• mick (unregistered)

    My car is made of Nerf.

  • Paula (unregistered)

    We should implement the fish factorial philosphy for all our c pound developers. Oh and frist.

    McCain 6 Obama 3

    Captcha: transverbero

  • (cs)

    I'm not seeing the WTF here. I like nerf guns. And the story ends up exactly the way it should.

  • Lylecutus (unregistered)

    Resistance Is Futile. You Will Be Assimilated.

    [image]
  • retnuh (unregistered)

    What!? no link to James' nerf gun, the shame!!

  • Niki (unregistered) in reply to gabba
    gabba:
    I'm not seeing the WTF here. I _like_ nerf guns. And the story ends up exactly the way it should.
    Agreed. Isn't the fact that James and Brian bought nerf guns proof that Lyle's FISH! implementation worked has he intended?
  • jtl (unregistered) in reply to gabba
    gabba:
    I'm not seeing the WTF here. I _like_ nerf guns. And the story ends up exactly the way it should.

    The WTF is that Lyle interprets 'your employees should have fun' into 'Lyle should have fun'

  • (cs)

    Did they claim reimbursement for the NERF guns as a business expense?

  • Wickerman (unregistered)

    The real WTF is that so far both of Lyle's team building plans have involved him shooting his staff.

  • AT (unregistered)

    Check out this requirement from today's featured non-WTF job (Quantitative Application Developer at Capital IQ):

    "2. A BRIEF cover letter highlighting with your experience in the body of the e-mail. E-mails without a cover letter will not be read."

    That doesn't sound like a non-WTF company to me!

  • Query Object (unregistered) in reply to Wickerman
    Wickerman:
    The real WTF is that so far both of Lyle's team building plans have involved him shooting his staff.

    Imminent escalation... Nerf guns are gateway weapons.

    Nerf -> rubber band -> slingshot -> disc guns -> bb guns -> real guns...

  • (cs)

    The only way this story could've been written any better was if Lyle did it.

  • James (unregistered)

    I really thought the "fish!" thing was part of the joke, or an anonymization of a real marketing seminar, until I saw the WP link. Just... wow.

  • (cs) in reply to AT
    AT:
    Check out this requirement from today's featured non-WTF job (Quantitative Application Developer at Capital IQ):

    "2. A BRIEF cover letter highlighting with your experience in the body of the e-mail. E-mails without a cover letter will not be read."

    That doesn't sound like a non-WTF company to me!

    They probably find it a good way to get rid of scattershot headhunter spam.

  • James (unregistered)

    "marketing" --> "management"

  • And I (unregistered)

    I think this article should be renamed: "Life Imitates Michael Scott"

  • Piepton (unregistered)

    After reading the wikipedia article I think this post could have been shortened to 5 words and still been WTF'ey enough. Lyle implemeted the FISH! philosophy.

  • The Dude (unregistered) in reply to Query Object
    Query Object:
    Wickerman:
    The real WTF is that so far both of Lyle's team building plans have involved him shooting his staff.

    Imminent escalation... Nerf guns are gateway weapons.

    Nerf -> rubber band -> slingshot -> disc guns -> bb guns -> real guns...

    OMG it's like a gateway drug, only without the drugs!!!

  • Trevel (unregistered) in reply to James
    The real WTF is that so far both of Lyle's team building plans have involved him shooting his staff.

    The real WTF is that the best team building plan would involve his staff shooting Lyle.

    Then, of course, he'd shoot himself BETTER than they did.

  • Hazem (unregistered)

    Somehow Lyle's idea of fun reminded me of the Mandatory "Fun" Day over here.

  • Mark (unregistered)

    You should save all these Lyle stories for one week and then have Lyle-a-palooza.

  • Proof (unregistered)

    One method of recognition is the FISH! card, given by employees to each other when they have demonstrated one of the FISH! concepts. Employees who have earned three FISH! cards are presented with "Pete the Perch" a small stuffed toy fish of varying colors.[citation needed]

    Many companies present these tokens at staff meetings, flinging them, as the employees at Pike Place fling real fish

    From Wikipedia.

    Say WHAT!?

  • Guido (unregistered) in reply to retnuh
    retnuh:
    What!? no link to James' nerf gun, the shame!!
    Aye, I was hoping for that as well :(
  • Kehvarl (unregistered)

    I know the article tells us to pronounce it FISH-Factorial, but I can't help but read that as "FISH-Bang".

  • tezoatlipoca (unregistered) in reply to Wickerman
    Wickerman:
    The real WTF is that so far both of Lyle's team building plans have involved him shooting his staff.

    Lyle and James work for the Postal service right?

  • (cs) in reply to Kehvarl
    Kehvarl:
    I know the article tells us to pronounce it FISH-Factorial, but I can't help but read that as "FISH-Bang".

    Fish-bang is something else entirely, yet still a blast!

  • (cs)

    For office warfare I prefer a trebuchet.

  • SomeCoder (unregistered) in reply to Kehvarl
    Kehvarl:
    I know the article tells us to pronounce it FISH-Factorial, but I can't help but read that as "FISH-Bang".

    Seems like Lyle would be the type to pronounce it as: shouting "FISH!!!!"

  • (cs) in reply to Proof
    Proof:
    One method of recognition is the FISH! card, given by employees to each other when they have demonstrated one of the FISH! concepts. Employees who have earned three FISH! cards are presented with "Pete the Perch" a small stuffed toy fish of varying colors.[citation needed]

    Many companies present these tokens at staff meetings, flinging them, as the employees at Pike Place fling real fish

    From Wikipedia.

    Say WHAT!?

    It's all true! Let's check my real-life desk here...cards...Pete the Perch...Yep Got it all. (gasp! I'm even ON THE FISH COMMITTEE!!! OH NOES!!!)

    Ok, from the inside - some of the stuff admittedly is a little bit ...cheesy... ok. However, our building has a lot of people who are interested in organizing some pretty fun and interesting activities and events in the name of Fish (like a $1 catered lunch, Paper Airplane Competition, Photo Exhibition, etc...) Truly is what you make of it and only really works when the people involved have the energy. Also, you can't lay on the cheese too thick or, naturally, it'll turn people off.

    Do we fling fish at meetings? Haven't seen one yet, but there's a LOT of rubber bands going around.

  • (cs)

    What, nobody has mentioned The Great Office War yet?

  • Anon. (unregistered) in reply to FredSaw
    FredSaw:
    For office warfare I prefer a trebuchet.
    I prefer a trebuchet ms.
  • fanguad (unregistered) in reply to SomeCoder
    SomeCoder:
    Kehvarl:
    I know the article tells us to pronounce it FISH-Factorial, but I can't help but read that as "FISH-Bang".

    Seems like Lyle would be the type to pronounce it as: shouting "FISH!!!!"

    [image] FIIIIIISH!
  • Paul (unregistered)

    Why does Lyle remind me of David Brent from the The Office (UK version)?

  • Mark34625 (unregistered)

    The real WTF is how no-one has punched TF out of Lyle after being hit with a nerf gun whilst working. I certainly would!

  • irishlyrucked (unregistered)

    This sounds like my old manager. Plenty of time for everything but getting work done. We had nerf wars in our offices, about once a week, to relieve the tension. Donald Duck (what we called our manager) would aim at peoples faces because it was funny. And it was really funny to him when he took off his glasses and caught every dart from one of those rapid firing automatic nerf-knockoffs in the face.

  • (cs) in reply to James
    James:
    I really thought the "fish!" thing was part of the joke, or an anonymization of a real marketing seminar, until I saw the WP link. Just... wow.
    I lived it at a company. Except they usually wanted the employees to pick up the tab for FISH! activities.
  • (cs)

    Amazing. Efseykho has already updated Wikipedia with a reference to this article.

  • (cs)

    Given that I think the last article to feature Lyle mentioned that eventually he was fired, I'd love to the story about that and just what lead to his dismissal (as if there wasn't enough info here). Maybe part 3 of a 3-part Lyle trilogy?

  • (cs)

    Ok, who edited the Wikipedia article to reference this article already?

    Ah, I see somebody provided the answer milli-seconds before I asked the question. Well done!

  • (cs)

    At my first job at a military subcontractor, we had an annual office-war, where you had to make your "weapons" out of junk found around the office.

    One of the engineers took apart a copy-machine, a lazy susan and some loose dowling, and made a rubber-band machine gun. It fired about 200 10 inch rubber bands in 30 seconds (it left quite a welt if you got caught dead-on). I found some very thin plastic wrap and powder (from manufacturing) and made smoke bombs. Between us, we clobbered the other team.

    Nerf? Bah!

  • (cs)

    In the Sluggy Freelance story Rescue Mission to the North Pole!, aliens attack the North Pole because of the high concentration of NERF toys. The aliens are severely allergic to NERF (it causes them to die), and all the NERF toys are in the shape of weapons, so they conclude Santa is an international arms dealer who is equipping the children of earth for an assault on the aliens.

  • Obvious Troll (unregistered)

    We had some great nerf fights in my company. Since we had low cube walls and our office space was a converted factory floor, you could tag someone 25-30 feet away!

  • (cs) in reply to ObiWayneKenobi

    I was going to make fun on you for saying "3-part trilogy", but then I remembered the 5-part Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy. Thank you for that. :^)

  • Erik (unregistered)

    I had a management class a few years ago where groups had to do presentations on various management philosophies, and the FISH! philosophy is by far the stupidest one (and there's a lot of competition for that title).

    Maybe FISH! would work if you're in a company full of naturally high-energy people that feel that goofing off makes them more productive, but if you're in that kind of environment they're going to be implementing the philosophy anyway without ever having heard of it.

    Personally, I've worked in environments where the management was constantly trying to up the energy level and get people to have fun, and unless your job involves actually flinging fish around it just doesn't work. My job involves sitting at a desk and typing most of the day, any extra energy you manage to stir up in me while I'm doing that will just be wasted plotting your demise.

  • Yazeran (unregistered) in reply to Query Object
    Query Object:
    Wickerman:
    The real WTF is that so far both of Lyle's team building plans have involved him shooting his staff.

    Imminent escalation... Nerf guns are gateway weapons.

    Nerf -> rubber band -> slingshot -> disc guns -> bb guns -> real guns...

    Your forgot the rest of the list: -> Assault rifles -> Artillery -> JDAM's -> ICBM's -> Asteroids (or anything else at sufficient speed for that matter :-)...

    Yazeran

    Plan: To go to Mars one day with a hammer

  • Niki (unregistered)

    I think a lot of the principles behind FISH! are sound. However I think once you bring "workplace management systems" into the equation it ruins it for all.

    In other words, when office fun is spontaneous and self-implementing it's good. When it's enforced as a management technique...not so much.

    We have a couple of Nerf guns at my office, which were brought in by employees. I have a tendency to get people's attention by throwing a Novell/SuSE novelty plush toy at people. We have Formal Fridays. For the most part all of this comes from the employee up. The only notable exception is Rock Band nights which are organized by the boss.

  • Jasmine (unregistered)

    I find it really fascinating that this article has already been added to the Wikipedia page about FISH! Very interesting indeed.... :)

  • (cs) in reply to Wickerman
    Wickerman:
    The real WTF is that so far both of Lyle's team building plans have involved him shooting his staff.

    Next week he gets all of his employees NRA memberships...

  • Efseykho (unregistered)

    Apparently, adding a link to this story is not constructive according to wikipedia rules. If anyone wonders why it got deleted. woops!

  • Southern (unregistered) in reply to fanguad
    fanguad:
    SomeCoder:
    Kehvarl:
    I know the article tells us to pronounce it FISH-Factorial, but I can't help but read that as "FISH-Bang".

    Seems like Lyle would be the type to pronounce it as: shouting "FISH!!!!"

    [image] FIIIIIISH!

    FISH FACTORIAL FACTORIAL FACTORIAL FACTORIAL (and so on..)

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