Most of us have desks covered with random objects such as photos, an old pen set, and a desk toy or two. Wouldn’t it be better to have an item with an important, practical purpose — something that actually gave your co-workers fair notice of your disposition on any given moment of any given work day?
One of the secretaries at our office has such a salutary item. It’s a kind of flip chart called The Daily Mood. You arrive at the office, determine your temperament, choose among the options presented, and flip to the appropriate page where the word aptly describing your mood appears (complete with definition and other useful information about the word on the back of the page) and a little ball displays matching facial expressions. Are you feeling neglected? Or inspired? Or apathetic? Or giddy? Or — my favorite — listless?
It’s wonderful to be able to identify your frame of mind with such utter precision, and then to publicly warn your co-workers of what they can expect when they enter your workspace. If they see the “cranky” page on display for all to see, they might just decide that they don’t really need to trouble you at that particular moment — and wouldn’t that really be better for all concerned?
So, here’s what will happen. I’ll watch the game. I’ll stay up later than I normally do. I’ll be charged up about the game for a prolonged period of time. And when the game ends around 11 p.m. or so, I’ll be unable to get to sleep right away. Either I’ll be upset at how the Buckeyes played and focused on their loss when I try to sleep, or I’ll be excited that Ohio State somehow pulled off an improbable road victory — on Indiana’s senior night, no less, when the Hoosiers are trying to win an outright Big Ten championship — that the adrenalin won’t let me rest. Either way, I’m not going to get a good night’s sleep. And don’t even raise the possibility of overtime!
It’s hard to believe that the presence of a guy twirling a sign and wearing a Liberty costume would cause a passing motorist to make the snap decision to turn in and visit the business. There must be a lot of impulsive drivers out there, though, because you see the sign-twirling guys everywhere, flipping their signs, tossing them in the air, and using them to make intricate dance moves with varying degrees of proficiency. Do they have to go through some kind of training before they head out to the roadway? In any case, it wouldn’t be a very attractive job — being outside next to a road in all kinds of weather, breathing the exhaust fumes, wearing an embarrassing costume, and enduring the rude comments of some passersby.
