Read at Work = Brilliant/Evil
June 27th, 2008 by Cali & Jody
A friend of ours sent us this link to Read at Work and when we saw it, we nearly fell out of our chairs. For those of you who prefer not to click the link, RAW is a website that perfectly mimics the Windows desktop, except that the folders open up to short stories that are formatted as PowerPoint presentations. Finally, you can catch up on classics like F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Ice Palace” while looking like you’re building that next great sales pitch.
RAW is perfectly executed. A casual passerby would be completely fooled into thinking you were hard at work. But there is also something extremely sad about the very existence of this site. When we see humor like this we laugh for a moment and then settle into a mild funk, because it assumes (and rightly) that:
1. When you are at work, you are essentially a prisoner.
2. You are a prisoner at work, and you will always be a prisoner because the culture of work will never change.
3. Your best bet is to laugh at your imprisonment and/or make up clever workarounds as opposed to finding a way to set yourself free.
We know we have a lot of work to do to change the culture of the traditional workplace. And we’re the last people to want to step on a laugh. But we also want you to take heart. There is a better way. Laughter may be the best medicine, but we’re fighting for an all-out cure.
If reading poetry is more appealing than your job, it may be time to look for a job change!
Can Read At Work come up with some sort of fantasy football application?
If reading poetry is more appealing than your job, it may be time for a job change!
Can Read At Work come up with some sort of fantasy football application?
If you thought that was shocking, this is probably worth watching:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=YYgtUvgYi8U
It’s an interesting idea but I agree that it’s sad. I can’t help but think that, if you have enough spare time at work that you can read a novel, why not be free to do something else wtih that time? We don’t have unlimited time in our lives so it seems such a pity to have to waste it distracting yourself at work.