Poor Poodle

Seriously - I love him to death. He knows it, I know it - pretty much everyone knows it.

I torment him though.

You see, somehow I can find the person on my team, always, who fall for my childish practical jokes.

Never EVER aimed to hurt, Poodle has been on the receiving end of the great toilet scam, the Barclays Barking Robots and the very first and a classic, never before written about, Becky.

We have a long history together. Nothing can make us laugh faster than a good practical joke. We are so immature that we have taken to leaving VM's with funny things on it.... Once he left the title track to "Oklahoma" on during a particularly hairy project in said state. I have left classic clips from "will and grace" and "the Birdcage" on his VM.

When I did most of my work in an office, I was often surrounded by empty desks for the amount of laughing that I did. It was A LOT. Less now.... but sadly there's less to laugh at.

But most recently in talking about our early years on the team together, the Becky story came up.

We have a help desk in our company. Becky works for this Help desk - or helpless desk as we call it when her station in the ACD rings. She gets on with a very specific pronounced conglomerate accent that's nearly untraceable. One of my first days on the team, Poodle and I were on the phone and he put me on hold because Becky was calling him back.

He gets back on the line with me, and says:

"Can you believe her? Becky belongs in the Order prevention department !" ( A fictitious place we use as a catchall when we are being thwarted at delivering prompt and good customer service).

A momentary pause....

"Poodle, this is Becky" I mimic nearly perfectly....

dead silence.

"uh, um, hmmm - " Stammers Poodle

I foil my own jokes though because I can't contain my laughter. I burst out laughing and he lost it. The two of us were howling with laughter.

Bringing me to yesterday. I was in the middle of a serious rant with him over conditions in the workplace and dealing with "delivery and execution" crappola from above. I was literally having a fit. I was swearing like a drunken sailor. ( that's my real vice guys - I seldom drink, no drugs, no smoking - I swear and I like it. ) I couldn't take it anymore. He finally laughs and tells me he doesn't understand my management techniques upwards at all. He can't fathom yelling at those above and giving then directives. But it works for me and it gets results.

I calmed down for a moment. Paused and said,

"Poodle, anyone can be trained. You just have to know what their hotspot is. - look we trained you!"

silence then uproarious laughter.

The kid was back....