MemeMachineGo!

Blogging about work: if you’re posting negative things about your specific employer, it can be dangerous.

But if you’re posting fictionalized stories about a crazy workplace that just might bear some resemblance to someplace you’ve worked before, it can be great entertainment.

If you’ve ever gotten a corporate memo that reads something like this:

Attention all employees:

Congratulations on the “storm” of goodwill you showed in the first annual company wide hurricane relief campaign, “Winkyshock, Inc. Cares.” Unfortunately because of some weaknesses in the coordination schema, some of your workspaces look like it was them that got hit by a hurricane. Because neatness is a Winkyshock “Core Value,” all employees are reminded to report to their departmental relief coordinator with their donated items by the COB tomorrow. Remember, “we can’t help others, if our working area is cluttered.”

Now, get back to work.

… then you’ve probably worked at someplace like Winkyshock, Inc.

I’ve been known to do something along those lines myself. A few years back, I wrote a story that was partly inspired by the Bastard Operator From Hell and partly by my own work at a computing center.

On the other hand, former employers are more safe, especially if your period of employment was long enough ago that the statute of limitations has expired. And if you worked for a company that’s since gone out of busienss, well, I consider anything to be fair game.

All of this is by way of introduction to some posts that I will make in the coming days. I dug up some old files with my reminiscences of working in retail hell, for a now-defunct department store chain. I’ll be posting a short piece or two each day, starting tomorrow.