˙ǝɹǝɥ ɟo ʇsɐǝ sǝuoz ǝɯıʇ oʍʇ ǝʞıl s,ʇı ʇɐɥʍ ǝǝs plnoɥs noʎ ‘pɐq s,ʇɐɥʇ ʞuıɥʇ noʎ ɟı ˙puǝʞǝǝʍ ǝɥʇ ɹoɟ ʇıɐʍ ʇ,uɐɔ puɐ sɹǝƃƃnq ʎzɐl ǝɹɐ suɐılɐɹʇsnɐ ǝsnɐɔǝq sı sıɥʇ ˙sɹnoɥ ɟo ɹǝqɯnu ʇıƃıp-ǝlqnop ɐ ɹoɟ uǝǝq sɐɥ puɐ ‘ʎɐpıɹɟ ʎpɐǝɹlɐ s,ʇı plɹoʍ ǝɥʇ ɟo sʇɹɐd pǝdolǝʌǝp ssǝl uı
Anyway, far be it from me to criticize mine hosts. Especially seeing as I’m leaving the country in 18 days. Instead, I will join in the Friday afternoon silliness and share with you this photograph, snapped two days ago in the lab downstairs as I stalked my way back after a particularly frustrating time on the Zeiss.
Now, I know that passive aggression is a bit of an art form: getting the precise tone in your notes to your fellow labrats — just enough snark, a touch of self-pity — but this takes the game to a whole new level.
Happy Friday.
8.0 or 80?
I know it gets hot in Sydney, but I think there is a decimal point between the 8 and the zero.
Is this your post about faith and science? You are hilarious!
Ha ha. I wish it was.
My lab has a particularly creepy gentleman who comes in every morning to check the temperature of the cold room. Perhaps a note like that would be an improvement on the current system.
I guess that depends on whether he closes the door after him?
Unless the creepy gentleman starts leaving creepy notes..
I like the tone of this note, but I don’t think it is an example of passive aggressive – that’s a much more subtle and insidious thing, being aggressive by insincerely being passive.
I know that, Frank… that was, sort of, the joke.
Caryn, do you work in the same lab as Richard…
Ah, sorry. [resists impulse to put passive aggressive comment].
Comments about ‘particularly creepy gentlemen’ will henceforth be ignored…
@Frank grin
I think your note is more aggressive aggressive than passive aggressive. And I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but the first three lines of your post are in Hebrew. I think it’s a verse from Leviticus, and it reads
And furthermore, while I’m about it, thou shalt not release of the calcium from intracellular stores on the Sabbath, for the Sabbath day is holy and sacred unto the LORD, meaning me, and neither shalt thou inquire as to the destination of public transport between Passover and Succot, closed Wednesdays, restrictions may apply
Henry, we had network problems when I posted that and the Antipodean Inverter went down just as those lines were written. It’s actually always like that but you don’t notice because of the Inverter. But there’s a lot of increased solar activity at the moment and it’s playing hell wit˙ɹǝƃƃnq ɥO ˙ʇı ɥ
If Mike has a camera, he could photograph and post the notices in one of the men’s toilets in his department. Truly classic and very creepy.
Go ahead Mike: make my day.
Sans camera today, but here’s the gist of it:
(Sign above the crapper in mens’ bog, Level 5, Biokeskus 3):
*As a courtesy to others,
please do clean up the toilet after you.*
Some witty wag placed the following sign above that, all in the spirit of friendly discourse, you understand:
<img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519EM9S1A3L.SS500.jpg” alt=”” width=”500″ height=”500″ />
As a courtesy to others, please don’t vandalise the decor
Now where is the passiveness in that statement? That’s about as direct as it gets.
All together now, from the top…
No can do, Jenny. Maxine has known all along that the bus doesn’t go to the station – she just chose not to tell us.
Someone has put nice paper signs all over our men’s room asking us to PLEASE FLUSH THE TOILET ONCE YOU ARE FINISHED, written in both French and English, which is puzzling (even though this is notionally a bilingual country).
I also thought RPG’s cold room was at 80 C, not 8.0 C. Sometimes fewer significant digits is better.
Indeed.
Now had I been writing that note, I would have put the time as well as the date, just to indicate to all the “lazy fools” how much earlier than them I started work.
Maxine, that is only standard practice when one comes in on a weekend. “I found the -80 freezer beeping at 7:30 AM on Sunday” means “I am so awesome and hard-working. Look at me, taking care of lab equipment at crazy hours!”
Our coldroom seems to be at 8.0°C as SOP.
Eva—Maxine’s right: as long as you get in over an hour before anyone else (or leave, similarly) you can put the time.
Unfortunately the old trick of sending emails at odd hours doesn’t work now that most people have internet access at home.
Hm. However, sending emails responding to work issues at midnight or so implies (and note, I said “implies”) that one is up late and working on things.
Works for me anyway.
cough scheduling cough
And while we’re on the subject of Antipodean inversion, I thought you might be amused a recent work by Digital Cuttlefish
Thanks Stephen. I needed that.
Passive aggressive lab notes are my pet peeve. My own specialty is excessively verbose memos sent to the entire department.
I do, however, approve of bathroom signage, such as:
So what you’re saying, Audra, is that you’re a fan of aggressive aggressive notes?
Once at a conference at the Queen’s University of Belfast, long before the Good Friday Agreement, I found myself in the gents, annd had occasion to dry my hands at the roller-towel fitment provided. The metal housing of the device proclaimed
Advance Towelmaster
to which some cheeky student had appended, in black indelible marker pen
and be recognized
… presumably we all know about ‘Heavy Plant Crossing’?
Oh. And this: