The annual scream-fest

[MoonCat]

This is something that (thank god) doesn't happen any more, but used to be a yearly "event" at work.

"Office Olympics"

It was an annual event held in the accounting/bookkeeping dept, which was located on the other side of the cubicle walls from advertising, where I work. I never saw the actual events, but apparently it involved some sort of games of skill. And the sucky part was that the people who worked in that dept. would scream their heads off during each game. And pound on the filing cabinets. All afternoon. All while we were talking to customers on the phones, just the other side of the cubicle walls. Drove me crazy. People would ask us what the hell was going on. Try explaining that one.

I tried complaining to managers, but nothing was ever done. Then they moved that dept to another floor, and I don't think they have that event anymore.

Anyone else ever have something like this at work?

[lobo94]

At my job, we used to have bells in strategic places. Every time someone got so many sales, they would ring the bell, and people would start whooping like they were in the audience of the Arsenio Hall show.

I for one found it very disruptive, and non-professional. So did some of our customers. One of then actually asked me how I could work with such a racket. I said, truthfully, that I wasn't crazy about it, either, and that said, lots of practice.

I mean, I can understand motivation...but this was a bit much.

[Dreamstalker]

lobo, I once interviewed with a temp agency that had a similar thing. Not very professional IMO, and it was also distracting to the applicants who had to take computer tests (one big room, and no real partitions).

[Merriweather]

I mean, I can understand motivation...but this was a bit much.

Yeah, but that sort of stuff is popular with management - much cheaper to ring bells and whoop it up as motivation rather than give monetary incentives or anything a person could actually use.

[csquared]

Yeah, but that sort of stuff is popular with management - much cheaper to ring bells and whoop it up as motivation rather than give monetary incentives or anything a person could actually use.

Haven't you seen all those studies that show that employees prefer recognition over monetary rewards? At least that is what upper management keeps telling me.

[Teskeria]

have you noticed that the only participants in those surveys are management?