August 17, 2004
avoid the watercooler gang
More thoughts on “How To Be Creative”:
18. Avoid the Watercooler Gang.
They
"Hugh's Daily Cartoon" Newsletter. A new cartoon sent out every weekday morning to your inbox [RSS version here.]. A wee chuckle to start your day off right etc.
15 Responses to “avoid the watercooler gang”
http://www.peopleagainstw.org/
I perceive this as ‘watercooler’ being synonymous with ‘rut’ — as in stuck in one.
It’s a scary and dangerous place to be (if you have the common sense and/or grasp on reality to realize it — course then hopefully you have the drive to do something to remedy the situation).
I just left a job that while I had potential to grow, was turning my brain to mush. There was nothing new and interesting, and the company itself was floundering at best.
I was one of the “watercoolies”. I hated it. Me and my close [work] friend pissing and moaning every day. Though I’ve since done something about it, and she — well she’s stuck doing what I was doing before I left (as well as her previous tasks).
We talk occasionally, but she just wants to talk to the ‘watercooler’ talk. Not me — I’ve got plenty to do now, and plenty to keep me going. (waiting for a server to startup, which is the only reason I got to read and write this today!)
If I could draw, I’d make my own card-toons in reply:
1. Life’s too short to work for jerks.
2. Seeking perfection, while floating like a phantom from gig to gig, sounds like a recipe for madness.
3. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side!
4. We have to play the hand we’re dealt. When it’s bad, we complain about it. That’s life.
love bucket are you really maggie estep?
This was a perfectly good post that made some vaild points until the ending. I came away with the distinct impression that you were subtly comparing your life choices to your buddy’s, and implying that he had become the loser he used to make fun of.
Now perhaps that’s not what you intended, but it’s the impression I got.
I’m not the real Maggie Estep, just a fan…
NJY, I hear ya. But I’d say it’s meant to be far more ambiguous than that.
Far more.
At least that’s how I saw it.
Hmmmm.… Conshidering my op-shuns, Mish Moneypenny…
Hugh,
I’m feeling cyber-samaritan today. I tried to trackback this post, but I continue to get this error:
Error: Invalid TrackBack ID ‘2.65-full-lib’
I dug into the MT stuff (about which I know diddly) and found this in the plugin code:
if (my $pi = $app->path_info) {
$pi =~ s!^/!!;
$pi =~ s!^\D*!!;
($tb_id, $pass) = split /\//, $pi;
}
So in English what this is doing is finding everything up to the point where the digits begin, then it slices it into two pieces, left of and right of any forward slashes. Because your MT directory in your URL has numbers in it, it looks like when you come down to that last line, the value of $pi is “2.65-full-lib/mt-tb.cgi/277
”. When it breaks into before and after the slash, it thinks the ID is “2.65-full-lib” and that $pass is “mt-tb.cgi/277″. If your directory did not have numbers in it, this should all work because it will find the ID as 277 and pass as empty. Until either that code changes in the form of an updated plugin or your directory naming does, your trackbacks just plain ain’t going to work.
d
In the early 90s I was a paper pusher for the federal government, where I became one of the watercooler guys. We complained that we did all the boring grunt work while various “fair haired lads” (the current management favorites) got promotions and recognition. We were sarcastic, witty, and accurate about our predicament … but we weren’t happy. We worked because we had to pay the bills … nothing more.
To make a long story short, I left the job security of the federal government to work as an entry-level computer programmer. Now, a decade later, I’m much happier (and richer). My job is frustrating at times, but at least it’s not the slow living death of a meaningless job.
Wow, you have a great blog. Nice drawings.. I’ll be a sure frequent visitor.
Great and valuable post. Good to read about copywriting from the viewpoint of somebody who actually wants to work in advertising (versus a copywriter waiting to write their own book.. one day)
btw — good luck with the luxury stuff.
Darn, I forgot to be a frequent visitor
Don’t you realise that your the watercooler guy.
you bitching about your former workplace people
that have probably moved on by now.
This is not a lesson, this is a sad case of you
classifying people in order for you to understand your position in the world better.
I like some of your lessons, but im afraid this one really isnt that great,
Heres a lesson..‘the watercooler people are humans like you’
This lessons sounds like something more out of a movie than real life, in reality…how many christmas partys did you bitch about someone at?
How many things did you tell you wife or partner that you hate about work and the people.…
A
lets face it..this is the reality about the work place, theres really no point in being stoic about it.… your a water cooler person.…
misnomer, I took something different away from this lesson. I’ve worked in environments where there was a “watercooler gang,” always complaining but never doing anything about the things they complained about. It seems obvious to me that Hugh is pointing out that if you allow yourself to get trapped in that “kvetch but do nothing” cycle, it can paralyze you. He obviously understands that these people are human beings, but he’s also pointing out patterns of behavior that aren’t healthy. Finally, I’m a bit confused by your last line. Are you saying that since everyone bitches about work, we should all just give in to the impulse rather than take a look at the bigger picture?
The Watercooler Gang
A nice, sad and somewhat ambiguous story on avoiding The Watercooler Gang, and after you’re done with reading that, you should explore the funny cartoons of Hugh Macleod.…