Category — Office Passtime

I just found this great article over at Metromix called How to watch TV at work(without getting fired). So if you didn’t already know…I suggest checking it out!

Sure I’ve joked about doing this in the past, but apparently these people are actually doing work while running on a treadmill.

Click Here To Read The Full Article

The Puzzle Table is a creation from designer Hsien Chang, who took the concept of sliding puzzles, and applied it to your everyday computer desk so that users can see what is stored within the desk by a simple slide of its dividers. Each of the baskets inside each grid are removable allowing the user to sort and organize the contained items easily.

I remember being quite excited when I first heard that Jerry Seinfeld had been enlisted to star in the new ads for Windows Vista, particularly since he was reportedly receiving 10 million dollars for his performance, out of a budget of 300 million. Surely with that type of money these ads were guaranteed to deliver at least a couple laughs right?  At last the first commercial has arrived, and well…I’m confused. Take a look yourself:

Italian design and Japanese engineering? There must be a punch line coming after that set-up.

The ads say it’s like thousands of tiny fingers simultaneously massaging your scalp. This sounds like the magic fingers option one used to find on beds in midrange motels. As in that case, it seems to me that human fingers would do a better job. But in one’s lonely office cubicle, the Brain Spa Head Massager may be an acceptable second choice.

Anything that relives stress is a good thing. And improved blood circulation may even help you come up with new ideas. The helmet you have to wear may make you look like a space cadet, but hey, your officemates will relieve their stress by laughing at you.

Need a day off but already wasted all your vacation time?  Well the new marketing scheme by Mikes Hard Lemonade aims to assist you in getting some ‘quality BBQ time’ by letting you create a personalized news clip video about a tragic incident that recently befell you, which you can then send to your boss as proof of your inability to come in to work.

The resulting video is hosted on a web-page made to look like a real news site (sort of), and is all sorts of hilarious.  It probably won’t fool your boss, but it might put him in the mood to give you that day off anyway.

Try making your own news clip video HERE

According to a survey done by Salary.com in 2007, the average worker wastes 1.7 hours on a typical 8.5 hour workday, of which 34.7% is spent surfing the internet, 20.3% socializing with co-workers, 17% handling personal business, and the remainder being divided between things like making phone calls, and taking long breaks. Notice how reading a book was not included? Well obviously, because you would probably get fired a lot quicker than you would checking your personal email…up until now that is.

In what can only be described as sheer genius, the website ReadAtWork.com uses flash to disguise your web browser as a Windows XP desktop running a PowerPoint presentation, only the slides are made up of a book of your choice, complete with pie charts, line graphs, and pictures of people who look busy. Although the selection is rather limited at this point, you can still choose from classics like George Orwell’s Animal Farm, or Oscar Wilde’s The Happy Prince, or if you prefer there’s also poetry and short stories.