Keep the Workplace Weird

One of my coworkers writes random little messages on sticky notes and puts them up here and there around the department. I only noticed this for the first time the other day, but he said he's been doing it for a while.

("Love, care, tender chicken!" says the note I spotted on the door to my area. "Chicken," thought I to myself. "Huh.")

I love that someone will do something like this, as our employer is a fairly staid and sober agency, and many of the older set have been in the same position for decades. Maybe literally; seriously, I'm not entirely certain if some of these people can still walk.

It's got me to thinking about the importance of playfulness to maintain mental health, both emotional and intelligent. A lot of the older people at work are in a serious rut, performing the same duties in the same ways, devoid of innovation and fearful of change, for years upon years, counting down to retirement (to give you an idea of the overall attitude, there was a seminar offered a couple of weeks ago called "Ready - Set - Retire!"). It makes some of us newer hires anxious: is that what we'll become? But I'm closer to that age than any of the others of the newer-hire set, so it doesn't worry me as much. I figure if I were going to become staid and boring it would have started to kick in by now.

Which it hasn't.

So I'm really sad that this friend is leaving; he's going back to Aggieland to get his master's degree, and there will be no more sticky notes unless someone else takes up the tradition; and I guess I'll have to get a set of magnetic letters for my own cube.

Oops - gotta run, I'm going to be late. But hey - strike a blow for mental health. Do something crazy at work today!