To the question "Do you know what you are?" Frank Zappa answered: "You are what you is… You ain’t what you not. So see what you got…" etc…The funny thing is that these days the answer is shifting towards what you (we) are not and how we can get what we don’t have. Reminds me of another song called Desire by Tuxedomoon: "Makes you go where you can’t go. Makes you want what you can’t have, Desire."

I am not trying to be the anti-capitalist moralist here. However these thoughts came into my mind after seeing this commercial in the train the other day:

Are people fueled by a new form of self-expressionism, something that requires a great number of credit cards? I shop therefore I am?

We have started advertising in the NKK (Dutch Circle in Japan). There will be a series of 4 ads and this is one of them:

This method of office training is focused on preventing accidents instead of waiting for accidents to happen. The goal is to make it easy for the new employee to do the right thing in the first place. Training in this way is faster and more effective than punishing the employee for mistakes. YOU, his or her manager play the most important part in the success or failure of this method, you must be patient, determined and reliable for it to work. If you already have an employee with problems, you can use this method to start fresh just as you would with a new employee.

This method requires the use of a cubicle or at least, a small, confined area for the employee to stay in when he can’t be supervised. A cubicle isn’t cruel! It’s your employee’s own private room where he or she can work and stay safe, secure and out of trouble. Your new employee needs to be protected from hurting himself and destroying your office. A cubicle will make the job so much easier!

The first few weeks of your new employee are some of the hardest and most important. Spending extra time and effort now will pay off in a big way. Don’t blame the employee if you’re lazy!

New employees, have limited work control and job reflexes. They usually don’t know where they’re going to go until the moment they do! It’s not realistic to expect them to tell you ahead of time. If you’re observant, you’ll see that a new employee will suddenly circle about while looking in some cabinets or browsing documents. The browsing is instinct, he or she’s looking for a project that’s already been done. If he can’t find one, he’ll start one! By preventing accidents in the office, you’ll teach him that the only appropriate projects are done outside of the cubicle!

Also in the cubicle should be a computer (any old windows machine will do, you can’t expect your new employee to do any serious work for the first 2-3 months) , an uncomfortable chair (to prevent him or her from falling a sleep) and some empty document folders. Put the cubicle where he or she isn’t shut away from the rest of the office. If you’re using a confined area instead, a low partition is preferable to closing the door and isolating your new employee.

Your employee might not like the cubicle at first. Don’t give in to his or her complaining or tantrums! If you’re sure she or he isn’t hungry or has to go to the toilet, ignore the yowling. If he or she gets really obnoxious, reach inside the cubicle, give him or her another project and say WORK in a deep, stern voice. Eventually they’ll settle down and work which is what cubicles are for!

Office Colour Blindness is the inability to see certain colors in the usual way. It is a state of mind in transition, a state in which an individual’s senses adapt to new stimuli and he or she becomes aware that the colours in his work environment, which for years he had thought of as correct, are in fact not. Office Colour Blindness occurs when there is initially a temporary a problem with the colour-sensing materials (pigments) in certain nerve cells of the eye. These cells are called cones. They are found in the retina, the light-sensitive layer of tissue at the back of the inner eye.

If your work environment like many office has mainly grey colours, you might start having trouble telling the difference between red, green and other colours. This is the most common type of Office Colour Blindness. In an advanced stage people have trouble seeing blue-yellow colours. People with blue-yellow colour blindness almost always have problems identify reds and greens, too. Initially this specific type of Colour Blindness occurs only within the work environment and will disappear once the worker leaves the office. However, after ten, fifteen or twenty five years in a grey dominated office, these sufferers will not be able to distinguish any colour and will be doomed to see the world in office grey.

Steps in overcoming Privacy.

Some office workers will use the handling of confidential documents and information as an excuse to hide behind tall partitions, close themselves off behind walls, boxes, plants or anything else they can lay there hands on. It is essential that a firm commitment be made to control this habit. As a person understands his reasons for the behavior, and
is sensitive to the conditions or situations that may trigger a desire for the
act, he develops the power to control it. Our offices should be clean and open
so that the company spirit may dwell within us. Privacy is a sinful habit
that robs one of the work spirit and creates guilt and emotional stress. It is a habit that is
totally self-centered, and secretive, and in no way expresses the proper use
that corporate power gives to its employees to fulfill their purposes.

Be assured that you can be cured of your difficulty. Many have been,
both male and female, and you can be also if you determine that it must be so.
This determination is the first step. That is where we begin. You
must decide that you will end this practice, and when you make that decision,
the problem will be greatly reduced at once.
But it must be more than a hope or a wish, more than knowing that it
is good for you. It must be actually a DECISION. If you truly make up your
mind that you will be cured, then you will have the strength to resist any
tendencies which you may have and any temptations which may come to you.
After you have made this decision, then observe the following specific
guidelines:
A Guide to Self-Control to reduce the need for privacy:
1. Avoid being alone as much as possible. Find good company and stay in this good company.

2. When the temptation for privacy is strong, yell _STOP_ to those thoughts as loudly as you can in your mind and then recite your company mission statement or sing the company song. It is important to turn your thoughts away from the selfish need to indulge.

3. Set goals of abstinence, begin with a day, then a week, month, year and finally commit to never doing it again. Until you commit yourself to NEVER AGAIN you will always be open to temptation.

4. Change in behaviour and attitude is most easily achieved through a changed self-image. Spend time every day imagining yourself strong and in control, easily overcoming tempting situations.

5. If your company policy provides for enclosed offices or cubicles leave the door open or have partition partly removed, to discourage being alone in total privacy. At home take cool brief showers.

6. Do not wear hats, sunglasses, or capes. Remove all clutter, boxes, paper stacks from your desk. Place plants in corners. Make sure you hang your coat in the coat closet and not on a coat stand or on your glass partition.
7. Avoid people, situations, pictures or reading materials that might contain confidential information.

8. It is sometimes helpful to have a physical object to use in overcoming this problem. Your payslip , firmly held in hand, even in bed at night has proven helpful in extreme cases.

9. In very severe cases it may be necessary to tie yourself to a chair within the open office in order that the urge for privacy can be broken. This can also be accomplished by removing all partitions in the office or changing the wall to glass.

Also called Printum Nervosa, this printing disorder is characterized by an addiction to paper and documents. An individual suffering with compulsive printing disorder has episodes of uncontrolled printing, during which he or she may have a pressured, frenzied feeling. The person may continue to print even after his or her storage space is becoming uncomfortably full. The binge is typically followed by a period of intense guilt and/or depression. Not to be confused with Shreddia Nervosa which involves repeated episodes of binge printing, followed by ways of trying to purge the documents by excessive spells shredding all this paper again.
Symptoms: As with other office disorders, there is a significant emotional component to printing compulsively. Most sufferers use paper and documents as a way to hide from responsiblity, fill a void inside their storage units (“look I am working like crazy!”), and cope with daily stresses. Many people with compulsive printing disorder feel guilty for not being “good enough,” shame for having such thin project files, and have very low self esteem. They turn to printing to cope with their painful feelings, which only leaves them feeling worse. Sufferers often have a constant need for managers or colleagues attention and validation, and without it, may go into obsessive episodes of printing as a way to forget the pain.

Treatment: Without proper treatment, this disorder can lead to severe work environment complications which can lead to the desks overflowing with paper and the work space resembling a warehouse. About 80% of persons with printing disorders who seek professional help recover completely or make significant progress. All in all, printing disorders are behaviour patterns that display very complex emotional conflicts, which need to be resolved for the person to have a healthy relationship with paper and documents.