We’ve all heard of “elbow grease,” “headlight fluid,” and “left-handed screwdrivers,” and there is a long list of industry-specific mythical items that one can be sought on a quest to go and grab. Part right of passage, part hazing, they have been around in workplace rituals for generations.
The premise is pretty simple: Get the new guy, apprentice, or someone who is equally green around the ears and eager as they are gullible, give them a laundry list of instructions of things they need to collect for you that sound plausible but don’t really exist, and then sit back and laugh as they go off on their fool’s errand. And the punchline is that everyone plays along, as they go around on their quest, asking other veteran staff where they can find the mythical item that they are seeking. Those staff members play the part, making sure to keep them looking just as long as possible.
Sure, some fun is made at the newbie’s expense, but at the end of the day, it’s just a little harmless fun. I think that the effectiveness of these types of pranks has been somewhat lessened owing to almost ubiquitous access to information that the internet offers. But back in the day, when you couldn’t just.
But like Rian Johnson did when writing and directing “The Last Jedi” this new hire kind of missed the point of the whole thing, wise to the fact that what they were being asked to do was one of such fool’s errands, they instead quiety slipped away and took a few hours break at a coffee shop, queitly ensuring that their manager would despise and distrust them for the entire time they were at the job.
Author: Kayitsi.com
