Possible work avoidance devices

In our new age of technology the battle between management controlling every working minute and employee ducking work marches on.

Here's a simple one I dreamed up once during a long business meeting.

The Fake pager: Set it to beep 15 minutes into a meeting. Look down with a suprised expression on your face, then scurry from the room in haste. :D

I see it being sold with a complementary web site offering "After the fact" explainations. :chuckle:

What outrageous work avoidance systems have you seen in the work place?
What crazy high tech gadgets might be devised?

Here's another.

The Vacation Cube: In those offices that have miles of cubes, some of them unoccupied in patches. Wall one in completely. (Except for the secret swivel door.) Outfit it with Sun lamps, Tanning oil, Beach lounger, and TV with DVD. Kegs of beer optional.

You could even sublet it for extra income. (I'd start with those freakishly tall people who can see over the top of cubes. :) )

The Fake pager: Set it to beep 15 minutes into a meeting. Look down with a suprised expression on your face, then scurry from the room in haste. :D
Yup, I use that one all the time, especially for those mandentory meetings that I have no interest it, or those catered meetings with good food but I don't feel like sitting there for 2 hours just to get some food.

What I do is send myself an e-mail (this is great since most phones and pagers these days recieve e-mail) and in outlook, you can defer sending for a certain time (I'm sure that other e-mail clients have a similiar feature?) so I just set it to about 15 minutes after the meeting starts. If it's a "food meeting", I give myself 30 minutes (don't want to rush a free meal! ;) )

I had a pretty good system down for a while there - The company catering team published their schedule publicly (officially, this was so that 2 catered meetings wouldn't be scheduled for the same time) I took advantage of this like an ambulance chaser. My longest run was six weeks without having to buy lunch. :D

But back to work avoidance:
Hmm, go buy a Dilbert daily calendar, flip through it, paying special attention to Wally. He's got some cool ideas.
Of course there's always the prop-your-head-up-with-your-hands-while-you-are-sleeping-but-pretend-to-be-reading trick. You know this one - you learned it back in school, and it's been working ever since.
If you work for a big enough company, just go break-room hopping. Go from one department's break room to the next, spending just enough time in each so that anyone who observes you thinks you're just on a break. If your company is big enough, no one will know who you are or what department you're from anyway.
Or do like George did on Sienfeld, build a nap cubby under your desk. :)

Actually, using a ruse to get out of a boring meeting might be in order to actually GET some work done.

I can relate. ;)

What a great name for W(ork) A(voidance) S(oftware)! "Ruse v6.0"

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