Category:
Work and Vocational Training

Albert in Blunderland

This'll get you hep to the real meaning of "socialism."

Posted By: Paul - Wed Mar 11, 2020 - Comments (1)
Category: Dreams and Nightmares, Government, Insects and Spiders, Money, Work and Vocational Training, Cartoons

The Trainee, by Pilvi Takala

Finnish performance artist Pilvi Takala got permission to pose as a trainee for a month at the accounting firm Deloitte. What she wanted to find out was how people at the firm would react if she did absolutely nothing... if she just sat at an empty desk all day staring into space. Predictably, the office workers grew increasingly perplexed by her inactivity, as can be seen in the video below.

More info from her website:

We see the trainee sitting at her workstation in the consultants' open-plan office space, or in the tax department library all day doing nothing. One of the videos shows her spending an entire day in an elevator. These acts or rather the absence of visible action slowly make the atmosphere around the trainee unbearable, forcing the colleagues to search for solutions and to come up with explanations for the situation...

What provokes people about this ‘non-doing’, aside from the strangeness, is the element of resistance. The non-doing person isn’t committed to any activity, so they have the potential for anything. It is non-doing that lacks a place in the general order of things, and thus it is a threat to order. It is easy to root out any ongoing anti-order activity, but the potential for anything is a continual stimulus without a solution.

I'm guessing her performance was inspired by Herman Melville's classic short story, Bartleby the Scrivener.

Posted By: Alex - Fri Aug 16, 2019 - Comments (1)
Category: Work and Vocational Training, Performance Art

Workplace Accidents

Horrifying ways that people can get maimed at work, courtesy of Canada's Workplace Safety and Insurance Board's Prevent-It Campaign.

Warning: some gruesome content!

Posted By: Alex - Tue Mar 19, 2019 - Comments (1)
Category: Accidents, Movies, Work and Vocational Training

Bob Gaffner, Fishermen’s Helper



That Bob! "He's full of the old mick!" Huh? That expression summons up a mere two Google hits. I suspect it's a euphemism for "full of the old Nick," which in turn was a euphemism for "full of the Devil."

Posted By: Paul - Tue Feb 02, 2016 - Comments (2)
Category: Oceans and Maritime Pursuits, Work and Vocational Training, Children, 1950s

The Front Line:  Supermarket Checker



Soldiers in the war on shoppers! I mean, soldiers helping shoppers!

Look at how much more intelligence was needed for this job then, compared to this age of scanners and credit cards.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Oct 20, 2015 - Comments (7)
Category: Food, Work and Vocational Training, Retailing, 1960s

Follies of the Madmen #249



Hey, buddy: those pallets aren't gonna stack themselves! And, lady, those clothes aren't gonna pin themselves to the line!

Seriously, does hubby even have a job after dashing out of work in the middle of the day?

Posted By: Paul - Sat May 23, 2015 - Comments (2)
Category: Business, Advertising, Work and Vocational Training, Husbands, Wives, 1960s, Cars

“I Can’t Take a Boy with THAT Many Pimples!”

image

My question: if this happened to Jack in 2013, could he launch a successful discrimination lawsuit?

Original ad here.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Oct 08, 2013 - Comments (5)
Category: Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Body, Work and Vocational Training, Advertising, 1930s

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Who We Are
Alex Boese
Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes.

Paul Di Filippo
Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1.

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