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Chug Off!

I used to look at the logo for the World Wide Fund For Nature and think, awww, it’s a panda, how cute. Not any more. Now I look at it and I see the bear wearing the mask of a burglar. ‘How could I be so heartless?’ I hear you cry, ”What can have happened for you to fall out of love with the panda?’. The answer, dear reader, is street fund raisers, better known as chuggers.

Yesterday, Villiers Street near Charing Cross was alive with orange vested WWF chuggers. I steeled myself as I headed down the street, trying to look busy, pretending to be on the phone, playing all the tricks in the hope of avoiding contact. But no, today I was up against the Bionic Chugger and he took me on. Three times he tried to engage me, the first two I replied, ‘no thank you’ and on the third I blurted out, ‘Chuggers, arrgrrgghhhhhhh!’

I walked on, free from further chugging, when all of a sudden a lady approached me purposefully and for a second I thought, ‘uh oh, I shouldn’t have dissed the chugger – this person’s probably a life member of WWF and I’m about to get my smackdown‘ – did you see what I did there 😉 But I needn’t have worried, the lady spoke kindly with me, shared my frustration and then we parted company, laughing about our shared experience.

But the truth is, it ain’t funny. I see chugging as damaging to a brand. It’s intrusive and to me at least, it feels unwelcome. But I’m left thinking it must work for these organisations or they wouldn’t do it – would they? So today my search is for people sympathetic to and supportive of the humble chugger. Is that you? Please let me know.

 

Don’t Make Me Laugh

Last week I attended a laughter workshop (no sniggering at the back please). I went because it was hosted by Berghind Joseph, hosts of last years excellent, fun and learning packed David Zinger session, I enjoy a good laugh, and I am curious.

During my time with BT, one of the questions I was repeatedly asked by bamboozled and often miserable colleagues was, ‘how do you manage to have so much fun at work?’ I was never entirely sure how to respond to this question. I simply chose, for the most part, to enjoy what I was doing, and I’ve never underestimated the power of a smile.

So what did I learn from the session?

Kids laugh approximately 400 times a day, adults about 15 times

OK this is a sweeping generalisation, and I’m sure there are kids picking their way through rubbish piles in Cambodia, Peru and other places for whom even the average adult figure is a distant, seemingly unreachable goal, but this stat just left me thinking, cheer up you miserable gits!

The physiological benefits of laughter work even when the laughter is forced

You can basically fool the body, even if you can’t fool the brain. This made me shudder a little, even though we were told that some forms of yoga and other exercise use forced laughter to improve our physiology. A big thing about laughter is its spontaneity, surely? Apparently not, but as we were invited to force a laugh, I felt a little creeped out. We were informed about circulation benefits which I agree are physical, but all the stuff about endorphins releasing to aid the immune system and pain relief, engaging both sides of the brain to release stress…well that’s all brain stuff, right? And I found the use of an old fashioned car horn as a means to grab our attention somewhat clown like. I don’t like clowns, do you?

Scary Clown

Laughter leads to longevity

Laughter helps us build better, stronger, longer relationships. I thought of my darling Carole who has tolerated me as her husband for nigh on twenty years now. She laughs at me a lot, so I guess there’s something in this 😉 I have two friends, Adrian and Curly, who I’ve known for years and years and years, and it’s true that whenever we see each other it’s not long before tears of laughter are rolling.

I left the workshop feeling good about Berghind Joseph for putting on another challenging event, and perhaps a little relieved that I’d reacted in the way I had. Yes a happy workplace is a better workplace, and for me it has to come naturally. How about you – got any good jokes?

photo credit

photo credit

 

 

 

Steal With Pride

Nothing is original so why not steal with pride? You get the drift. I just googled ‘Steal With Pride’ to see if I could attribute the quote to someone, and it turns out I already wrote a blog post with the same title back in July of last year. Well whaddya know – I stole it from myself, and doubtless from others too.

I read a really funny post by Laurie Ruettimann last week called ‘Unwritten Blog Posts’ in which she came up with a list of 50 titles for blog posts as yet unwritten. The list is funny and well worth a read. Laurie also said ‘If you are a blogger, you should blog on a daily basis.’ so in her comments suggestion I said ‘Love it! Man, I need to up my game, thanks. That’s not a blog title – but it should be perhaps? I’ll think of some, meantime consider some of these stolen for future use!’

I thought on for a bit, got excited by the idea and went back to say that I would try and experiment this week with a post a day, taking titles from the list. I was so enthused, I even threw in a swear for good measure, ‘Laurie – fuck it – next week I’m going to blog Monday through Friday stealing five of your 50 titles. Thanks – Doug’

I went away for the weekend, fired up the laptop this morning and went back to Laurie’s place to look at her list again. Underneath my reply Laurie had written ‘FUCK NO’. That’s pretty clear, so for the record there won’t be any blog posts appearing here with titles stolen from Laurie’s list.

This dialogue has got me thinking about the whole ‘steal with pride’ ethos. I reference other people’s stuff all the time in my blogs and elsewhere, and I never knowingly don’t credit them. I used to make a point of contacting people in advance, ‘Is it OK if I quote you on XXX/link to your blog’ etc etc and the responses were always positive. So I stopped asking.

After what’s just happened do I still feel the same way about ‘steal with pride’? I guess operating in this connected world, yes I do. And I’m also mindful that theft is a crime, so if you are gonna steal something, maybe it is best to say please first?

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