It has been a very long week at work. There is no immediate end in site. Tomorrow is Friday, but for my co-workers and I, it is day five in a 12 day run, all of which will be over eight hours to varying degrees. So what happens when people are tired of being at work, and feeling very stressed, and they know that they have to keep going for another seven days? Now what do those same people, in that same situation do when a form printer dies? Well, if you work with the people I do, this is what.
The printer died when I was at lunch. I returned from lunch and checked my email as I always so. Most of it was the standard run of the mill email I get all day long. There was an over abundance it seemed, but some days are just like that. Then I spotted this email for our office manager:
Subject: Death in our Family
Importance: High
Yes that's right. Today our dearest friend #3 choked to death
while trying to deliver "J" a [redacted company name] bill of lading. She was born in the early 1990's during the implementation of the old warehouse management system. She was dedicated to making our staff a success and will be missed by all. #3 is survived by two sisters, #2 and #4.
She is now laid to rest in our server room.
Donations to the Food Bank of Nevada are preferred in lieu of flowers.
All kidding aside-it did choke, but we switched out the network cable and you can still request bills of lading to print to #3.
Yes, an obituary for a printer, sent out to all the office and management staff. It was a serious tension breaker, and great to laugh. I think we all laughed at this one, and I am pretty sure we all needed the laugh. It didn't end there though, but these emails rarely do. Several replies followed:
May she rest in pieces...
Then...
Please advise the time of the viewing, we would like to pay our last respects...
And...
My deepest respect and sympathy go out to all of the family.
Next...
Has anyone ever seen Office Space? I may have a baseball bat in my car... I'm just saying.
And...
Hold off on that. "I" thinks we need to find out if it is a organ donor first. :P
Finally...
I got dibs on the brain! :)
Most people call it getting a bit "punchy", some say "giggly", others have even said "sober drunkenness". We just call it therapy.