Thursday, April 19, 2012

10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife


Nothing ever makes me laugh anymore, sad but true, but this did. True story.  Our employees work mostly from home, but the company has an office in the boondocks of the outskirts of Tinytown  in São Paulo.  I’ve never seen the office, but I imagine it to be bare bones, a couple of desks, a couple of outdated computers and a couple of dedicated people.  On a good day there’s toilet paper in the bathroom.  

One of the decrepit computers has a loose wireless card. You remember the old desktop computers with card slots and one or two tiny screws that hold the card in place. Yes, one of those.  Anyway the wireless card on one of the computers was loose and Ada used every utensil in the office on the loose screw in various failed attempts to secure the card in place.  Whether the intermittent wireless service was more annoying than the taunting she received for her inability to tighten a screw is something you are going to have to ask her.  After much taunting from her fellow workers she decided what she needed was a knife.  A butter knife, a pocket knife, a letter opener any sort of knife would do. She ransacked the office from top to bottom.  No knife. She then had the idea to go to the corner bakery where she is a regular customer, they couldn’t begrudge her a knife.  She walked to the counter and had the following exchange:

Ada: “Hi, could I borrow a knife, I’ll bring it right back.”
Baker: “Sure, why do you need a knife?”
Ada: “To tighten a screw on a computer.”
Baker: “…Why didn’t you ask for a screwdriver then?”
Ada: “…Years of female stereotype social conditioning force me to request a kitchen utensil to do manly work…?”

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