It didn’t start as an experiment, but the results were perplexing and interesting.
Hubby and I had stopped by his workplace after normal business hours to pick up something he’d left on Friday. The company’s customer service department consists of about 12 women, which he refers to as “the hen pen”. Every year I send in gifts during the holidays and often I send in goodies when I’m in the mood to bake something.
On this day, I decided to put sticky-notes on each computer monitor with a bright and cheerful greeting to start their Monday morning. Sayings such as “Smile! It’s going to be a great day!” and “Isn’t it nice to know someone loves you?” were distributed throughout the office by a giddy me, who was feeling akin to Tinkerbell busily sprinkling happy fairy dust around.
That night, it snowed.
Monday wasn’t a very happy commute, so I was even more certain my notes would be received and might make someone a bit more chipper after a tense drive in to work.
On Monday evening, I asked Hubby how it went, and he said he hadn’t heard anything about it.
On Thursday evening, he finally asked the ladies to see if anyone had even noticed and found out that after an initial blush of “aww, that was sweet!”, the next thoughts were, “who did this?”. He said that after they had formed CSI teams to match handwriting to attempt to determine the culprit, they finally degraded into finger-pointing and blame for whomever “would do this to us” or “wanted to pull one over on us”.
W. T. F. ???? Seriously!?
What does this say about the mentality of an office full of women? Yikes!
How could something that was put out with nothing but loving intent and good nature be twisted into something that was wrong and abusive. Does this say that the average person is nothing but suspicious of good intentions and rather than basking in the glow of a happy thought, it’s easier to degrade into accusations and suspicion? Wow.
Dear Universe, THANK YOU for reminding me that
- I love that I work from home.
- People need more kindness strewn about like fairy dust.
Snippets and Tidbits 