Engineers… again!
It must have been a case of Friday Afternoon Syndrome, or something… because it seemed like people here had a bit too much time debating a rather mundane topic.
But then again, they’re engineers. Nothing is mundane for engineers.
So it all started off with an email from someone from Admin requesting that meeting room etiquette be observed after a meeting has finished. In this particular case, that the meeting rooms be restored to their original configuration after a meeting has concluded.
A rather innocuous request, you might think. I mean, it’s common courtesy to leave things as they were for the next group of people. After all, it’s being considerate and thoughtful of other staff… right?
Sure, when efficiency is not a matter of concern. Unfortunately, efficiency is almost always a matter of concern for engineers. It also being a Friday afternoon, what appeared to be a final statement from Admin became a source of entertainment for the Engineers.
The following response to the original message was sent a bit later:
But it’s a double waste of time if the next users of the rooms actually wanted them the way you had them set up, and have to change them back again. It makes more sense for people to leave the rooms in the state they’re in.
From here, the same argument was applied to toilet seats (and I must say, I have always thought that it makes more sense for whoever uses a toilet seat to put it up or down. It takes a whole one second to do so. Equal opportunity for women? Well you can start here).
It quickly degenerated to discussions involving extending the meeting room booking software to allow users to specify room configurations… and booking toilet cubicles.
Of course, someone then suggested an AI to juggle room bookings so as to ensure minimum amount of furniture rearrangement. This was quickly followed by the suggestion of replacing our furniture with robotic equivalents that know how to move themselves.
Who said you can’t have fun at work?