal stuff in my cube as will fit in my bag. That way I’m always free to storm off in a huff if the need presents itself.
Life imitates art imitating life. It’s pointy hair all the way down.
Agreed. I think the OP should go right ahead and do it. Maybe turn it into a campaign.
Seriously, if you send it from an anonymous email at a library or something, I still think you’ll get busted one way or another if your boss makes an issue of the email. Someone will rat you out or something like that - I just don’t trust that I could get away with this, people being as they are.
Me too. Course, I usually work as a temp, so staying mobile is easier/a better idea. Someday I think I’m going to go to a temp job and it’s going to be so bad that I will just pack my bag and leave without saying a word to anyone (I was about five seconds away from it at my last assignment).
Well, your boss is in good company:
You asked if there were any articles concerning negative effects of such a policy. There’s this:
and this
Is your OCD CEO a pop culture luminary? Maybe you could get a similar write-up.
One of two ways:
(1)
If you send one of the articles that posters here have suggested, this thread will come up third or fourth on a simple google search of the title. If this CEO is as anal as you suggest, he’ll find this thread, click on your profile and see your Comcast email address, full birthdate (guess who has access to all his employees’ birthdates?), and, even if you change those, 1,879 posts. I’m guessing he’ll only need to read a few hundred before he can tell who you are.
(2)
CEO receives email. After the blood rage subsides, he calls all managers and tells them find out who sent this. As you’ve no doubt been bitching to your co-workers, janitors, and potted plants about this policy, Corporate Drone Bongmaster will be on the short list of office clutter agitators. Soon you’ll be looking for a big enough file box to pack your cubicle hookahs and water-pipes while security patiently waits nearby.
Wow…I’ve had my, “Excuse me, what level of hell is this?” magnet on my locker for 2 years now.
I thought this was going to be a collection of pictures that shouldn’t be seen at work. I’m at work, yet clicked on it anyway. I guess I’m glad I’m disappointed I was mistaken.
Get your pictures put on your mug, mousemat, desk calendar, key ring, magnets, laptop skin, desk organiser, notepad, candy tin, coaster, clipboard, wall clock, neck tie, and tote bag (Snapfish will do it for you!). That might be fun.
They do 5S (actually 6S) at my office and I’ve never seen them complain about personal photos, etc. I have a stuffed cactus on my desk and it’s never been an issue. Mind you, it’s probably all about culture (I live in the Philippines and banning family photos would cause a riot).
The 6S here is mostly about safety and hygiene issues – although we did get told not to keep tissues on the desk – wtf?
I also thought 6S was mostly for shift workers where an area might not be ‘your’ cubicle.
Nobody works every second of every day – people are far more likely to be inspired to come to work and work hard when they’re there if they feel some attachment to their workspace.
If you have customers regularly snooping around the cubes then a certain level has to be enforced but otherwise, who cares?
It’s interesting that the only time the office get’s really tidied is when the VPs, etc, come round. When it’s customers they generally know well enough to understand that a certain level of clutter is pretty much a requirement.
SD
When we had some brass visiting I was asked to take down my pirate flag, but aside from that we have a reasonable set of management.
Wow! That is utterly insane – I am glad that the jerk got punished.
Markxxx, can you please come back and explain what exactly the “problem” is, in detail? This is GQ after all.
What exactly happens when a person has more than two pictures? Is the productivity drop measurable at three pictures?
And the frames? Are you implying that net income is reduced proportionately with the number of pictures that are not in frames?
Sorry - I’m going to post this because your boss will have some flying monkey smart enough to dothe same thing: This is just from your first page of “BM’s posts” here…
You have a comcast email ID which you should hide.
You are an aspiring photographer from PA who has been to Japan and own a house where you had a catastrophic drain problem.
There’s enough info there to be sure (a) you’re the bozo threatening to send an email about this (b) unless there are 2 PA companies with the same problem, you’re his employee, © odds are someone knows about your photography and house and Japan and so on… (d) male?
If I keep reading your posts I will probably get an idea of your age.
I seriously doubt you’ve spent ages and 1800 posts setting up a “fake cover” alibi.
The internet is only as anonymous as you want it to be. Now that you’ve talked about it, you have exposed yourself too much to be safe if someone else has the same bright idea. Even if you end up not being the one who sent it, they may decide it was you and fire you just because…
On the plus side, I don’t find any other BongMaster posts on other boards through a quick google search. If you had done that, there’s likely be even more info.
Sorry.
…not to mention your username. Pop wizz time might come up a little early for you.
I have the pdf mentioned on the first page. OP - PM sent.
I wanted to thank everyone who had the sense to point out the flaws in my less then cunning plan. I did indeed have far too much personal info out there which a couple of the posts above illustrate. My main mistake was leaving my email exposed here, I thought I had it hidden but did not. So thank you all for making me see why I was vulnerable and giving me enough time to fix some of these errors. I am not going to send the email but still am pretty pissed about the policy change. What would you do?
Honestly? Nothing. Oh, bitch about it in the Pit or on your blog if you must, but don’t attack your boss at work, because it’s not worth your time and effort. The no-pictures policy is understandably vexsome, and, to be honest, stupid, but it’s only a big deal if you make it so.
I would also do nothing. I don’t normally have personal pictures on my desk at work. If this was part of a larger trend of the owner of the company taking the company down the drain, I’d start looking for a different job, but not just based on this one policy.