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Please do not write below the line

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313 points dcminter | 1 comments | 21 Oct 24 18:42 UTC | HN request time: 0.209s | source
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duxup ◴[21 Oct 24 20:23 UTC] No.41908169[source]▶
I worked for an old company that had a lot of old processes and paperwork. Many bits of paperwork had a "do not write below the line" type areas. I always wrote something ... nothing ever happened.

I once hand delivered some paperwork (I was running late) to HR rather than using the inter office mail service. I asked them about it, they told me "Oh you must be Mathew..." I was HR famous. They didn't actually mind, the company was so process driven that having to visually double check my paperwork was just how things were.

Later on they decided to repaint the entire office because we had slightly changed the colors of our logo.

Not long after painting I jokingly put up a piece of paper on a huge white wall that read "This space intentionally left blank." The movers who took down the art put up the art on that wall again, and spaced it evenly ... around my note.

It stayed there for at least 4 years before we left for a new building.

Process...

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grogenaut ◴[21 Oct 24 21:37 UTC] No.41908783[source]▶
My favorite thing when moving at the big co that owns my co is that they give you these stickers for desk items to show up... whatever you put the sticker on comes along to be by the desk. WHATEVER YOU PUT IT ON. The movers just do what the stickers said.

One coworker got every white board in the area. Another got a sandwich and some empty coke cans. Another got a sofa and an empty trash bag.

The Machine Works.

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1. ForOldHack ◴[21 Oct 24 23:48 UTC] No.41909751[source]▶
The company I got acquired had a huge software library. On the way out on the last day at the old company, I put my cube number on every box that had software in it. It all went to my new cube, and when ever someone asked for an old manual, I would fish it out put their name on it and deliver it surriptishouly the next morning It took more than a year for the product manager to figure it all out, and by that time, they figured that all the software was too old. So ... I simply asked if I could have it all. They said o.k. I took home a box every day for more than a month, reg cards and license keys included. I sold every scrap.

Unexpectly a book I always wanted to read, which was written by a VP, he said he was coming by, so I had him autograph it. His note "please take it easy on them." Sold for more than $200.

The Machine Works, and mostly not the way it was intended. Sorry.