(-:(-:(-:THE OFFICIAL FRIDAY SILLINESS THREAD:-):-):-)

1) You are definitely encouraged to loudly proclaim, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more!" Or, run around wildly and proclaim , "I'm stressed, I'm stressed and I can't take it any more!"

2) Megaphones are allowed, but it’s even better if you can exercise your natural lung power, breathing very fully and deeply for a great big, cathartic shout.

3) We encourage employees everywhere to fill their company’s suggestion box with the request for a sound proof, padded room. Thus, Panic Day and any other occasion that requires loud, ridiculous behavior can be celebrated discreetly.

4) If, like most of us, you are without a sound proof, padded room, then be bold, be assertive, and take a stand by the water cooler, swearing not to budge until “things get better.”.

5) Stay in bed all day. But first, get up, brush your teeth, head to the kitchen and load up on snacks and drinks. Make sure you have lots of fluffy pillows to hide your head under.

7) Phone in “well.” Call your boss and tell him or her that you feel too darn good to come in to work today, even though it’s a fib. That way you won’t appear to be a victim.

8) Go to work way over-dressed. Wear a tux or a prom gown, and, when asked what it’s about, simply reply, “I have an engagement later on.” Keep ‘em guessing.

9) Call the local TV station and tell them you’re going to run for President and that you’re holding a news conference at your house at noon.

12) Head for the toy store and buy as many toy soldiers as you can and come home and conduct a “war” in your living room.

13) Mix up a couple bottles full of food coloring and water and go out and write wacky things on the snow.

14) Call the Y and try to convince the pool manager that the pool should be filled with lime yogurt.

17) Go the shore and walk the beach, or go to the mountains and climb a large hill.

18) Stand on one foot in the middle of a large mall, waving your arms up and down and proclaim, “I’m a bad bad birdie, I’m a bad bad birdie.”

19) Go to a Senior Center and sit down and have a chat with some nice older person.

20) Contact the local fire company and ask if you can come over and help wash a fire truck.

Not a panic story, but a good email.

Subject: an engineer’s story.....

You don’t have to be an engineer to appreciate this story….. but you probably appreciate it even more if you had production line experience.

A toothpaste factory had a problem: they sometimes shipped empty boxes, without the tube inside. This was due to the way the production line was set up, and people with experience in designing production lines will tell you how difficult it is to have everything happen with timings so precise that every single unit coming out of it is perfect 100% of the time. Small variations in the environment (which can’t be controlled in a cost-effective fashion) mean you must have quality assurance checks smartly distributed across the line so that customers all the way down to the supermarket don’t get pissed off and buy another product instead.

Understanding how important that was, the CEO of the toothpaste factory got the top people in the company together and they decided to start a new project, in which they would hire an external engineering company to solve their empty boxes problem, as their engineering department was already too stretched to take on any extra effort.

The project followed the usual process: budget and project sponsor allocated, RFP, third-parties selected, and six months (and $8 million) later they had a fantastic solution — on time, on budget, high quality and everyone in the project had a great time. They solved the problem by using high-tech precision scales that would sound a bell and flash lights whenever a toothpaste box would weigh less than it should. The line would stop, and someone had to walk over and yank the defective box out of it, pressing another button when done to re-start the line.

A while later, the CEO decides to have a look at the ROI of the project: amazing results! No empty boxes ever shipped out of the factory after the scales were put in place. Very few customer complaints, and they were gaining market share. “That’s some money well spent!” – he says, before looking closely at the other statistics in the report.

It turns out, the number of defects picked up by the scales was 0 after three weeks of production use. It should’ve been picking up at least a dozen a day, so maybe there was something wrong with the report. He filed a bug against it, and after some investigation, the engineers come back saying the report was actually correct. The scales really weren’t picking up any defects, because all boxes that got to that point in the conveyor belt were good.

Puzzled, the CEO travels down to the factory, and walks up to the part of the line where the precision scales were installed.

A few feet before the scale, there was a $20 desk fan constantly blowing, and all the empty boxes blew off the belt and into a bin.

“Oh, that,” says one of the workers “one of the guys put it there ’cause he was tired of walking over every time the darn bell rang.”

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