OUR WORKPLACE – AN EVERYDAY SITCOM

It looks like an ordinary day at work – people at their stations minding their own business – when suddenly you just feel as if you were on a Seinfeld’s or Friend’s episode. Haven’t you ever felt as if you happened to be on a TV show surrounded by some weird, unique, though funny characters?

Sometimes I think that we are wasting the opportunity to become rich and famous. Actually, we should be having cameras recording 24/7 what happens within the walls of our offices, factories or wherever we happen to work. Beyond doubt, it would become a huge TV success, an Emmy-worthy show.

Regardless of where you work or what you do for a living, I’m quite positive you’ll find some of these characters near you:

a) Mr. Joker: He’s always making fun of everybody, calling people names and playing jokes. A piece of advice: don’t let him know his jokes bother you because then he won’t leave you alone.

b) Miss Princess: She walks with her head a little high pretending to be on a red carpet. If you get a “good morning” from her, you are on your lucky day. Since she lives in a fantasy world, don’t expect smart answers from her. Instead, be prepared to receive the most airheaded, frivolous comments.

c) Mr. Lazy Messy: You can find everything in his station. From a three-week old tuna sandwich to a client’s report stained with coffee. Don’t ask him anything because he’s always busy. Yes, busy reading the sports section, commenting on a friend’s picture on Facebook or sending his hourly tweet.

d) Miss Candy Sweet: Nothing seems to upset her. At all times she’ll talk to you with a beaming smile and her sparkling eyes. But be careful, deep inside she may be cursing you.

e) Miss Snacker: If you hear someone munching, that’s definitely her. She can barely speak to you as she is with the mouth full at all times. So, if you feel like eating that energy bar you brought from home, you’d better hide it and go somewhere away from her like the roof or the men’s room.

f) Mr. Always Right:  It doesn’t matter if the sun is shining. If he says “it’s night-time”, it is night-time. If he says something happened or did not happen, take his word for it because he is never wrong. God made him that way and we can’t fight that.

g) Mr. Loony: Sometimes you may find him talking to himself and even laughing with no one around him. He’s constantly watching all your movements with his creepy eyes. He rarely speaks to you but when he does, we highly recommend you listen to him and play along with whatever thing he says. You really wouldn’t like to upset him, would you?

h) Mr. Buddy: He’s everybody’s boss. This is the most pathetic character because while he wants to be everybody’s friend, nobody wants to be his friend. To make matters worse, he doesn’t give up and he’s always making every effort to make people like him by telling jokes or showing concern when someone has problems. He’s always trying to find out when the next party is, so he can show up even though he’s never invited.

i) Mrs. Grumpy: Never expect a smile from her. She’s always complaining about everybody’s mistakes and flaws. Even the clients and the company itself are not safe from her harsh comments. So, if you need to send her a report, make sure you’ve proofread it a thousand times.

j) Mrs. Mummy: If you don’t feel well or something worries you, you can always count on her. She’ll listen to you and even cry with you. She’d better not find out that you’ve had a fight with one of your office siblings because she won’t leave the office until you guys make up and finish the day with a hug.

And we can go on and on. I have to admit that I’d be Mrs. Grumpy. Don’t blame me for wanting everything to work the way they are supposed to work, and yes, it bothers me greatly when they don’t. Is it too hard to do the things we are required to do? So, being able to find these characters in the real world makes me think that there must be an eccentric Cosmo Kramer, a goofy Ross Geller or a socially inept Sheldon Cooper somewhere on this planet….who knows maybe next to you.

Vocabulary

1. station (n): an area where a person is assigned to work.

2. Emmy-worthy (adj): having the merit and qualities to deserve an Emmy Award.

3. call someone names (exp): to use unpleasant words to describe someone in order to insult them.

4. airheaded (adj): lacking seriousness, stupid.

5. beaming (adj): cheerful and bright

6. curse (v): to say or think bad things about someone or something because they have made you angry.

7. take someone’s word for it (exp): to believe that something is true because someone tells you it is.

8. munch (v): to eat something noisily.

9. loony (n): a crazy or strange person.

10. harsh (adj): severe, cruel.

11. proofread (v): to read and correct a piece of written or printed work.

12. make up (with sb) (v): to become friends with somebody after an argument.

13. socially inept (exp): having no social skills and therefore unable to judge and improvise interactions with other people in an acceptable or ‘normal’ way.

 

Have you ever worked with people with similar personality traits (characteristics)? Are there any other peculiar characters where you work? Which of these characters would you be and why?

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VERBS AS ADJECTIVES

To use verbs as adjectives, we have to work with their participles, that is, the present and the past participles.

Present participles

We can use the present participle of the verb, also known as the -ing form, as an adjective when we want to describe the characteristics or qualities of a person or an object. For example:

• My dog frightens all my neighbors. It’s a frightening dog.
• That movie shocked all the audience. It was a shocking movie.
• The new teacher bores the students. He is a boring teacher.

Some other participles used as adjectives: exciting, interesting, disappointing, etc.

Past participles

We use the past participle of the verbs as adjectives when we talk about people’s feelings or reactions.

• There is a dog that has bitten all the people in my neighborhood. I am frightened of that dog.
• My cousin saw a movie with lots of violence yesterday. She felt really shocked.
• My new teacher only talks and talks. He never says anything new. I am bored.

We can also use the past participle when we want to refer to a characteristic of an object. This characteristic is the result of a previous action. For example:

• Someone broke the window. My window was broken. It is a broken window.

Here we are talking about the characteristic of the window as a result of an action.

Another example:

• Someone stole my sister’s car. The car was stolen. It was a stolen car.

Some other participles used as adjectives: bitten, drunk, confused, interested, etc.