In today’s fast-paced office environment, there really are a lot of rules to follow. Some are conveniently codified and passed down in things like an employee handbook (for example, what to do in the event of a poisonous tree snake infestation or which ancient voodoo zombification rituals are and aren’t permitted during work hours). Other rules fall into the unspoken moral quicksand of office relations (for example, apparently it’s frowned upon to show coworkers a rash on your buttocks which you feel bears an uncanny resemblance to TV’s Major Dad*).
But the greatest crime in the litany of office offensives is to be insensitive. After all, in a world where political correctness rules all, you never know who you might “cheese off” (as the term is officially referred to by human resources professionals). Of course, insensitive or not, sometimes it can be a hard thing to bite your tongue. It’s like the old office adage goes: if you can’t say anything nice about someone, don’t send out an email to the entire company describing them as an “incompetent lump of body odor and bad decisions.”
Fortunately, the two of us have never (knock on fake wood) had a human resources complaint filed against us before. Not that we haven’t come close once or twice (no one need ever know about a certain incident involving a certain goat and a certain floor waxer on the certain fourth floor of a certain company). We did, however, think it might be the perfect subject for this week’s comic and yet another slippery situation for our two heroes Phil and Rusty to get themselves out of.
So take a lesson from this week’s comic. Think before you speak in the workplace and consider each and every one of your actions carefully. Who knows, it might just be the shot in the arm your career needs! In the meantime, if someone from HR shows up at your desk with a complaint about that wicked Jar Jar Binks neck tattoo you just got… well, don’t say we didn’t warn you.
Thanks for reading!
-Pol & Adam
* Well excuuuuuuuse me, Becky from accounting!