Considering the punishment A-sig metes out for even minor transgressions, it would take a lot of nerve to steal paper clips, stealing printer ink is downright heroic.
There’s always been a problem with ultra-severe punishments for minor infractions. If they can’t make the punishment worse, then once you’re already guilty of incorrect shoe polishing, there’s no reason you can’t jump right over to corporate espionage.
Exactly, the ink is more valuable for someone to steal, thus being the target for bad employees, but stealing the printer is better for sabotaging operations, thus being the target for rebels.
Rebels use Management’s printers to print manifestoes. And sit on the ones that incorporate faxes. I could tell you what they do with the scan function, but then I’d have to seriously inconvenience you.
I mean, you mess with a fax by starting by sending an all black page, and then taping it into a loop. But you don’t need to be inside the company to do that.
At the post office…well, it wasn’t printer ink, but I was the only one who would go in and get the supplies we needed to do our jobs. Wonder how they handled it when I retired…
She’s actually literally right. There’s at least one handbook on low intensity resistance that amounts to ‘be the worst employee you can possibly be’ with a side order of minor sabotage like breaking the toilets. Get enough people doing that and it is actually a big problem for the occupying power.
During the Nazi retreat from Belgium, Belgian railway employees swung into masterful ineptness, thereby “misplacing” several trains of prisoners en route to the death camps.
Or my favorite example of sabotage, “malicious compliance”.
Hmmm, now that I think about it, teaching malicious compliance seems to be pretty much the purpose of public education in this country. (Private schools are just like public schools, except more efficient.)
Hey Shaenon, I saw a headline about a famous female mystery writer in Spain being revealed as actually being three men and my first thought was “30 hamsters in a trenchcoat.”
Public knowledge. In an introduction to Tiptree’s second short story collection, Silverberg praised “him” to the skies, while speculating about “his” mysterious identity, as well as “his” sexual identity—hoping “he” was a man. That didn’t age well when “his” cover was blown.
In that introduction, Silverberg wrote: “It has been suggested that Tiptree is female, a theory that I find absurd, for there is to me something ineluctably masculine about Tiptree’s writing. I don’t think the novels of Jane Austen could have been written by a man nor the stories of Ernest Hemingway by a woman . . . .”
It wasn’t known till 1977. Alice Sheldon was first published as James Tiptree Jr. in 1968. In the years between, she sort of became the “mystery man” of science fiction, like B. Traven or Thomas Pynchon. Speculation was rife—and, for what it’s worth, I’m not sure the description of how she was “outed” on the Wikipedia page (which I consulted for this) was actually how it happened.
So Jetpack Suppression is in. More allies through thick and through thin. With ink cartridges stolen the ranks have been swollen. They’ll undermine them from within.
I imagine the rebellious impulse is magnified by improved chances for a quick getaway: if you’re wearing a jetpack (as she appears to be) you can always make a break for it through the nearest window.
Bad employees steal printer ink, rebels steal the printers.
Considering the punishment A-sig metes out for even minor transgressions, it would take a lot of nerve to steal paper clips, stealing printer ink is downright heroic.
There’s always been a problem with ultra-severe punishments for minor infractions. If they can’t make the punishment worse, then once you’re already guilty of incorrect shoe polishing, there’s no reason you can’t jump right over to corporate espionage.
Remembering the machine union strike, it’s entirely possible the printers are in the resistance, too!
Y’know, Sergio tried to bring down Anasigma from within. Wound up with him working there with his going home privileges revoked.
I dunno, the ink is probably more expensive.
Exactly, the ink is more valuable for someone to steal, thus being the target for bad employees, but stealing the printer is better for sabotaging operations, thus being the target for rebels.
Rebels use Management’s printers to print manifestoes. And sit on the ones that incorporate faxes. I could tell you what they do with the scan function, but then I’d have to seriously inconvenience you.
But if they print manifestos, they may accidentally summon ANTONIO SMITH, FORENSIC LINGUIST.
Then everybody would be in trouble.
I keep meaning to ask. Are you the Steve Jackson? Because if so, I’m a fellow Bakerite.
Shakespeare in the Commons!
I mean, you mess with a fax by starting by sending an all black page, and then taping it into a loop. But you don’t need to be inside the company to do that.
At the post office…well, it wasn’t printer ink, but I was the only one who would go in and get the supplies we needed to do our jobs. Wonder how they handled it when I retired…
I would not put it past A-sig that this is a planted “rebel” group meant to catch any infiltrator.
Well, that’s how they busted Virginia.
So I just went back and looked, and it’s actually been over 3 years since Virginia was betrayed. My, how time flies!
She’s actually literally right. There’s at least one handbook on low intensity resistance that amounts to ‘be the worst employee you can possibly be’ with a side order of minor sabotage like breaking the toilets. Get enough people doing that and it is actually a big problem for the occupying power.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/26184/page-images/26184-images.pdf Done up by OSS player charact… err, ‘agents’ in WWII.
As a government worker, I think our management mistook that for a training manual. I swear all the management things are done by our managers.
Also, I learned a new word. The next cat may be named Quisling.
Very interesting reading, Moe Lane. Thanks for sharing!
During the Nazi retreat from Belgium, Belgian railway employees swung into masterful ineptness, thereby “misplacing” several trains of prisoners en route to the death camps.
I remember reading about Danish railway employees who “accidentally” diverted a train onto a circular route during the Nazi occupation.
@davidbreslin: and we’re still waiting for them to swing back out of it 😀
So it’s like the Mirror St. Charlie?
Oh, and I found a piece of distantly-Narbonic-related art at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Parement_de_Narbonne.jpg but Fearless Leader could do it better…
It’s not uncommon for unions that are prevented from having officially sanctioned labor actions to have more creative unofficial ones.
Working to rule, for example.
Or my favorite example of sabotage, “malicious compliance”.
Hmmm, now that I think about it, teaching malicious compliance seems to be pretty much the purpose of public education in this country. (Private schools are just like public schools, except more efficient.)
Proof of the adage that there is a fine line between genius and stupidity.
Stupidity done right can be a stroke of genius. Genius done wrong can be downright stupid.
I suppose there’s always option (d), where she chooses option (b) for you.
Hey Shaenon, I saw a headline about a famous female mystery writer in Spain being revealed as actually being three men and my first thought was “30 hamsters in a trenchcoat.”
I was reminded of what Robert Silverberg and others said about James Tiptree, Jr.
Dare I ask?
Public knowledge. In an introduction to Tiptree’s second short story collection, Silverberg praised “him” to the skies, while speculating about “his” mysterious identity, as well as “his” sexual identity—hoping “he” was a man. That didn’t age well when “his” cover was blown.
In that introduction, Silverberg wrote: “It has been suggested that Tiptree is female, a theory that I find absurd, for there is to me something ineluctably masculine about Tiptree’s writing. I don’t think the novels of Jane Austen could have been written by a man nor the stories of Ernest Hemingway by a woman . . . .”
Except it was well known that “James Tiptree, Jr.” was a pseudonym, even if no one knew anything more about the author.
It wasn’t known till 1977. Alice Sheldon was first published as James Tiptree Jr. in 1968. In the years between, she sort of became the “mystery man” of science fiction, like B. Traven or Thomas Pynchon. Speculation was rife—and, for what it’s worth, I’m not sure the description of how she was “outed” on the Wikipedia page (which I consulted for this) was actually how it happened.
So Jetpack Suppression is in. More allies through thick and through thin. With ink cartridges stolen the ranks have been swollen. They’ll undermine them from within.
I imagine the rebellious impulse is magnified by improved chances for a quick getaway: if you’re wearing a jetpack (as she appears to be) you can always make a break for it through the nearest window.