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This is taking an argument to the extreme. Placing a red box on the floor does not suddenly turn the whole place into North Korea.
by BrentRitterbeck 16y ago
This is taking an argument to the extreme. Placing a red box on the floor does not suddenly turn the whole place into North Korea.
- cema 16y agoOf course it does not turn it into North Korea. For one thing, leaving North Korea is difficult, changing jobs is not. And nobody is starving. But this "have fun! have fun!" attitude is not healthy at all. As others mentioned, it triggers unhealthy psychological mechanisms. (Or, said simply: raises the bullshit meter.)
- rjurney 16y agoWhen people see the zone for the first time, they laugh. People like funny things. People at LinkedIn like to laugh. Laughing is not compulsory, just incredibly common - and I have to say it sure feels healthy.
- ams6110 16y agoWhat makes me laugh is the stuff that people post on their LinkedIn pages. I've never seen so much peacock strutting anywhere.
- BrentRitterbeck 16y agoIt's a suggestion. I'm fairly confident they would not get away with firing someone who did not give a high-five after walking through the box. That would never hold up in court. Some people overreact to rather benign issues.
- pbrane 16y agoI truly feel sorry for people who have this little sense of humor, and am glad that we haven't had much of that reaction (e.g. taking at all, even mildly seriously) to the signs and The Zone. Taking the High Five Zone seriously is like taking seriously a sign in the mens bathroom proclaiming "Please follow the International Choice of Urinal Protocol" (c.f. http://blog.xkcd.com/2009/09/02/urinal-protocol-vulnerability/ http://blog.xkcd.com/2009/09/02/urinal-protocol-vulnerabilit... ).
- cema 16y agoForcing your sense of humor on your subordinates creates an unhealthy atmosphere. (My reaction would have been different if he had not been a top manager in the company.)
- rjurney 16y agoHe didn't force anything. I did this. He asked for a zone, I put it up the day of that interview. The writer took artistic license, which I'm fine with - I liked the article. So your reaction can become different now.
- mkramlich 16y agoThat's how North Korea was founded. The Communists put this big red box symbol just north of the 38th parallel, and said, "You must high-five here or die, capitalist pig dogs!" The South refused to high-five.