Today At Work

So today at work, as part of our staff meeting, we had a brainstorming session about ways to cut costs. I feel like I can tell the world that, it's not proprietary information that Boeing is trying to save money. I'm actually a fan of saving money, and I approve that they are looking for our input in doing that, as workers are usually the ones with the best ideas.

Anyway, as is wont to happen, the brainstorming session eventually degraded into who can come up with the funniest way to cut costs. I was in the zone, and my ideas kept getting funnier and funnier.

I would target ideas that I knew my coworkers would find funny because of their tastes and the things they complained about.

"What about industrial strength toilet paper? Oh wait, we already have that!" ha ha ha
"What about if we have a policy where you only flush every other time? Think about it, 50% savings in water bathroom costs!" ha ha ha. my germophobic coworkers loved that one

I was on a roll. I looked at my manager and took aim. She's a pretty hard-core environmentalist, had a Prius the first year they came out, lives out in the country, has a lot of pets that she really cares about, makes sure we turn off our monitors at the end of the day to save a little bit of energy...really nice lady, I like her. At the perfect time, at a lull in the conversation, I looked up and said,

"Isn't just throwing everything away cheaper than recycling? How about we do that?"

Dead Silence. Finally I added a "Just kidding. Joking. I love recycling."

Nobody laughed. Oh well.