I have not been able to post this for a long time. The employee that this story is made possible by, no longer works at our company... his last day was January 2.
First a little background, I work at a fun company. The people that I work with are a lot of fun, the kind of people I like to spend time with outside of work, mainly drinking and running. We also like to play practical jokes on each other from time to time. That being said, some interesting things happen on occasion that make for good stories. I will attempt to tell one such story here.
First a little background, I work at a fun company. The people that I work with are a lot of fun, the kind of people I like to spend time with outside of work, mainly drinking and running. We also like to play practical jokes on each other from time to time. That being said, some interesting things happen on occasion that make for good stories. I will attempt to tell one such story here.
The timing for this story is fall of 2009. It is a rainy day, which turns out to be one of the key elements for the story.
We are in a meeting discussing one of our technology markets and going through customer updates. The meeting normally lasts about an hour and a half and is sometimes a little boring, especially if you are already updated on the projects being discussed. That happened to be the case for a couple of us on this day.
The layout of our conference room is a long table surrounded by chairs. I am sitting on one side between the Research Manager and a Technical Service/Engineering Representative (Rodney). Rodney reports to me through the corporate hierarchy. All the chemists report to the Research Manager. The RM, Project Managers and I all report to the Department Manager. Here is the layout of the conference room.
The chemist sitting across the table from RM is Random Task. I call him Random Task because of what he does for us. He does the small in depth projects. Because of this he works on a lot of different types of projects... hence, Random Task.
About 30 minutes into the meeting we are discussing customer 7 out of maybe 50. I’m getting a little tired because we are in the lazy time after lunch when the food you have eaten is digesting… RM is apparently feeling the same way because he hits me in the arm with his elbow. I immediately think that I’m sitting too close and move my chair a little farther away from him. He was not trying to increase his personal space envelope; he was trying to get my attention. About, 30 seconds later he elbows me again. This time I give him a “what’s up” look. He immediately leans back in the chair and looks under the table. I take the hint and look under the table. I first notice that Random Task is not wearing any shoes. I’m not sure why he is not wearing shoes. I didn’t know that shoes were optional at work when you were in a meeting lasting longer than 30 minutes. That doesn’t sound like a bad idea. Our parent company is Japanese and the office staff all wear slippers. Some of the lab workers wear slippers too which I'm not sure would meet US safety standards...
About 30 minutes into the meeting we are discussing customer 7 out of maybe 50. I’m getting a little tired because we are in the lazy time after lunch when the food you have eaten is digesting… RM is apparently feeling the same way because he hits me in the arm with his elbow. I immediately think that I’m sitting too close and move my chair a little farther away from him. He was not trying to increase his personal space envelope; he was trying to get my attention. About, 30 seconds later he elbows me again. This time I give him a “what’s up” look. He immediately leans back in the chair and looks under the table. I take the hint and look under the table. I first notice that Random Task is not wearing any shoes. I’m not sure why he is not wearing shoes. I didn’t know that shoes were optional at work when you were in a meeting lasting longer than 30 minutes. That doesn’t sound like a bad idea. Our parent company is Japanese and the office staff all wear slippers. Some of the lab workers wear slippers too which I'm not sure would meet US safety standards...
The second thing I notice is that RM has kicked one of Random Task’s shoes over in front of me. This looks interesting. So I write a note to Rodney and ask him to kick Random Task’s shoe down the table. He takes some initiative and gets up to get a drink of water and in the process kicks the shoe under one of the empty chairs behind us. No one notices this except RM and I.
We go through a few more customers and are in the middle of discussing the status of our project with customer 10 when Random Task says, “Hey, where is my shoe. My other shoe is gone.” The meeting stops for a few seconds while everyone stares at Random Task.
I’m the first to break the silence by asking him, “Were you wearing them both when you came in?”
He just sits there for a few seconds and then the meeting continues and we finish up with customer 10 and move on to customer 11. Little did we know that festering inside Random Task is a boiling rage that is about to erupt. RT figures out that Research Manager, his boss, has something to do with his missing shoe. He was really the only one within reach under the table. RT says to his boss, “Where is my shoe, you jerk!!” Then, he proceeds to pick up his remaining shoe and throws it at Research Manager and hits him square in the chest.
The next thing said is “Who throws a shoe?” (Click and follow the link - The next day after the indecent I found this clip and sent it to him)
I’m not sure what happened after this. I know the meeting was quickly over. I’m not sure of the disciplinary action taken, if there was any. Random Task was still working for us in the same capacity until his recent departure a few days ago.
One other important point is that 2 or 3 weeks prior to the Shoegate 2009 incident, Random Task did this to Research Manager’s bicycle:
I guess the moral of the story, if there is one, is that if you can’t take a joke don’t make one.
Last year for April Fool’s day we did this to Random Task’s cubicle. His boss did not help with the prank for fear of another incident.
Random Task also likes the name I am using for him in my blog...
I may have some more stories about Random Task in the future.
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I may have some more stories about Random Task in the future.
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