Lake Lewisia #662

Thursday will be Bring Your Offspring to Work Day, when you have the chance to show off your career first-hand to your child, ward, sapient homegrown plantoid, or time-displaced clone self. As always, we remind everyone that work can mean many things, and all of them are worthy of admiration, from housework to homunculus crafting to harvesting crops. So show the wonderful things you make possible to the wonderful people you make possible.

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LL#662

Today's Keyboard Smash

They installed something new in the breakroom at work today. Wanna know what it is? Do you?

It's an "it has been [X] days since the last accident" sign. :3 *giggle*

It's got a digital day display and looks like a green and white road sign. It's oddly industrial, actually, most resembling one of the "don't talk to the operator while the arm-eating machine is running" warning signs we have on the floor. It looks absolutely stupid hanging on the breakroom wall next to the big-screen tv that's never turned on and exists for unknown purposes.

It's not powered on yet, though, so it currently appears to read "it has been [redacted] days since the last accident." Which is more ominous than anything, honestly. There was an accident an unspecified amount of time ago. There was an accident, but it's a secret.

But that's not the best part~~~!

It doesn't just say "accident." I left out two wonderful, ridiculous words. What it says, specifically, is "the last lost time accident."

Lost time accident. :3 :3 :3

Now. I am aware, because I googled to confirm my instinct, that this refers to injuries resulting in lost time at work. As in, time off to recover, time spent on disability. Having confirmed that fact, I will proceed to forget I ever knew it, because the alternatives my brain provided are SO MUCH BETTER.

Lost time accident. An accident that caused some quantity of time to be lost. Misplaced time. Lost in time.

Time accidents. Everything about it thrills and delights me. We should have daily time accidents.

I think the sign is benignly foolish overall. The signs scattered around with the current iteration of the company motto or quality credo or whatever, I find to be equally so. If they have a sinister corporate purpose, it's not as obvious as some of the other forms of psychological warfare inflicted on us. I think it's an ultimately meaningless use of the office supply and printing budget. Let them have their fun, I suppose.

But the phrase "lost time" belongs, to me, first and foremost to discussions of UFO experiences. The phenomenon, in which one comes out the other side of an apparently short incident with a UFO only to find that many hours have passed, is one of the more commonly cited elements in such reports. So seeing it plastered on the breakroom wall as something we (may or may not currently) have avoided in the workplace is just *chef kiss*. It implies the possibility of some truly marvelous options to shake up the workday. Lost time. Delicious.