They actually DO want us to fail...

[JoitheArtist]

Most of you are fairly familiar with my situation at the moment: love my department, mostly like my job when I'm left alone to do it, trust and respect my boss, and my CEO is batshit crazy. In an effort to improve our health, most of us had been taking a walk around the parking lot towards the end of the day.

Now for a note about the physical office: our department is at the front, off the lobby. There are two things to note about it:

1. Due to weirdness with the ventilation, our office is usually either boiling hot or freezing cold if we leave the door open. No, we don't really know why, but it's true.

2. Since it's off the lobby, which is where the CEO, several coworkers, and any visitors hang out, all the noise carries into our office.


Normal solution? Shut the door! It lets our group talk in private, without disturbing anyone else, or having anyone else's noise bug us. So, the other day, I needed to talk to our artist, so I crossed the room, shut the door, and went over to her cubicle. She told me that we were no longer allowed to shut the door!

Why?

Because, apparently, Artist and Awesome Boss had become too "clique-ish," what with closing the door, and sometimes going for a walk around the building to talk. So, to demonstrate their "openness," we have to have the constant noise and changing temps of the lobby, and we're not allowed to go walking anymore.

Of course, no-one mentioned the fact that our team's close communication is a major part of why we're the most efficient and productive department here. Honestly, I think it was my coworker D, who isn't part of the creative team but is in our office, who made the accusation. She's really passive-agressive, and doesn't like it when Awesome Boss gets her to get her shit together. D's been against Awesome Boss for awhile now, and I think she was probably the one to talk about "cliqueish-ness."

So much for being "empowered" and all that crap: we can't even close the damn door when the CEO is standing outside, laughing like a hyena. Thank God for over-the-ear headphones!!

[Dips]

You CEO laughs like a hyena? I should have known. It fits.

But the situation is pretty messed up.

Is there any way to reason with the boss about it?

If not, I have two ideas:

1. If you're sure you know that the employee in your department put the bug in the boss's ear, put that employee's desk closest to the door. Let her bear the brunt of her own actions.

2. Buy a floor fan to...um...deal with the climate issues . Have it blowing out the door into the lobby. It might drown out some of the racket.

If you want to be REALLY evil all of you can have egg salad and beans for dinner the night before you first deploy the fan.