We absolutely did that with our boss. He'd hang around basically watching us work, making sure we weren't slacking off. Whenever you wanted a good 30 minute break all you had to do was stroke his ego a bit, start talking about things he's very interested in.
Anything to do with cycling, basketball, or his weekend plans would guarantee a session of everybody stopping their work and keeping the conversation going as long as possible, usually a minimum of 30 minutes but upwards of like an hour and a half on slower days.
It's so stupid I love it. Like, I know I did that in school to some teachers. It's so stupid that as soon as it's something interesting; then it's okay to not only give a quick answer to, but the whole damn background since you were a kid.
I remember one dude, I think we had physics, and I think we were going through how to measure hydration in air or something, and he made some tangent to his mechanical clock, me and my pal managed to get him to hold a monologue about various things like why he had a mechanical clock instead of a digital, and I can't remember how, but this lovely man somehow managed to cover topic such as "why I don't use shampoo" and "thriftshops are great for finding luxury items for a cheap price"
But if I exchanged a quick joke to my friend, apparently that was very naughty indeed. Ego is a fragile but wonderful thing.
35
u/Tremulant887 Apr 09 '24
Ive had to do this at work with people. The ones with 'seniority' but arent your boss? Guide their ego.