Monday, December 17, 2012

It'd be like the LA riots, only fueled by boredom rather than pure rage

I work in an office building shared with other businesses.  The company on the floor below us employs a lot of really young people and, at the risk of sounding like an old lady, they can get really loud.  They blast music, and have ping pong battles so intense I find their ping pong balls in the stairwell.  How could a table tennis game get so robust that balls fly into the stairwell without anyone noticing?  It's like a raging frat party all the time down there.

These people think they own the building.  It's entertaining to watch them get on the elevator without tearing their eyes from their phones.  Because they assume everyone in existence wants to go to their company they don't even bother checking to see if the button to their floor is lit.  Then when we get to my company's lobby they get off, look around, stutter in confusion and get back on the elevator to go down to their floor. 

I think it'd be fun to start a turf war.  Only I'm not interested in hurting anyone, I prefer methods of passive aggression.  I'd like to do drive-bys that consist of riding the elevator down to their floor, and when the elevators open yell really nasty insults like, "Your business model is sub-par!" or, "Your IBITDA is so small you use old 2x4s as ping pong paddles!" and then make my slow get away back up to my floor.

I'd really like to drop a dirty bomb on their floor. Of course, it'd really just be a napkin full of yellow starbursts, 'cause who likes yellow starbursts?  Nobody, that's who.

It would be necessary to get into their heads and fully understand what makes them tick.  Once I understand the enemy I could more easily put fear into their hearts.  To gain access to their office I would simply dress really hipster.  Once inside I would switch out their coffee for hot chocolate and change their Wi-Fi settings to block social media sites.

That is how I break them.

As if that's not enough, I would hide their ping pong balls and change all of their Pandora sations to Hanna Montana.  Yeah, not even Miley Cyrus but straight Hanna Montana.  I'm not proud of this, but sometimes you have to sacrifice your morals in times of war.

My finale would be to strip their office of modern-style chairs in their lounge area.  That takes their comfort and art.  I would replace them with metal folding chairs spray painted with the name of the closest stake center.  That sends a double message; you are only as good as these hard cheap chairs, and I play so dirty I took these chairs from a church, so don't mess with me.

Of course, in the end this might actually make them more productive, but that's a risk I'm willing to take.