Office Gripes: 5S Plants

Today on "Outside the Box" I'll step away from the travel aspect for a segment I'll call "office gripes."  Well, at least until I come up with something better.  At one place of employment, the office implemented a Japanese system known as 5S.  Basically it's a method for keeping a clean and organized work space.  While I'm all for a tidy and orderly working environment, this example just kills me:

The white zone is for plants and their water only

Seriously?  Do I really want to spend the majority of my waking hours in a place that tells me where I can and can't put my plants?  I don't even have a plant, but the fact that there are cubicle zoning laws is just too much for me to handle.  That sickly plant reminds me a bit of Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray"  (or at least my perception of the story from having merely scanned through cliff's notes).  Watching that poorly taken care of plant wilt is like watching a plantification* of my soul as it rots in such a working environment.  Life is too precious and short to be a serf toiling in such a field for the lord of the land. 

If you or someone you know have any workplace gripes you'd like to share, I'd love to hear it.  So feel free to send your story/photo to gringoguiri@gmail.com and I'll try and get to posting it on here.  Workers of the world unite?!


*(may have made that one up)