One of my friends at work recently got a promotion and a new office. The previous occupant was known for not personalizing the office at all – which always stuck me as odd since we’re all pretty much stuck in the building all day and the walls are boring.
My friend had only been in that office a short time and hadn’t had any time to do anything with it either. So,I decided to help.
I took myself to Walmart and bought the most ridiculous poster I could find for an adult male – Justin Bieber. Looking as close to a thug as he could. Which is to say, not at all.
The next morning, with a little help from another co-worker, I hung the poster in my friend’s office so it would be the first thing he would see when he came in. We quickly turned out the light and snuck out.
Later that morning, I stopped by his office and commented that I was hurt that he had so quickly taken down my gift since it was nowhere to be found.
He grinned and told me it made his morning to see that when he came in and he really appreciated the spirit in which it was given – but that he couldn’t live with himself if he kept it up in his office.
Instead, he told me, that with help from one of his also devious friends he took the poster and hung it behind the blinds of the former occupant’s new office for him to find. When the curiously closed blinds are opened – Bieber.
I thought the “paying it forward” was excellent. I found out later that a picture of the poster had been added to a facebook page and that revenge had been vowed. I think there’s still a lot of traffic to be had for that poster and we haven’t seen the last of it.