Checks and Balances
Rome is full of wonderful people, amazing talents, and hard as fuck workers. These same people could simultaneously be described as hooligans, trouble-makers, fun-havers, ass-holes, ne’er-do-wells and other such hyphen-ized verbal creations unmentionable here.
Needless to say, sometimes you have to watch your back around these parts, or you’re going to end up without any pens. Or your glue stick stash is going to disappear (I don’t even remember how to design without a glue stick!). Or a rank air freshener hidden away somewhere in the padding of your desk chair. Or maybe someone might set off a smoke bomb under your car then point out the window of your office saying “PADDOCK – what’s wrong with your car, dude!!!”
Us designers at the SDS devised a certain way of keeping tabs on our ever-important cork-backed rulers (I really don’t know how you can design without these things either…), and it has extended into any personal office item that may be in high demand. Simply tracking down your ruler after someone INEVITABLY walks off with this precious tool is not enough. Each ruler-less person is allowed 3 strikes before they are permanently banned for life. A strike qualifies as borrowing an item and failing to return it, and strikes are recorded on the cork-side of each person’s ruler, as you see on mine below.
You’ll notice that interns, as a whole, only have 3 strikes… Future art-department interns be warned.
I’ve implemented a slightly more stringent policy for my tape roll (another item in ridiculously high demand around here) to much success! There is no strike system here, as my tape roll is extremely valuable to me (distressed type, anyone?). Any person who fails to return this item is stricken for life at once. Ron was the inspiration here, after absconding with my tape for weeks on end – as he will sometimes do. Now, my tape dispenser will forever bear the warning “NO RON”.
Interns are done with this one as well.
So – tip of the day: Those of you out there who seem to be perpetually chasing down your stapler, or your phone, try installing this system of checks and balances in your office for a more streamlined work flow, free of personal thievery.
September 25th, 2008 at 12:14 am
So we go through the same stuff with the hammers downstairs. Unbelievable how many hammers Rome goes through. Ron can attest to this (I think we’ve even lost his hammer once)
So finally we just took a Sharpie and wrote “Josh Reid- Don’t touch” on a hammer and stuck it in Capt. Al’s filing cabinet. Having Josh’s name on it seemed a good move; the hammer was always where it was supposed to be.
So a couple Saturday’s ago I stop by the office. I start looking for our resident video editor; figured I’d say hello. He’s not watching the Sox game…he’s not in the Edit Dungeon…I finally check his office, and the only thing I find is the “Josh Reid- Don’t touch” hammer holding Cavan’s window open.
(Amazingly Cavan had gone home for the weekend if you were wondering)