Today was the last day of work at the Valve Store(tm) until next Tuesday because of getting a 4 day weekend off for Christmas. Every year, as we get to the end of the final work day before this holiday, various employees will punch 6 on their phones, activating the paging system, and broadcast a loud, “Merry Christmas from Line 6” (or SBSA or Nuclear or whatever.)
I always find these very cringe-worthy and am far from being alone. One notable detractor was our previous Director of Operations, he hated it, but didn’t want to come across as a Scrooge, so he let it go on. Hey, it is only once a year and the hourly Janey Lunchpails got a kick out of it.
The new Director started last October and he is not so worried about what folks think of him. After he got an earful of all the “Merry Christmas froms” last year, he decided that was just not professional and would not be tolerated. There was no official word that the new Big Cheese didn’t want that to go on anymore, but word did filter down through the ranks somehow.
From 2:30 to 3:30PM today the paging system was oddly quiet and even though I thought the practice was kinda stupid, I missed hearing it.