5 ms·

Um, isn't it a little weird to have meeting space labeled "Romance Room" and so on? Seems juvenile at worst—"har har look who's in there together now, bro!"—and

Um, isn't it a little weird to have meeting space labeled "Romance Room" and so on? Seems juvenile at worst—"har har look who's in there together now, bro!"—and at best just stupidly awkward and pointless.

endlessvoid94 13y ago
It's only juvenile if the people behave that way -- nobody there does. You're projecting.
- binxbolling 13y ago
  But what's the value or the point? What am I missing? Why would I want to, say, have a serious 1:1 with my boss in a Romance Room? Maybe I'm too old for this level of "whimsy"...?
  - staunch 13y ago
    No, you're right, it's just lame.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- diminoten 13y ago
  Could this argument be applied to a room called, "Coworker Fuck Room"? I mean, it's just a room name, so it's only juvenile if the people behave that way, right? I could see it as the "go-to" room for pitching new ideas (so you can "romance" someone into liking your idea), but the "break up" room makes less sense. Since when do you want to broadcast that you're "breaking up" with a person or idea with a specific room? It's just a room name, so I dunno if it really matters, but it's definitely a little weird. Edit: I just realized that the room would probably be way more available than other rooms, because of the name. That might come in handy for a clever meeting scheduler if resource contention is a problem.
  - smspence 13y ago
    Except that there's no room called the "Coworker Fuck Room", so that's a straw-man argument...
    - binxbolling 13y ago
      That's not what the strawman fallacy is... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strawman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strawman
      - smspence 13y ago
        Actually, I'm not sure. Is it really not technically straw man? I think it is, but am tired of typing and I feel like I have wasted a lot of time in this thread. Everyone have a good week! See ya later.
    - diminoten 13y ago
      The logic that you can simply dismiss any room name as being appropriate if those who work with it are mature enough is not valid because there are room names which are so unambiguous, no interpretation but an inappropriate one can be made. My above comment is not a straw-man, it's an example of one such room name that cannot be interpreted any way but inappropriately. Feel free to use a different example if you think the above one is too extreme.
      - smspence 13y ago
        Of course we could all imagine a bunch of made-up names for rooms that would be inappropriate in a business setting. Nobody is arguing that no such names exist. My problem is simply with your entire approach to your argument. What you are doing is very common on internet forums, and it is a cheap way to "prove" people wrong under any circumstances. It is called black-and-white thinking. Here is the template: "If you think this one small thing is true, then you must think EVERYTHING ever in the entire world is true!!!" Obviously, you will be able to think of some example in the world that is false (even if your example is not what the original person was arguing for or against), so then you will feel like you have accomplished your goal (you have proved the person wrong). Here is where we start going down this rabbit hole: The logic that you can simply dismiss any room name as being appropriate... Keyword here is "any". Who in this thread tried to argue that ANY room name should be appropriate? (Hint: nobody tried to argue this. You just made this argument up so you could shoot it down.) ...it's an example of one such room name that cannot be interpreted any way but inappropriately. Yep, you're right, inappropriate language exists in the world. Nobody can argue against this. And nobody HAS argued against this. Here, I will use your method of argument against you: You are WRONG to think that "Employee Fuck Room" is an inappropriate name. What if it was in the offices of a company that produces pornography? Then it would be very appropriate here. It would be especially appropriate if this company had very edgy office vibe that encouraged this type of language. Also, what if someone ran a small shop that specialized in distributing super-offensive memes on the internet? They could have a room called "Employee Fuck Room" and get away with it, and one could argue it would be totally appropriate in drumming up the types of ideas they need to run their business. See!! I completely made up a couple examples that show how you could be wrong in some tiny edge case, therefore, you are 100% WRONG. See how stupid that is? This style of argument can lead to some real gems. (Bonus, religious-nut-themed example: "If you think gay people should be able to marry each other, then you must also think that a monkey and a toaster should be able to marry each other!!") The world is not black and white. If I think some name is ok, I don't have to think that ALL names are ok. I have a brain that is able to pick and choose. I don't have to just think in black and white, ALL GOOD, or ALL BAD. Here's a novel concept: How about we just understand that people will disagree with each other once in a while, and move on with our lives. Some people here can think that "Romance Room" is a silly and fun office name, and some people will have no problem with it. Some OTHER people will disagree. And that is fine. You don't need to try to convince everyone to come over to one side or the other. Some of us can just disagree, or agree, and we can just move on with our lives.
- hnriot 13y ago
  not projecting at all, that's like saying phrases have no meaning. It is juvenile, possibly it's an attempt at humor, but that doesn't detract from the silliness that comes from naming rooms that way.
rdl 13y ago
I'd find it kind of annoying, although meetings with your boss in the "Breakup Room" would be even worse. It seems like a really dumb branding idea for an office. The space itself is nice, though. I would have gone with filesystem concepts like inode, vfs, uid, gid, etc.
6d0debc071 13y ago
I'd find the glass walls awkwarder. Feel like everyone's watching you while you're trying to focus on your conversation.
alphakappa 13y ago
Companies in the bay area often have these silly names for rooms. It's not really awkward, and after a while it feels pretty normal. It's just a fun thing, so it's pointless to read too much into it.
- ultimoo 13y ago
  True this. The office I work in SF has meeting rooms named after dead musicians.
- s9ix 13y ago
  I recently got to visit Facebook's Canadian office (in Toronto) and they had Canadian themed names for their board rooms. E.g. Board Room Eh, Roberta Bondar Room, etc. - gave us a good laugh, haha.
- runamok 13y ago
  Ours are named after comic book characters but the best thing is they are in alphabetical order.
- thoughtpalette 13y ago
  Previous agency's were named after Typefaces
- citrik 13y ago
  Our meeting rooms are named after the planets, sadly there is no correlation of planet size to room size.
andrewhillman 13y ago
I believe the phrase you are looking for is cheesy as fuck.
monkeynotes 13y ago
Seems that the trend for office design these days is to make a theme park out of business space. I guess the idea is to make the space feel like an enjoyable place to spend a majority of your waking life.
- illumen 13y ago
  Places that produce creative work are often plain. It makes the work stand out more. Also, I think if the work is boring you'd want a more creative space. However, these just seem wacky and zany. Often tech people have really bad taste, but a lot of money. This type of office is the result. shudder
untog 13y ago
I was more disappointed by the "CHALLENGE ACCEPTED" text written on the wall. Being exposed to meme-y nonsense every day would have a severe impact on my job satisfaction.
- Dewie 13y ago
  I wonder how all those articles, slides and presentations on technical topics with meme-y phrases and pictures will feel like in 10 years time (those that are still relevant, that is).
rdouble 13y ago
But what's the value or the point? What am I missing? Why would I want to, say, have a serious 1:1 with my boss in a Romance Room? Every early stage startup in San Francisco has an employee who is a combination secretary, HR person and vice president of ops. She usually went to an quirky college like UCSC or Evergreen and is often the ex-girlfriend of one of the founders or has some other quirky but never-again-mentioned relation to someone in the office. This employee's main distinguishing characteristic is her high level of quirkiness. Her title is Vibe Director or VP of Vibe or Senior Vibeologist. This quirky person is in charge of buying the snacks, getting the t-shirts printed, buying white board supplies, paying the bills, picking out the posters, ordering the Aerons and also higher level stuff like finding new office space. When the company gets a new office she is in charge of naming the office rooms. However, for some reason the CEO and other founders also find naming the rooms a very serious and important task. The names can't simply be decided upon, there must be several heated meetings arguing the pros and cons of naming them after San Francisco Streets, or SF Neighborhoods, or cities in California. Since nobody wants to meet in Fresno or Bayshore or on Geary Street, this is a big deal and the meetings generally end with slammed doors, silent crying, and the vibemaster sitting alone in the nameless conference room with a 1000 yard stare into one of the whiteboards. Then one day one of the investors visits the office and his adorable french bulldog starts humping the VP of Vibe's adorable english bulldog in one of the still-unnamed rooms and a lightbulb simultaneously appears above everyone on the room naming committee's heads.
- DrJ 13y ago
  also known as the Startup mom, making sure all the children(Founders, Employees) don't starve and die in the office.

endlessvoid94 13y ago

It's only juvenile if the people behave that way -- nobody there does. You're projecting.

binxbolling 13y ago
But what's the value or the point? What am I missing? Why would I want to, say, have a serious 1:1 with my boss in a Romance Room? Maybe I'm too old for this level of "whimsy"...?
- staunch 13y ago
  No, you're right, it's just lame.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
diminoten 13y ago
Could this argument be applied to a room called, "Coworker Fuck Room"? I mean, it's just a room name, so it's only juvenile if the people behave that way, right? I could see it as the "go-to" room for pitching new ideas (so you can "romance" someone into liking your idea), but the "break up" room makes less sense. Since when do you want to broadcast that you're "breaking up" with a person or idea with a specific room? It's just a room name, so I dunno if it really matters, but it's definitely a little weird. Edit: I just realized that the room would probably be way more available than other rooms, because of the name. That might come in handy for a clever meeting scheduler if resource contention is a problem.
- smspence 13y ago
  Except that there's no room called the "Coworker Fuck Room", so that's a straw-man argument...
  - binxbolling 13y ago
    That's not what the strawman fallacy is... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strawman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strawman
    - smspence 13y ago
      Actually, I'm not sure. Is it really not technically straw man? I think it is, but am tired of typing and I feel like I have wasted a lot of time in this thread. Everyone have a good week! See ya later.
  - diminoten 13y ago
    The logic that you can simply dismiss any room name as being appropriate if those who work with it are mature enough is not valid because there are room names which are so unambiguous, no interpretation but an inappropriate one can be made. My above comment is not a straw-man, it's an example of one such room name that cannot be interpreted any way but inappropriately. Feel free to use a different example if you think the above one is too extreme.
    - smspence 13y ago
      Of course we could all imagine a bunch of made-up names for rooms that would be inappropriate in a business setting. Nobody is arguing that no such names exist. My problem is simply with your entire approach to your argument. What you are doing is very common on internet forums, and it is a cheap way to "prove" people wrong under any circumstances. It is called black-and-white thinking. Here is the template: "If you think this one small thing is true, then you must think EVERYTHING ever in the entire world is true!!!" Obviously, you will be able to think of some example in the world that is false (even if your example is not what the original person was arguing for or against), so then you will feel like you have accomplished your goal (you have proved the person wrong). Here is where we start going down this rabbit hole: The logic that you can simply dismiss any room name as being appropriate... Keyword here is "any". Who in this thread tried to argue that ANY room name should be appropriate? (Hint: nobody tried to argue this. You just made this argument up so you could shoot it down.) ...it's an example of one such room name that cannot be interpreted any way but inappropriately. Yep, you're right, inappropriate language exists in the world. Nobody can argue against this. And nobody HAS argued against this. Here, I will use your method of argument against you: You are WRONG to think that "Employee Fuck Room" is an inappropriate name. What if it was in the offices of a company that produces pornography? Then it would be very appropriate here. It would be especially appropriate if this company had very edgy office vibe that encouraged this type of language. Also, what if someone ran a small shop that specialized in distributing super-offensive memes on the internet? They could have a room called "Employee Fuck Room" and get away with it, and one could argue it would be totally appropriate in drumming up the types of ideas they need to run their business. See!! I completely made up a couple examples that show how you could be wrong in some tiny edge case, therefore, you are 100% WRONG. See how stupid that is? This style of argument can lead to some real gems. (Bonus, religious-nut-themed example: "If you think gay people should be able to marry each other, then you must also think that a monkey and a toaster should be able to marry each other!!") The world is not black and white. If I think some name is ok, I don't have to think that ALL names are ok. I have a brain that is able to pick and choose. I don't have to just think in black and white, ALL GOOD, or ALL BAD. Here's a novel concept: How about we just understand that people will disagree with each other once in a while, and move on with our lives. Some people here can think that "Romance Room" is a silly and fun office name, and some people will have no problem with it. Some OTHER people will disagree. And that is fine. You don't need to try to convince everyone to come over to one side or the other. Some of us can just disagree, or agree, and we can just move on with our lives.
hnriot 13y ago
not projecting at all, that's like saying phrases have no meaning. It is juvenile, possibly it's an attempt at humor, but that doesn't detract from the silliness that comes from naming rooms that way.

rdl 13y ago

I'd find it kind of annoying, although meetings with your boss in the "Breakup Room" would be even worse. It seems like a really dumb branding idea for an office. The space itself is nice, though. I would have gone with filesystem concepts like inode, vfs, uid, gid, etc.

6d0debc071 13y ago

I'd find the glass walls awkwarder. Feel like everyone's watching you while you're trying to focus on your conversation.

alphakappa 13y ago

Companies in the bay area often have these silly names for rooms. It's not really awkward, and after a while it feels pretty normal. It's just a fun thing, so it's pointless to read too much into it.

ultimoo 13y ago
True this. The office I work in SF has meeting rooms named after dead musicians.
s9ix 13y ago
I recently got to visit Facebook's Canadian office (in Toronto) and they had Canadian themed names for their board rooms. E.g. Board Room Eh, Roberta Bondar Room, etc. - gave us a good laugh, haha.
runamok 13y ago
Ours are named after comic book characters but the best thing is they are in alphabetical order.
thoughtpalette 13y ago
Previous agency's were named after Typefaces
citrik 13y ago
Our meeting rooms are named after the planets, sadly there is no correlation of planet size to room size.

andrewhillman 13y ago

I believe the phrase you are looking for is cheesy as fuck.

monkeynotes 13y ago

Seems that the trend for office design these days is to make a theme park out of business space. I guess the idea is to make the space feel like an enjoyable place to spend a majority of your waking life.

illumen 13y ago
Places that produce creative work are often plain. It makes the work stand out more. Also, I think if the work is boring you'd want a more creative space. However, these just seem wacky and zany. Often tech people have really bad taste, but a lot of money. This type of office is the result. shudder

untog 13y ago

I was more disappointed by the "CHALLENGE ACCEPTED" text written on the wall. Being exposed to meme-y nonsense every day would have a severe impact on my job satisfaction.

Dewie 13y ago
I wonder how all those articles, slides and presentations on technical topics with meme-y phrases and pictures will feel like in 10 years time (those that are still relevant, that is).

rdouble 13y ago

But what's the value or the point? What am I missing? Why would I want to, say, have a serious 1:1 with my boss in a Romance Room? Every early stage startup in San Francisco has an employee who is a combination secretary, HR person and vice president of ops. She usually went to an quirky college like UCSC or Evergreen and is often the ex-girlfriend of one of the founders or has some other quirky but never-again-mentioned relation to someone in the office. This employee's main distinguishing characteristic is her high level of quirkiness. Her title is Vibe Director or VP of Vibe or Senior Vibeologist. This quirky person is in charge of buying the snacks, getting the t-shirts printed, buying white board supplies, paying the bills, picking out the posters, ordering the Aerons and also higher level stuff like finding new office space. When the company gets a new office she is in charge of naming the office rooms. However, for some reason the CEO and other founders also find naming the rooms a very serious and important task. The names can't simply be decided upon, there must be several heated meetings arguing the pros and cons of naming them after San Francisco Streets, or SF Neighborhoods, or cities in California. Since nobody wants to meet in Fresno or Bayshore or on Geary Street, this is a big deal and the meetings generally end with slammed doors, silent crying, and the vibemaster sitting alone in the nameless conference room with a 1000 yard stare into one of the whiteboards. Then one day one of the investors visits the office and his adorable french bulldog starts humping the VP of Vibe's adorable english bulldog in one of the still-unnamed rooms and a lightbulb simultaneously appears above everyone on the room naming committee's heads.

DrJ 13y ago
also known as the Startup mom, making sure all the children(Founders, Employees) don't starve and die in the office.