Friday’s Unscientific Poll: Cheeky door label

[nanila]

Our corridor was refurbished several months ago, and new door labels were applied. The admin staff have since added names and roles (e.g. “Lecturer”, “Research Associate”) to about 70% of the doors.

My officemate and I grew tired of waiting for ours to appear and have thus created our own.

[Blue and white door label reading “Mr [Redacted] & Dr [Redacted]: Purveyors of splendid magnetometer data”]

We’re trying to decide how long it will be before anyone notices.

Poll #18391 Purveyors of splendid magnetometer data

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 81

View Respondents

Someone will notice our door label

View Answers

in a few days
7 (8.6%)

in a few weeks
3 (3.7%)

in a few months
3 (3.7%)

if/when you ever move office & it has to be replaced
27 (33.3%)

straightaway, but no one will say anything - see “You work in the Physics Department”
41 (50.6%)

Comments

[slemslempike]

I reckon people will notice quickly because the labels are still new and they'll want to nosy, but not say anything. I would love it if you started a trend and people start adding all of their own better titles.

[nanila]

I would like that too. I'll keep an eye out for changes over the next couple of weeks!

[marymac]

Only in the unlikely event of a dignitary being down your corridor.

But if anyone did argue about, I mean, technically you are.

[cmcmck]

This!

High heid yins tend to have had a humour byepass!

It certainly deserves to be noticed! :o)

[nanila]

It is, in fact, a much more precise description of what we actually do than our job titles. :)

[davidgillon]

Nice :)

I might have gone for 'Purveyors of Bespoke Magnetometry Data', or maybe 'magnificent magnetometry data' - in fact it's one of those things you could change regularly for continued effect.

[nanila]

I thought about using Magnificent! I like Bespoke, too. Next time we get praised for something I'll change it. ;)

[whereisirisnow]

This is great! Everyone should have labels on their office like that! :)

[nanila]

I mean, it's a lot more descriptive than "Instrument Engineers", isn't it? :D

[delight]

I picked the last one, but someone might comment! Just ... favorably. To you. I can't imagine why they would want to change it.

[nanila]

I hope you're right. I definitely don't want to change it!

[pheloniusfriar]

I spent several years in a cubicle farm where someone on our small team had put up the name plaque on his cubicle as "Ben Dover". By the time I left, everyone not on our team just called him Ben and never really seemed to get the joke. It was both amusing and a bit sad.

[azurelunatic]

My erstwhile Overlady's past officemate had "James Tiberius Kirk" on their door. People would come through looking for Tim (or whatever his name was), see Kirk, look confused, and wander away, still in search of Tim...

[nanila]

I wonder how many people just wanted to sidestep the issue, a la Michael Bolton. "Why should I change? He's the one who sucks!" :P

[pheloniusfriar]

True...

[azurelunatic]

The reaction from the admin staff may well go as follows:

Physical survey of the hallway, checking offices against a list, making sure that
- the office exists
- there is a paper in the slot
- it has the correct names
Office is found to exist, have a paper, which is bearing the correct names.
Office is ticked off on list as needing no action.
Label remains until a label redesign, one of you gets a new title, or there's a move.
(The admin type may or may not notice the description and go away giggling in their sleeve and wondering who else needs a role upgrade.)

[nanila]

Oh, I hope they do get a giggle out of it. I strongly suspect our admin staff does not get a lot of laughs from us otherwise.

[ceb]

What an excellent door label :-)

[nanila]

Thank you. I hope it is allowed to stand. :D