*I wrote this entry more than a year ago and never shared it, probably because I didn’t want to risk the job, but I don’t work there anymore, so what the heck.’

I’m beginning to realize that this place sucks on a Friday. Everyone who can afford it takes Friday off, and of those that remain, no one wants to be here. Every Friday my main co-worker starts to complain about how she can’t afford anything and they won’t give her a raise….

Bu, I don’t want to get carried away with all those descriptions, because I want to get to the heart of the matter which is.

WRITING A PROPER SIGN FOR THE OFFICE

Here’s some back story.

I spent the morning merging some large format documents (24×36 inch sheets) and then needed them to be scanned to a CD for distribution. So I went down to the reproduction office to have this done.

The door was locked and I thought “WTF are they closed, it’s only 1:30…. maybe they’re just out to lunch or in the bathroom”

I went back to my desk and waited. Then I went back down about 15 minutes later, found the door unlocked, but no one at the desk so I left my work order there, as I’ve done several times before

*side note, I’m new to this job and haven’t figured out all the protocols and office politics but I’d seen this done before and thought it to be an acceptable practice.

Fifteen minutes after dropping off my documents I got this in my email (names redacted)

Good P.M.

Mr. supervisor of person who has annoyed me,

 Our office is closed today for the above ”purposes” [subject was “closed for Training and Rec Day]. Not one but two of your employees felt that their work orders was that important that they had a “right” to interrupt our day. One, you know who, the other Mark Miller, he just open the door and lets himself in, leaving his request and work order on the counter..There is a sign on the door stating that we are closed, not try the door and walk in the office.

 Thank you,

 Cranky Woman in the Basement

I’ll give her this much…

There was a sign, and I didn’t read it. But have a look at this super effective sign and have a guess as to why I didn’t read it.

Too Long; Didn’t Read

I drafted this response:

“To be more accurate, there is a sign on the door that is a paragraph long and doesn’t get to the point (that they aren’t accepting work orders until Monday) until the end.

 Admittedly I should take more time to read more signs around here, but less is more, if they don’t want to be bothered they should make a sign that says this:

CLOSED FOR TRAINING

NOT ACCEPTING WORK ORDERS UNTIL MONDAY

IF IT’S AN EMERGENCY… [insert info here]

 Also a friendly email could have been sent out to everyone informing us of the restriction for the day.

 I’m not trying to make a federal case out of this, I apologized to Ms. Cranky Woman in the Basement and I meant it, but I did also end up unintentionally talking to someone else down there [when he caught me taking the pic for this post] and I expressed my annoyance with the overly complicated sign…. and he agreed with me.

As much as they don’t appreciate being interrupted I don’t appreciate being singled out for an honest mistake when they don’t know how to communicate well.”

I didn’t send it…

Instead I made a snarky sign of my own

unfortunately, it’s lost to the annals of time, so we’ll never be able to fully enjoy my angsty retort, but I showed it to my supervisor and after I explained that i would never actually post such a sign in earnest, we had a good chuckle over it.

THE POINT STILL REMAINS:

• If you can’t read the sign in one breath, it aint gonna get read

• You need to make your point right away

• I need to pay closer attention to the melee of signiage at work… even if they are poorly structured.