Gizmodo Australia » cubicles

The Anatomy of the Office Prank

Mark Wilson — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:40:00 +0000

The casual office employee stalks his coworker with the intensity of a lion hunting a wildebeest on the African savanna. Never rushed, always contemplated, the average office prank is executed with all the razor precision found in a well-pressed shirt.

In part one of our examination of the office prank, we study the first of many techniques office workers use to triumph over co-adversaries. To those with soft stomachs, the gruesome techniques used to humiliate one’s peers with cardboard might be better left unseen.

For thousands of years, the office prankster has had to make due with his limited available resources. One such plentiful resource is cardboard. Don’t see any around? Look closer. Cardboard can be found in anything from packaging materials from shipments to old cereal boxes from the office kitchen. Just be careful of the fabled “cardboard paper cut.” Legend has it the that the victim could lose an entire finger.
Notice the attention to detail here, the Windows error messages and the “My Crappy Award for Something.”

Notice that there’s a good chance someone else has already pulled the exact same cardboard cubicle prank you once considered so original. Bonus points, however, for the cardboard headset.

Here it’s about not just the excellent craftsmanship but the ever-underestimated synchronised gloating.

This engineering firm did some work on the Extreme Home Makeover. We hoped it worked out better for the less privileged.

A vicious cardboard blow, notice the incorporation of a plastic bucket…a manoeuvre of some aptitude.

Now, humble student, you have seen the various attacks in the cardboard master’s arsenal. There are only two known defenses to this attack. Recycling and a pocket lighter. And one may get you fired.

Special thanks to Dustin Schirer, Brando, Ed Chaput, Chris Alleman and Randy Mumma.

Man Travels Back in Time to 1738, Brings Laptop and LCD Display With Him

Jason Chen — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:20:00 +0000

DVICE calls this the most luxurious office cubicle, but we see the world’s first time traveler. Here’s what we think: Mr. Jared Nelson discovered the secret of time travel. He then packed up his favourite gear, which includes his Dell laptop, an LCD display, headphones, a digital camera which he used to take this photo, his office phone (he likes teleconferencing?) and his leather chair that he swiped from the VP when Dan was on vacation.

After getting back to 1738, he recreated his cubicle the best he could out of parts available at that time. Jared then proceeded to live out the remainder of his life–all 10 days of it–sitting in that cube and suffering from malaria. [Nielsendata via Dvice]

Security Cam Footage of Cubicle Rage to the Extreme is Every Cube Dweller’s Fantasy

Adam Frucci — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 14:28:30 +0000

This is a security cam video of a guy who, to put it lightly, is sick of working in a cubicle farm. If you’re looking to get yourself fired in a way that’ll legally prevent you from ever entering the office or interacting with any of your former coworkers again, with a free room at the county correctional facility tossed in for good measure, throwing a computer monitor at a coworker and then systematically destroying the entire office is a pretty good way to do so. On the upside, showing your boss this video might be a good way to get him to upgrade you to an LCD monitor. They hurt less when thrown, one would assume.
Update: Hit the jump for video from another angle, a co-worker’s mobile phone, in colour and with sound.

[Neatorama]

Google’s Zurich HQ: Office Fun For Everyone… Who Works There, Anyway

Gizmodo US Edition — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 23:15:44 +0000

Ever looked around your office and thought “surely there’s a better way than this soulless cubicle hell?” Well, there probably isn’t. Unless you happen to work for Google in their Swiss HQ, that is. Because, frankly, their new office is awe-inspiringly amazing: it’s an exercise in lateral-thinking, creativity-run-wild interior design. Slides to the canteen, cable-car meeting rooms, beanbags, fake snow, a multitude of colours. Check it out… you’ll be as filled with envy as an envious person with a degree in enviousness.

See what I mean? Presumably it makes for a happy, fun-filled workforce. How they ever get time to do any work I don’t know. Still, I work from my couch, so I could always put a slide in somewhere, and stick a bunch of beanbags about the place. It wouldn’t quite have the same effect, though. [Swissmiss]