Wednesday, July 1, 2009

The Great Pencil Protest of 09'

I'M BAAAACK!! That's right blog fans, I am alive and blogging.

And if you thought I was kidding when I said the only thing I would have to report this summer is about office pens at work.... I was serious. (the following story is pretty long, but if you are bored, you should read it. Its a classic day in the office!):

This summer when I returned to KDOT I went into the supply room to get a pencil. Now, KDOT normally has these maroon mechanical pencils that I absolutely love but I when I went in there to get one... they were no where to be found. They had been replaced by a black mechanical pencil that was, in my opinion, a shotty piece of craftmanship.

So, being the good employee that I am, I took the new black pencil, walked back to my cube and didn't question as to where my old favorite pencils had gone.

A few weeks later we got an email from the receptionist Mike (whom I like to call the manceptionist) explaining that we were allowed to cast a vote as to whether we liked the maroon pencils or the black pencils better. The pencil with the most votes would become the permanent KDOT pencil.

I immediately cast a vote for the maroon pencil and started asking my surrounding cube mates what pencil they were in favor of. A few of us got to talking and I realized that I was not alone in my dislike for the black pencil. There were others out there who also loved the maroon and wanted nothing more than to see its return to KDOT.

Jokingly, my cube mate and I suggested that we must protest the black pencil by staging a sit-in in the supply room until our demands were met.

A lady that sits next to us said, "yea that's a great idea! or we could make maroon arm bands and wear them around the office in support of the maroon pencil".
We all laughed but none of us took the idea as serious.

However, 20 minutes later that lady came into our cube holding maroon strips of paper and said to us, "give me your arm. I've got armbands."

Needless to say, my 2 cube mates and I each grabbed a maroon strip of paper and taped it around our arms to show our support of the maroon pencil. I also saw others in our unit walking around with maroon armbands, as well.

So, that was it. The office had officially been split into two groups:
The maroon supporters... and everyone else. You could feel the tension in the air!

We were all very confident that our display of support for the maroon pencil would persuade others to vote for it and therefore, KDOT would once again supply us with the maroon pencils we so greatly desired!

However, about 2 hours after our whole armband protest began, we received an email from the manceptionist saying, "alright, I just checked with our supplier and looks like the maroon pencil has been discontinued. Black wins by default"

EXCUSE ME?! DISCONTINUED?!

Heartbreaker....

After receiving the email we all ripped off our maroon armbands and tossed them in the trash. It was as if the whole thing had never happened.

But for me, the Great Pencil Protest of 09' will forever be a day I remember.