Monday, March 20, 2006

The Ninth Circle of White Board Hell

















My boss uses dry erase white boards to outline the many ways in which the Public Affairs Department (me and her) are helping our organization take over the world. Sometimes this is helpful and a good management tool. But when the white board starts to look as it does in the above photos, you cannot get very far without an extensive background in deciphering the language of squiggle.

This, and the fact that we don't know how to budget are the only two things standing in our way.
Under the pretense of altruistic social service, we are steadily tightening our clutch on this unsuspecting planet and indiscriminately spreading fear of the "white board" among its inhabitants.

Steps to world take over:

-Brand your product on every possible flat surface: newspaper ads, fliers, sailboat mainsails
-Buy all the land in the area so that you can make sure they don't build ugly hotels or casinos instead
-Infiltrate the legislature with bills that will turn all the tax revenue in your state over to you
-Construct a building and make all powerful organization locate there for more efficient spy operations

I really do work for a great organization- I think people are too cynical to realize there actually are social service agencies that do positive, helpful things. Its much easier to believe in conspiracies of take over and to assume everyone has selfish intentions.

If it was up to some people in director positions, however, I think the world would be full of white boards.....whether you liked it or not.

6 Comments:

At 7:17 AM, Blogger Scott said...

I am very familiar with white board issues. Funny, I work in social services too. Is it a trend??? Is that going to be my one day? Yikes....

Scott

 
At 8:46 PM, Blogger Heather B said...

Oh Lord just looking at that gives me a headache.

I am lucky, my boss only communicates by the random email here and there.

 
At 10:08 PM, Blogger Jessie said...

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At 10:21 PM, Blogger Jessie said...

I remember when I was an intern and had to sit through White Board Hell. I am thankful that I don't have to sit through those meetings anymore. Instead, I am fortunate to sit in construction meetings where grumpy and egotistical old men try to prove whats in their pants are really large without actually unzipping and slapping them on the table.

The one thing I miss about white board meetings was playing footsies with a certain female intern ;)

 
At 1:46 PM, Blogger frankwolftown said...

My friend uses a dry erase board constantly! He has one at work and one in his house. I'm thankful he has it though other wise I wouldn't be able to understand wht he's saying half the time!

 
At 2:23 PM, Blogger sirbarrett said...

I've been studying public relations, but I ended up doing a lot of advertising projects as well on my job placement for school. This reminded me of that. We didn't have whiteboards but we had a person taking notes on a computer with action items and the rest that got projected up on the board. Sometimes the font would spontaneously change on us and cause a huge hassle. Sometimes brainstorms leave quite a mess.

 

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