A few years ago I ventured to the fourth floor of our building and, along the way, I found a pile of surplus items. In the middle of the items was a wooden box with a slat across the top and a sign that read, “SUGGESTIONS.” On top of that box was another sign that read, “SURPLUS!”
I laughed for some time about the irony of that photo opportunity. Fortunately, I have had the privilege of being reminded of this visual via a few mediums – television and continued employment.
The Office (American version) has an episode titled ‘Performance Review’ in which the office manager, Michael has concerns about his own performance review and implements a ‘Suggestion Box.’ He then holds a meeting and reads the suggestions to everyone. Three of my favorites were, “What should we do to prepare for Y2K?” – the year is 2005; “You need to do something about your coffee breath,” and; “Don’t sleep with your boss.” Three great suggestions.
My office recently decided to pull our Suggestion Box out of surplus and house it on the world wide web. Several staff were asked to participate in the implementation and, as luck would have it, I’m one of them. Being the dedicated employee I am, I brought my notebook. Unlike other meetings, where I end up practicing my cursive by writing, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog,” over and over again, I was actually taking notes (in cursive, of course), all the while trying not to think of the Surplus item on the fourth floor and The Office episode.
One of the committee members – the one who suggested the suggestion box – was providing a history of how this all got started. Instead of just providing internal office background information, he took us back to the 1800s when, according to him (could not verify this on the world wide web) the first suggestion box of sorts was implemented. He then moved us through the 1900s, specifically 1980/1990, when he worked on a suggestion box in a previous position with the company. Fast forward to today, and he had three reasons suggestion boxes were necessary:
1. Everybody has a good idea
3. Organized means
That’s right. Three reasons to have a suggestion box, yet only two were stated. My first suggestion, “I suggest we review the two, I mean three, reasons. Where is #2?”