Techies thought outside the box. Then the boss decided to take the box away

Another Monday has arrived, bringing with it the chance for work-in-progress meetings at which managers will recite corporate clichés with astounding sincerity. Which is why The Register always opens the week with a new edition of Who, Me? It's the column in which you share stories of trying to meet your KPIs and somehow …

[Screepy]

Shredder

The first thing you must always do when moving into a new office is print a sign saying

"IT Suggestion box"

and stick it above the shredder.

Bonus points if you also print a picture of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arch-enemy, Shredder, and stick that on the shredder.

[Pete 2]

Re: Shredder

In days of yore, sticking a sign on the shredder saying FAX was considered the height of office humour.

[LogicGate]

Re: Shredder

I had a sign saying "Suggestions, vacation requests and salary increase propositions"..

[Wally Dug]

Re: Fax Machine Notices

I used to annotate non-working facsimile machines with:

This fux is facked

[Bill Gray]

Re: Shredder

Old joke :

A secretary (told you it was old) sees the CEO standing next to the shredder, holding a document. CEO turns and says, "How do I make this thing work?" Secretary smiles, inserts document, and hits the start button.

"Thank you," the CEO says as the document vanishes inside the shredder. "I just need one copy."

[Anonymous Anti-ANC South African Coward]

Re: Shredder

Whenever mentioning Shredder(fx:shredder sound) the mention of his name must always be accompanied by the sound of a shredder.

Background : https://youtu.be/PdBrlcJpt_k?si=-Ceq1GL5W8lecUFK

[BenDwire]

Re: Shredder

When I ran a small engineering company, I left a box of tissues on the filing cabinet next to the visitor's chair. It was occasionally used by upset employees requesting time off for famliy issues** but came into it's own during appraisal season. After a while, I put a label on it - " HR Department" as that was all we had.

** The usual bereavements the life throws up, but the most unusual was when one production lady's donkey suddenly died. She argued that she had no parents or children like other staff, so should be allowed time off to grieve. She had a point ...

[Korev]

Re: Shredder

When working from home was barely tolerated, a colleague's [gay] partner needed to travel once a week so he wanted to have it written into his contract that he could work remotely once a week to care for their dogs. His justification was that as gay guys their dogs were the equivalent of children.

I also know straight couples who think the same thing.

[Great Southern Land]

Re: Shredder

>>His justification was that as gay guys their dogs were the equivalent of children.

Especially since Animal Welfare laws generally require that we treat household pets in the same way as we treat our kids.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Shredder

And child welfare laws require treating children nearly as well as a lot of people treat their pets.

[reeferman]

Re: Shredder

Historically speaking, the reason that UK has Child Welfare laws at all is that when Animal Welfare laws were being passed it was pointed out that the animals would enjoy more legal protections than children.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Shredder

I had to look that up to if was true, and it is.

[Claptrap314]

Re: Shredder

Ehh. That hit just the right level of self-righteous stupidity for me to assume that it actually happened that way.

[Murphy's Lawyer]

Re: Shredder

This is why the UK has a Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and a National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Them Royals have their priorities, and history shows that kids aren't one of them.

[0laf]

Re: Shredder

The level of grief at losing a pet is just as deep as losing a human relative for many people. I think everywhere I've worked has been reasonably sympathetic to people losing pets.

[RobDog]

Re: Shredder

Given that dogs on average have a life expectancy of 12-15 years, when you take on a pet dog you’re basically committing to watching it grow up and die, more than likely well before you do. Looking at it that way, KNOWING that at some point you’ll be saying goodbye to an unconditionally loyal being that just loves you from day 1 - why would anyone sign up to begin with? Crazy. Didn’t stop me.

[tip pc]

Re: Shredder

I also know straight couples who think the same thing.

Dogs & cats are often a stepping stone before having kids.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Shredder

But the cats have now died and left us with the bloody children to deal with.

[PRR]

Re: Shredder

one production lady's donkey suddenly died.

I (finally!) got promotion..... the afternoon of the morning my dog Morgan died. We camped all over New England, climbed hills, he was a great dog. My boss is explaining why my salary would be less than it should be, and my cheeks are wet. Not all his fault, but I noted he was taking care of his #1 and I began plans to leave that place.

[JulieM]

Re: Shredder

Losing a four-legged member of your family often hits harder than a two-legged one.

[Chloe Cresswell]

Welcome...

Hamish? You'll have had your tea.

[Roger Kynaston]

Having tea

I hope he had it with yon laird and Penelope Fitzneatly.

[Rameses Niblick the Third Kerplunk Kerplunk Whoops Where's My Thribble?]

Re: Welcome...

Dougal!

[StewartWhite]

Re: Welcome...

"No, as a matter of fact..."

"What a pity. I've just finished mine."

[MiguelC]

Aquarium offices....

In a place I worked for the room we called the aquarium was for people management wanted gone, but had no legal reason to fire, so they were put there with nothing to do for months in a row in the hope they'd quit or died out of boredom. Thankfully I quit that shithole without being subject to that kind of treatment, but it did inspire me to look for new opportunities.

[SnailFerrous]

Re: Aquarium offices....

At a previous employer, the aquarium office for employees being bored in to leaving was known as the Departure Lounge.

We would pity the damned souls inside.

[Korev]

Re: Aquarium offices....

The Aquarium office sounds a bit fishy to me...

[The commentard formerly known as Mister_C]

Re: Aquarium offices....

It's a lonely plaice if you're the sole occupant.

[Adam Foxton]

Re: Aquarium offices....

At least if it was thick glass they Haddock-uiet space to work in

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Aquarium offices....

I would flounder in one.

[The Oncoming Scorn]

Re: Aquarium offices....

Can we plaice stop carping on about this!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Aquarium offices....

They're really trawling the depths for these puns.

But where's the IT angler?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Aquarium offices....

sounds a bit fin-al

[EarthDog]

Re: Aquarium offices....

Where I work we had an empty desk. People would move there while some sort of HR/disciplinary action occurred. Usually they’d be gone after a month or two after all hearings etc. we’re done. We came to call the seat “the chair of shame”.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Aquarium offices....

Departure Lounge.

Our open plan office had a conference room in one corner. So many people used it for the privacy of initial new job phone interviews that it became known as the departure lounge.

[Gouk]

Re: Aquarium offices.... Window seat

Ah! The 'promotion' to a 'window seat' with a view to the outside was always a 'death to useful work' sentence in any big Japanese Office.

The 'windows view person' had an outside view and could stay until death. I learned this when a proposal by my firm to a Japanese company got me an interview with a window person with a large expense account to get me out of their hair {Unbeknownst to me they already were signed to a rival company.} It was always much better to be sent to discuss with a person in the basement who had actual authority to buy or dismiss me, and had knowledge to actually understand our proposals and question intelligently, if our proposals would help his company or not. I learned when interested, the meeting would go on all day and night, so that on following day a 'formal session' could occur with all questions and their answers known but recorded as a meeting without any 'incidents'.

[Anonymous Anti-ANC South African Coward]

Re: Aquarium offices.... Window seat

A seat next to a window in BOFH-land is asking for big trouble...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Aquarium offices.... Window seat

Ah, THAT's where I left the surplus linear actuators.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Aquarium offices.... Window seat

The aquarium ... across the hall from Mission Control's inner window. You can see their expressions when the Halon in the aquarium goes off, and the aquarium doors auto-lock to prevent people outside from entering a hazardous environment.

EH&S for the win!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Aquarium offices....

At my former place of work, we called it the Land of Misfit Toys. There was an enitre wing of them. Top management had a bad habit of not being able to realize they'd made a bad hire until the 1 year probation period was over.

[Phil O'Sophical]

Re: Aquarium offices....

they were put there with nothing to do for months in a row in the hope they'd quit or died out of boredom

Ah, the France Telecom approach.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Aquarium offices....

I am reminded of a glass-walled office referred to as the shark tank due to the occupant.

She was actually very competent but not very polite so probably ruffled a lot of feathers (or scales).

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Aquarium offices....

Used to love an office. Hate with a passion open plan with too hot/too cold smart climate HVAC and acres of glass windows… (formerly) BT Property looking at you…

[RockBurner]

Re: Aquarium offices....

Yep - air-con is a con.

even in a relatively small open office with multiple HVAC down-flow units: the two or three people directly under the units (there's ALWAYS a desk directly under the unit!) are wearing winter furs, looking like John Snow north of the wall, while everyone else is in shorts and t-shirts, sweating. (and this is in April).

Soooooo glad working from home became generally acceptable.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Aquarium offices....

Too noisy aswell - Can’t get anything done !!!

[Stevie]

Re: Aquarium offices....

Only in places where they haven't over-invested in middle management.

Our place is moaning and dripping about the "problems" involved with a hybrid schedule.

Said "problems" being the worthlessness of most of the Middle Management tier.

Bunch of useless phone sanitizers.

[CrazyOldCatMan]

Re: Aquarium offices....

Hate with a passion open plan with too hot/too cold smart climate HVAC and acres of glass windows

I work in a listed building so aircon is an unachievable dream (unless you open the windows)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Aquarium offices....

Windows - hurrah !!!

[J.G.Harston]

Re: Aquarium offices....

I used to work in a listed building that had beautiful air conditioning, until they "modernised" it in the 1930s and blocked up all the vents.

[chivo243]

Re: Aquarium offices....

I worked in one of these glass houses. Glass on three sides. I didn't like it, when a colleague left, I promptly moved into the vacant desk as far away from the glass as possible. It was nearly impossible to work without colleagues waving to us, and when I stopped waving back, some people thought I no longer liked them?! WTF?

[Pete 2]

Listening outside the box

One office I worked in sported the largest conference room among all the various locations the company had. As such it was often used by the higher-ups for their strategic meetings. Even though there were only eight of them (in a room that could hold 40) I suppose there was prestige to sitting around a big table.

What they were unaware of is that the inside wall of the conference room was not soundly (I use the word advisedly) attached to the rest of the building and the occupant of the desk where that plasterboard wall met the exterior wall would often find themselves in a position to hear what was being said inside, in assumed confidence.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Listening outside the box

been there, done that ...

up to the point where i had to knock on the door, and were told that i could only come in if it was bloody important

and then had to point out to them that

a) the room was not soundproof

b) specifically the near wall

c) which was just a seperator that had cut the original big meeting room into 2 smaller meeting rooms

d) and that the second meeting room was currently being used by a rather important client

Not that they learned much (or maybe they learned a lot)

as i later heard that the room was also used by the N+1s to discuss difficult employees before meeting them

and those employees were told to cool their heels in the other meeting room.

[Robert Carnegie]

Re: Listening outside the box

Maybe the last bit was clever psychology.

In the deep outer space "Sector General" hospital in James White's science fiction stories, the hospital boss's office is officially soundproof, but from time to time it is demonstrated not to be, including when Doctor Cha Thrat has drawn the attention of a lot of the managers, who are meeting, and is told by the receptionist "but I can hear them talking about you."

[Eclectic Man]

Re: Listening outside the box

Very briefly I was the 'Special Research Group' for a large organisation that many will know. My office, which was larger in floor area than my flat (including balcony)* was directly above the board room. It was an old building and I could hear 'discussions' from below.

*It contained one desk, one chair, one waste paper basket, one telephone and me.

[blu3b3rry]

Re: Listening outside the box

I spent several years (in other words, too f*cking long) doing cleanroom manufacturing work. New starters were always shocked after a few weeks to discover that yes, you can hear everything going on in the cleanroom from the offices and support labs despite the racket of the fans in the cleanroom ceiling.

[Timo]

Re: Listening outside the box

That reminds me of a customer site a long time ago. Machine room with lots of server fans and general noise, and the manager's office that overlooked it with a glass window. Nice and quiet inside the office. Right outside said office was a fax machine. While having a conversation in front of the fax machine was pretty common, you had to speak loudly to do it. And that made it very clearly heard inside the office.

I don't remember if I got caught out for saying something disrespectful of the site, or if a friendly customer worker made a point to tell us. I think he did a demo and it was shockingly clear.

[ComputerSays_noAbsolutelyNo]

I once was at a shooting range, 'cos I wanted to do it once. I keep the paper target with the bullet holes in my office with an additional sign saying "Department of trouble shooting"

[Evil Auditor]

I have the impression that most peoplemanglement who use the term think outside the box are the once least doing it.

[Eclectic Man]

re: think outside the box

In my experience, management's idea of 'thinking outside the box' is often thinking outside the rules, regulations, and often laws (of both mankind and nature).

[Bill Gray]

For which we should perhaps be thankful...

And when they do think outside the box, I am reminded of a cartoon in which a cat is scolded by a man saying, "Never, ever think outside the box".

[Flightmode]

I know it's an old joke but on the topic of office signs...

...I still occasionally chuckle to myself when I think about the sign saying "STATIONARY CUPBOARD" with the hand-scribbled addendum "Yep, it hasn't moved in at least a week.".

[Bill Gray]

Re: I know it's an old joke but on the topic of office signs...

Dunno if this is just a USAian thing, but one frequently encounters signs in the restroom saying "Employees must wash hands". To which I'm always tempted to add a note saying "if no employee is available, wash your own hands".

[Gene Cash]

Re: I know it's an old joke but on the topic of office signs...

Yup, it's a stupid legal requirement... but I know who's printing off a bunch of stickers tonight!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I know it's an old joke but on the topic of office signs...

There used to be hot air hand-driers with illustraions that went

1) Press button

2) Rotate hands under hot air

To which an acquaintance who was a printer had made a perfectly matched sticker

3) Wipe hands on trou.

Most of the machines in the city had the improved instructions.

He was fond of making various enhancing stickers, and then leaving small rolls in pub toilets for other public spirited citizens to use as and where they saw fit.

[Phil O'Sophical]

Re: I know it's an old joke but on the topic of office signs...

I was once given a business card which proclaimed its owner to be a "principle engineer". I never did find out what he did.

[Prst. V.Jeltz]

Re: I know it's an old joke but on the topic of office signs...

My boss is a "principle engineer" , it seems to be like my job but with more meetings

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I know it's an old joke but on the topic of office signs...

We once had a internal job advert for a "consumable engineer". I often wondered how long it took for a engineer to be fully consumed.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: I know it's an old joke but on the topic of office signs...

It depends on how many are being served[*]

* in the sense of "To Serve Man" :-)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I know it's an old joke but on the topic of office signs...

Top reference!

[Eclectic Man]

Re: I know it's an old joke but on the topic of office signs...

Many years ago I was promoted to "Principle Engineer". I rather liked it.

(@ Prst. V.Jeltz - I am not your boss. I retired ages ago and was never a 'manager' of other people.)

[Blofeld's Cat]

Re: I know it's an old joke but on the topic of office signs...

My business cards have had "Electrical Engineer (Q Branch)" on them for years.

I also have some that say "Wile E. Coyote - Super Genius" for trade shows and exhibitions.

Icon: "Yes, I do have a card somewhere ..."

[PerlyKing]

Re: business cards

Grytpype-Thynne: My card.

Seagoon: But it's blank!

Grytpype-Thynne: Business is bad.

[Eclectic Man]

Re: I know it's an old joke but on the topic of office signs...

At the end of 'The Rest of Us Just Live Here'* by Patrick Ness, he claims that the real Jared Shurin, whose name is used in the book with permission, genuinely has business cards saying:

Three-quarters Jewish, one-quarter God

* It is a book about people living in a town where 'things' happen, but they are not the main characters. Although Ness does make fun of the names that some people give their children, 'Finn' in particular.

(Smiley face icon to avoid being struck by lightning.)

[Richard Pennington 1]

Re: I know it's an old joke but on the topic of office signs...

There is a rule in IT security called "the principle of least privilege" ... i.e. you give only such privileges and permissions to a person or process as are needed for them to do their job.

Some of the managements I have seen seemed to operate on a "privilege of least principle". At least according to their observable actions.

[Prst. V.Jeltz]

Re: I know it's an old joke but on the topic of office signs...

and IT people are great at employing that with the hoi poloi in the beancounters office , not so good in their own house , and will use a domain admin account to read their email.

[Giles C]

Re: I know it's an old joke but on the topic of office signs...

I wonder that in the office as well. Must be my slightly twisted sense of humour, that same as I read to let signs and mentally fill in the gap with an L….

[KarMann]

Re: I know it's an old joke but on the topic of office signs...

Did you mean with an 'i', or is there some other joke I'm not getting?

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: I know it's an old joke but on the topic of office signs...

The sign off the A1 for Shilbottle in Northumberland frequently gets vandalised to turn the L into a T :-)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I know it's an old joke but on the topic of office signs...

s/vandalised/corrected/

[Prst. V.Jeltz]

Re: I know it's an old joke but on the topic of office signs...

Whats the etymology of that string ?

some form of search & replace?

[It's just me]

Re: I know it's an old joke but on the topic of office signs...

It's the pattern matching & substitution syntax for the Stream EDitor sed and it's predecessor ed that was one of the first parts of Unix.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sed

[Prst. V.Jeltz]

Re: I know it's an old joke but on the topic of office signs...

Thanks!

[Unoriginal Handle]

A deaf friend used to work in an office with his colleagues, and faced the board room which had decent soundproofing but glass windows facing the open office area.

So skilled was he at lipreading that he knew what was being discussed as it was being discussed, and would share with colleagues after ...

[Lazlo Woodbine]

We have an office we call the goldfish bowl,for similar glass wall reasons.

It's strictly speaking the student attendence officer's office, but she hates it because of the glass walls.

Instead it's just used to store the students' medication and confiscated phones and airpods...

[Juha Meriluoto]

I once worked in a medical equipment company where the smoking space was labeled 'Group Inhalation Room'...

[Benegesserict Cumbersomberbatch]

Medical equipment company has a smoking space. Pre-Oncology Room seems more appropriate.

[Doctor Syntax]

Respiratory test subjects' pre-conditioning room.

[ColinPa]

A room with a view

In the days when we had offices, there were some offices with wonderful views.... and our team was allocated them. We enjoyed the offices until winter, when we got cold feet because our offices were over an exterior corridor, and so the cold came up though our floor.

We reported it and were told cold feet is the price of a nice view. (We now understood why we were given the offices). Still we managed, we brought in carpets etc and were happy bunnies.

Until one Christmas when a senior manager wanted our offices merged into one big one.

Two weeks after our move out, the manager obviously reported the cold floor problem as there was suddenly a lot of investigation of the floor.

It turned out that there was a (drainage? ) pipe which was full of water which froze when it was cold... hence the cold floor!

We thought it was interesting that we reported it and were ignored. The seniors manager reports it - it is investigated next day.

[elsergiovolador]

Re: A room with a view

That's why they were senior managers - they got things done!

[NITS]

Re: A room with a view

I suspect that, rather than being the cause, the frozen pipe was an effect of passing through the cold area under the floor.

I've experienced the opposite: In my college years, my parents fixed me up a bedroom in the basement. The basement bathroom floor (tile over concrete) was curiously warm underfoot. Turns out that the domestic hot water feed to that bathroom passed through that area of the slab. After we figured it out, we reran the feed through the ceiling. I never thought to ask whether they noticed a change in the gas or water bills.

[martinusher]

Re: A room with a view

We had a similar problem. An area of the hallway was always nice and warm. It was a pinhole water leak under the slab, only fixable by rerouting the pipe. It doesn't take much water to do this but I can't help feeling there's quite a big void under there. Still, as the place hasn't fallen down in the last 30 years its probably OK.

[Wally Dug]

Re: A room with a view

Walking to work in the winter months was always tricky due to untreated paths, except for this one area at a bridge over the railway line where there was maybe 8 inches wide of clear path for the length of the bridge that was also dry and warm. It took me a while to realise that about a mile away there was a sewerage farm and that must be a sewage pipe, raised up nearer ground level due to the minimal clearance of the bridge.

[An_Old_Dog]

Re: A room with a view

Why reroute the pipes? A warm floor under early-morning bare feet is a good thing, so long as it's not hot.

[TooOldForThisSh*t]

Re: A room with a view

Back in the early 90's I was poached by a large customer because of my Novell Master CNE and Compaq ASE certifications. Their primary Novell guy was fired because he refused to follow the corporate dress code and wore jeans (horrors!). Anyway I was given his old cubicle which had a beautiful view of the SouthEast hills, the morning sun and a grassy field. Beautiful. Until the morning I was sitting at my keyboard and noticed my hands were covered in blisters and what appeared to be burns. Turns out the weeds I had been cutting at my new to me hobby farm was in fact Wild Parsnip*. A particularly noxious & toxic invasive that when exposed to sunlight causes burns. Not good. Still enjoyed the view though.

* for those of you in the UK, think a miniature version of Giant Hogweed

[Robert Carnegie]

I wonder if the word "box" or the word "thinking" was what upset the management about the signs.

Or perhaps one or both of the signs is not exactly as described in the story - for instance, the word "no" might be added.

I'd consider printing at least one of them flipped left-to-right, and-or with some other whimsy, like "RETNEC ECGENILLETNI". ...On both sides.

[DS999]

When I was in college

I was a club DJ for a few years. The club I worked at had the dance floor glassed in (so it would only be loud but not crazy loud in the rest of the club) which we affectionately referred to as the "fishbowl".

[Giles C]

Re: When I was in college

I just read that as a glass floor….,

[david 12]

Re: When I was in college

Most of us have no chance of ever hitting the glass ceiling. It's the glass floor we're stuck under that prevents most of us from being promoted to our true level of incompetence.

[DS999]

Re: When I was in college

I've been to clubs with one of those too. Bunch of lights underneath not open space - though given that they can cantilever 20 meters of glass over a canyon and have swimming pools with glass bottoms hanging off the edge of a skyscraper the only obstacle to doing that with a dance floor is how much cash you have to spend on making it happen.

[Nick Ryan]

Re: When I was in college

For a small or enclosed area such a floor is relatively easy and inexpensive. The supports are usually just columns anchored a bit below and the structure is all very stable. Just needs suitably thick and toughened glass, which is more expensive than the structure and not so much because it's about 5cm thick, but because it needs to resist scratching and gouging.

[DS999]

Re: When I was in college

Well if you aren't putting lights under the floor then I would assume you want people to be able to see what's under the floor - i.e. it is over another part of the club or hanging out off a rooftop in Vegas or similar. That restricts the placement of supports as they hurt the view (moreso for the rooftop than just "people hanging out underneath) and you probably need much thicker than 5cm glass in such cases. Yes the live load of people dancing is higher than people just standing around, but that's nothing compared to the dead load of 2-3 meters of water in a suspended swimming pool!

[Prst. V.Jeltz]

Re: When I was in college

When they put one in a club near me (in the upstairs floor) I'm pretty sure the intended view was for horny males looking upwards

[Nick Ryan]

Re: When I was in college

In a previous life we often got to go the opening nights (plural) of bars and clubs. These were usually just refurbished and rebranded from their previous stint but required a few days of training and practice for the staff to get up to speed and to find the niggles in the work, after which it was the public opening night (weirdly called the "VIP" night despite all the actual VIPs attending the previous 1-3 nights. The DJ console was high and access was up a lovely glass staircase and then across a glass bridge and finally to where the DJ console was. There was a lovely comfortable sofa underneath this bridge and it provided the most interesting views...

Naturally, as diligent testing attendees we did, eventually, inform the venue of a potential issue and the sofa was roped off and by the following night the glass bridge had fabric strung underneath it. The first fix suggested was to prevent attendees from going up to the DJ console to flirt (aka, requesting tracks), but the DJ roundly rejected that idea.

[C R Mudgeon]

The feline version

The story calls to mind this 80s or 90s t-shirt. I'm sure many pet owners will be frustratingly familiar, if not with the shirt itself, then with the phenomenon it depicts.

Here are the front and the back.

[An_Old_Dog]

Slogans

One division of our company makes crates, pallets, and skids.

Their motto: "Thinking outside the box, to build you a better box."

It sounds like something Cave Johnson would say.

[MisterHappy]

Goldfish Bowl?

We have something similar, the managers like to term it 'The Goldfish Bowl" because everyone can see what they are doing.

Most people outside it refer to it as "The Vivarium".

[mhoulden]

From one episode of I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue:

Humph: Well done Tim. You've won a look in my little box

TBT: I didn't know you played cricket

[Charlie van Becelaere]

In a past office

we had several conference rooms. One had been assigned to whatever "deep-dive" project was then being pursued.

To defend said conference room from being used by non-deep-divers, a sign with the word "RESERVED" was posted covering the name of the room. To my eye, the room was now named "RESERVED CONFERENCE ROOM" rather than whatever clever moniker it had originally borne.

In response, I printed a sign to rename the adjacent room as "BOISTEROUS CONFERENCE ROOM."

My sign stayed up for at least a fortnight - probably while staff were encouraged to find out what boisterous meant.