All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy

Who says one cannot be playful at work? When work is up to your neck, you need a good laugh to lessen the stress of work life. I have endless stories to share about how I have witnessed hilarious moments at the office. In every work setting, there are different characters whether they are villains, extras or simply lifeless props. Like I said, the world is a stage. I had my share of being involved in a real life scene that looked liked it was straight out of the script from The Office. I got away from being issued a written memo. Over what you may ask. Let's just say it's something orange, something sour and at the same time sweet. It's kiamoy. What?! Kiamoy?! Yes. Kiamoy. The one you happily chew on and throw away the seed after you snack on it.

Here's the story. Our group was thinking of running a promo and so there were several email exchanges within the group about the concept and mechanics. All the heads contributed on what they thought would work and I don't know what got over me but I picked on Y's reply. So I naughtily suggested some promo title and what I thought should be given away as freebies. Y was also in the mood to joke around and even suggested a hilarious promo title with undertones. Then Y said that it would be good to distribute the freebies with kiamoy. Why kiamoy? Because it's abundantly found under someone's desk if you try to peek underneath it. You know what I mean - those small rounded green sticky "things" found underneath desks be it at work or back when we were in school. Watch out for that arm chair! We had a few good laughs and that was it. Case closed or so we thought.

A few weeks later, someone from up there asked A for all the emails pertaining to that promo. A was tasked to collate all the emails and so he did without scanning the emails for their content as it slipped his mind that we had a series of naughty email exchanges. He was able to fortunately remove one or two emails found with naughty contents but for the most part, he was able to send it out to D. Uh oh. I smell kiamoy trouble.

The following day, D walks into the office and calls Y for a private discussion (I say it was more of a dressing down and confrontation). It took probably 20 minutes or so before Y came out and walked back to his work area.

me: Uy Y, anong sabi ni D?
Y: Tinanong nya ako kung bakit ko daw nasulat yun. Kung may galit ba daw ako kay ano.
me: Anong sabi mo?
Y: Sinabi ko wala. Nasulat ko lang. (Uuuy, wala daw syang galit.)
me: Ok tapos?
Y: Tapos sabi ni D, mememohan daw tayong dalawa. (It got me thinking, on what violation? Salty conspiracy? Kiamoy connivance?)
me: Ah ok.
Y: Tapos sabi ni D na alam naman daw naming dalawa kung ano ba talaga yung kiamoy na sinasabi ko. (Oo nga naman. Eh kung tinulungan na lang sana natin sya magbilog bilog nung mga ... ay wag na nga.)

Who wouldn't figuratively think of what those kiamoys symbolize? Well the written memo wasn't issued after all the brouhaha and to this day, I have a good laugh whenever I recall this boo boo. If you think that D never got to ask me about this kiamoy issue, he did. He passed by my work station the same day he talked with Y and he asked me "Melissa, asan ba ang kiamoy dito?". He was pointing to the table of the person who was the subject of the kiamoy controversy.

After that incident, that didn't stop me to do another unthinkable - "kidnapping" Buzz Lightyear from one of the executive offices. Buzz is a small plastic toy proudly standing on someone's executive table. Buzz has been hung on the ceiling with Y's help (Y and I are on the same page when it comes to juvenile pranks) when the owner wasn't looking. On another occasion, it was Valentines to be exact and I wrapped Buzz in a Japanese paper and placed him inside a plastic container and decorated it with a bow. It came with a love letter of course. It was meant as a gift for the rightful owner. Well, the owner unwrapped my Valentine's gift to him and read the love letter. After a few minutes, I heard him scream my name from his office. MEH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Umm, I think he liked my gift.)

Again, all work and no play makes Meh a dull girl.