There’s this guy working at the front desk who’s really bad at using the radio. He’ll say things like “Housekeeping to Todd,” when he’s Todd*, and he’s trying to get a hold of Housekeeping. It makes it sound like he’s commanding them to answer.

Then he says stuff like “Can someone help the customer in the computer center with the printer?” or “Can someone open the door to the Princeton room?” Which is ridiculous, because it’s not like just anyone will do these things, there are specific responsibilities for specific people. So on the one hand, it sounds passive aggressive, like “Can someone fix the printer?” is really intended for Joe from engineering. On the other hand, if that specific person isn’t listening, everyone else just ignores it, and the customer gets screwed. The other day I found this guy standing in the hall, and I realized about 15 minutes before, Todd had radioed for someone to open the door to a meeting room. Now you know… the rest of the story.**

*He’s not really named Todd.

** rest of the pointless story