Does Anyone Else Get Office Emails Like ....

[Guest]

It just seems there would be a better way to communicate ideas like what is in the following e-mail.

JR

_________________________________________________________________________

To: Office Staff

From: Administrator

Subj: Office Cleanup

Hi all,

At this morning’s staff meeting, based on concerns expressed by the Division office about the Bureau’s work areas, xxxxx (Bureau Chief) asked that we take a closer look at our work areas and make sure they are not cluttered, pose safety issues or otherwise look untidy. Boxes lying around on the floor was specifically mentioned as an area of concern. I would assume that a lot of loose paper thrown about, would also be a considered an area of concern. Therefore, I would like for all of us to take a closer look at our individual offices and nearby common areas to see what improvements can be made. Please note, at some point in the near future, I plan to inspect our Section’s offices and work areas, and see if I have some of my own ideas for making improvements to our section’s offices and common areas.

Thanks,

xxxx, Administrator

 

[Road Guy]

I hate management by email myself...

 

[GCracker]

No. My desk is a complete mess, but my bosses desk is 150% worse than mine.

 

[cement]

dear admin,

don't you have any real work to do? what charge number do we use for placating do-nothing whiners? would you pull your head out of your butt long enough to see if "tidyness" is an enforcable performance standard?

sincerly,

worker

 

[MA_PE]

our place tries and they'll send out global requests like that if we're having important visitors or hosting an event at the office, but we just handle far too much paper to make tidiness a reality.

 

[GTScott]

I personally love the e-mails that come when I am working hours 60-80 for the week that either mention a complete crisis involving them not being able to get onto the Teletubbies website (I have been known to deal with IT issues at our office from time to time) or that begin "when you have some free time...".

 

[TouchDown]

I seriously about went ape **** in my last job where a new "boss" - dotted line to me, started putting up cube cleanliness requirements, and coming in on the weekend to ENFORCE them.

He came around and put a red card in your office explaining the offense. I'm all for keeping a cube tidy, but give me a fricken break. I'll see if I can find the requirments... it's pretty rediculous.

 

[Hill William]

My boss has **** stacked to the ceiling so he can't really say anything to me. I usually try to keep the project files I'm working with on my desk with the rest in a file drawer. Sometimes, I get a pile goin but, I keep everything separated in folders so its not that hard to straighten.

 

[snickerd3]

Part of the building is getting new carpet, not ours thank goodness. But they are relocating people while the work is going on. The email that went out to everyone contained stuff like

When you bring your personal items back in, you will be limited to 2 live plants per cubicle.

Strive to keep door opening 36 inches or greater to comply with health codes.

In order to meet the fire code, the door openings need to be 36 inches wide. During our carpet installation, I would like to bring as many of the doorways up to code as possible. I have asked Barbie to work on these floor plans. Please give Barbie your full cooperation when she contacts you. Barbie will be working on the plans to move furniture (file cabinets, bookshelves, etc.) that have inadvertently been moved into doorways. An email came out later saying they would attach wings to the cube entry that have to face out into the hall to help block distractions by passerbys.

 

[Guest]

Over the last two days, I spent my time clearing out my office of any 'unnecessary' paper, boxes, or clutter. I have managed to fill three 80-gallon recycling bins worth of files, papers, notes, etc. because the philosophy is if it isn't in the electronic archive, inter/intra-net or other electronic media then you shouldn't be in possession of it.

I am aiming for the most improved office award :thumbs:

JR

 

[FlyPaper]

Okay, so for some reason this new forum opened up, or I just didn't notice it before.

I have a boss who likes to do all of his meetings by email or chat room. Okay, so it makes sense that he is geographically seperated from the rest of us, but come on, it is a short drive, and there is a pizza hut on the way, so it is almost worth going anyway.

He says, why waste billable hours driving to and from different locations to have a meeting, when we can eliminate that need and do it by chat room? Why doesn't he use a phone, you might ask. Well, the answer is very simple, his meetings last for hours, and he doesn't like holding the phone up to his ear that long. Why not speaker phone, you are probably thinking. He doesn't want some passerby to overhear what his employees might be bitching about.

 

[bigray76]

Our home office recently was awarded OSHA's VPP Star Status - however in order to do that our safety director inspected office by office and sent out a list of questions OSHA may ask us with answers we should say. When I saw him coming to do his pre-OSHA inspection, I threw an exacto knife on the floor, left my scissors out on my desk, and dumped a pile of folders on the floor... talk about not having a sense of humor.

Otherwise the broadcast emails we get here are staff promotions, the company picnic, early office closings, and other BS internal news.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

I once worked in a gov office where the 'light brigade' would search the office at lunch and cut off the flourescent lights in your cube, if you were away. As if that wasn't enough, a pious note was left on your desk berating you for wasting energy 'when the BRAC (base realignement and closure) committe could close us because of high energy use!'

These charges of the light brigade came to an end when the Colonel was informed it took the equivalent of 2hrs worth of electricty to start a flourecent, so the light brigade was in fact costing us money by cutting the lights off for less than half an hour.

 

[roadwreck]

These charges of the light brigade came to an end when the Colonel was informed it took the equivalent of 2hrs worth of electricty to start a flourecent, so the light brigade was in fact costing us money by cutting the lights off for less than half an hour.

I'm no expert, but I don't think turning a fluorescent on and off uses the equivalent two hours of electricity. I'm stating this from my years and years of research (watching an episode of mythbusters ).

The results from that episode did show that for a fluorescent bulb more energy was used to turn the bulb on, but it was the electric equivalent of leaving the bulb on for less then 30 seconds, not 2 hours. Granted, they also found that by turning the bulb on and off you shorten it's lifespan so your 'light brigade' was costing you money on replacement bulbs but probably not so much in electricity.

I also found this website where they mention it

http://www.mnenergychallenge.org/askanexpe...D=afc2d785e31f8

I've copied the relevant portion below. It recommends turning off fluorescent lights if you are going to leave the room for 15 minutes or more.

I have heard that it is not energy efficient to turn fluorescent lights on and off a lot- that it takes more energy to start them up than it does to leave them on for half an hour when you are not in the room. Is this true? What rule of thumb would you reccomend for maximum efficiency? Is this also true of compact flourescent bulbs?
It is a popularly held belief that fluorescent lights (including CFL's) use a "lot" of energy to get started, and thus it is better not to turn them off for "short" periods. There is an increase in power demand when a light is switched on, and the exact amount of this increase depends on the type of ballast and lamp. The ballast provides an initial high voltage for starting the lamp and regulates the lamp current during operation. This relatively higher "inrush" current lasts for half a cycle, or 1/120th of a second. The amount of electricity consumed to supply the inrush current is equal to a few seconds or less of normal light operation. Turning off fluorescent lights for more than 5 seconds will save more energy than will be consumed in turning them back on again. Therefore, the real issue is the value of the electricity saved by turning the light off relative to the cost of relamping a fixture. This in turn determines the shortest cost-effective period for turning off a fluorescent light.

All types of lights have a nominal or rated operating life, which is the total number of hours that they will provide a specified level or amount of light. However, the operating life of all types of light bulbs is affected by how many times they are turned on and off. The more often they are switched on and off, the lower their operating life. The exact number of hours that switching lights on and off reduces the total operating life depends on the type of light and how many times it is switched on and off.

For most areas of the United States, a general rule-of-thumb for when to turn off a fluorescent light is if you leave a room for more than 15 minutes. In areas where electric rates are high and/or during peak demand periods, this period may be as low as 5 minutes. Fluorescent lights are more expensive to buy, and their operating life is more affected by the number of times they are switched on and off, relative to incandescent lights. Therefore, it is a cost trade-off between saving energy and money by turning a light off "frequently" and having to replace the bulbs "more" frequently. This is because the reduction in usable lamp life due to frequent on/off switching will probably be greater than the benefit of extending the useful life of the bulb from reduced use. By frequent we mean turning the light off and on many times during the day. Lighting manufacturers should be able to supply information on the duty cycle of their products. In general, the more energy-efficient a bulb/light is, the longer you can keep a light on before it is cost effective to turn it off.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

^ I always thought that was bs, but couldn't prove it. Thanks for the info!

And to my elementary school custodian from 1975, I knew you were full of crap.