#5280PostItWars: Do you even Morse, bro?
August 8, 2017 3:24 PM   Subscribe

We've been informed that some tenants are making Post-It art on windows that can be seen from other buildings. (Note: TV news page has auto-playing video.) Please know that this places tenants in violation of their leases. Please have the "artwork" removed by 5 PM today.
posted by asperity (47 comments total) 22 users marked this as a favorite
 
Please know that this places tenants in violation of their leases. Please have the "artwork" removed by 5 PM today.

You know, it's the scare quotes around "artwork" that's the kicker. I'm sure it's not required to have your soul removed before working in real estate management, but apparently it "helps" at moments like this.

Just like it does with most careers. *sob*
posted by wildblueyonder at 3:39 PM on August 8, 2017 [39 favorites]


exactly what clause of the lease does it "violate"?
posted by thelonius at 3:41 PM on August 8, 2017 [6 favorites]


15 minutes yet to go! POST! POST! POST! Damn The Man! Post the Notes!
posted by rewil at 3:45 PM on August 8, 2017 [2 favorites]


I once posted a nice sign on the front door of my (subleased) office space that read:

NO DOGS,
COMCAST OR VERIZON
REPRESENTATIVES ALLOWED

(actually, dogs are okay)


Yep, I got the "in violation of your lease" memo.
posted by yhbc at 3:45 PM on August 8, 2017 [10 favorites]


Oh good lord. Some people are just allergic to joy, I think.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 3:47 PM on August 8, 2017 [25 favorites]


thelonius: "what clause of the lease does it "violate"?"

Many commercial and residential leases restrict hanging anything in windows that would be visible from outside. Usually the justification is something about maintaining the look of the building.
posted by Mitheral at 3:48 PM on August 8, 2017 [9 favorites]


Also HVAC issues. But still. Jeez...
posted by twsf at 3:51 PM on August 8, 2017 [1 favorite]


exactly what clause of the lease does it "violate"?

Maybe the "don't turn our office building into a tinderbox" one?
posted by Sys Rq at 3:52 PM on August 8, 2017 [2 favorites]


Last time it was just pure, 3m-sponsored fun.
posted by klausman at 3:52 PM on August 8, 2017 [6 favorites]


Many commercial and residential leases restrict hanging anything in windows that would be visible from outside. Usually the justification is something about maintaining the look of the building.

"Justification" is the key word here; you could add "post hoc" in front of it for most rationales offered by landlords. My residence has an associated underground parking spot for which we pay a surcharge each month. Our car, which is usually there, is currently on a road trip with the rest of the family. The parking spot was occupied by a single bicycle for less than 24 hours before a note appeared under the door warning us that only vehicles were to be parked in the parking spot.

I went over to speak the superintendent who shrugged her shoulders and said, "I don't make the law." I observed that indeed she was ignoring it, as provincial traffic law is crystal clear that bicycles are vehicles for all purposes. She told me a tale of past tenants who had insisted on storing storm windows and cases of bottled water in their underground parking and spot how, sadly, they had been obliged to evict these scofflaws because of the fire hazard. Leaving aside the potential of water to be flammable, I began to ask if she was indeed proposing to evict my family from their home of 23 years over a quixotic definition of "vehicle," when she relented and admitted that there was a bike storage room next to the garbage room in the basement of a neighbouring building in the same complex as our townhouse. Cool.

Back to the Post-It matter at hand, I find it hard to find anyone to root for here: the office drones creating Minecraft art out of purloined office supplies, their employers wondering why people aren't working when at work, the pecksniffian building owners getting their HOA on with petty tyrancy: it is a confederacy of dunces. What a mess.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:07 PM on August 8, 2017 [19 favorites]


"Building Management Team" has the odor of a troll. Says the man who spends all day telling people not to answer messages from "The Webmail Team" and anything else with "Team" in the name.
posted by lagomorphius at 4:09 PM on August 8, 2017 [1 favorite]


the office drones creating Minecraft art out of purloined office supplies

Well, there's a comment in the article that a number of people were purchasing their own post-it pads to avoid causing issues with use of employer property.
posted by Four Ds at 4:10 PM on August 8, 2017 [12 favorites]


And to the dismay of many employers people do get assorted breaks over the course of a day they could be using to install this art.
posted by Mitheral at 4:18 PM on August 8, 2017 [12 favorites]


I find it hard to find anyone to root for here: the office drones creating Minecraft art out of purloined office supplies...

Hey, you got it on the first try!
posted by Atom Eyes at 4:26 PM on August 8, 2017 [39 favorites]


These are not the drones you are looking for.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:27 PM on August 8, 2017 [8 favorites]


So Building Management is like a vertical HOA?
posted by Splunge at 4:55 PM on August 8, 2017 [6 favorites]


This is why we can't do nice things.
posted by bz at 5:01 PM on August 8, 2017


Those were really well-done pieces of art, aw!

Creative outbreaks like this (see also: birthday celebrations, holiday decorations that are too enthusiastic/detailed) always make management nervous, because they threaten to expose the forbidden truth of work: it's boring. And most people would rather do any kind of random stuff than do it, and then if that happens, they might start questioning why they have so little control over their own lives and why the dress code mandates khakis and start making snarky faces behind the backs of their appointed executives. Or worse: demanding change.

Of course in this case it wasn't management but the building, HOWEVER, you could see the visible discomfort on the first woman's face, wondering "Am I going to get accused of being a slacker if I act like this is ok?"
posted by emjaybee at 5:13 PM on August 8, 2017 [9 favorites]


NEVER

STOP

POSTING
posted by indubitable at 5:16 PM on August 8, 2017 [6 favorites]


Mitheral: "Many commercial and residential leases restrict hanging anything in windows that would be visible from outside. Usually the justification is something about maintaining the look of the building."

Yep, this is a provision in my residential lease. It specifies text so I'd assume it's also to prevent people from hanging political slogans, offensive materials...or hell, anything that invites break-ins (e.g. "woo yay I have a buncha guns" type stuff, because gun theft). But yeah, a lot of it is also just about the "look of the building". (My residential lease also specifies that I take the trash out at least once a week. Mgmt. likes to cover all their bases.)

In this case, the company is not the lessor but the tenant, so they're trying to prevent themselves from getting kicked out of the building - not just trying to stamp out joyful fun. (My big corporate office has fun post-it art on indoor surfaces! We have fun sometimes!)
posted by capricorn at 5:18 PM on August 8, 2017 [1 favorite]


FPPs... Front Pane Post-its?
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:33 PM on August 8, 2017 [4 favorites]


Yeah the lease for my office would prevent this kind of art from happening. I would bet that most residential condominium units in Ontario require that the outward facing side of any window covering be white or off-white as well. Window control is a thing.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 5:40 PM on August 8, 2017


What kind of weird capitalist stooge reads this and worries about who paid for the sticky notes

my boss once made me wait an hour late because he wanted to meet, forgot about it and went home after having strained himself after 15 minutes on the toilet.

eat the rich
wear the property managers' skin like cloaks
paint the windows with their ghoulish ichor
posted by boo_radley at 5:55 PM on August 8, 2017 [23 favorites]


Back to the Post-It matter at hand, I find it hard to find anyone to root for here: the office drones creating Minecraft art out of purloined office supplies, their employers wondering why people aren't working when at work, the pecksniffian building owners getting their HOA on with petty tyrancy: it is a confederacy of dunces. What a mess.

Well, yeah, but on the other hand you got a great opportunity to use the word "pecksniffian," so that's pretty good for a Tuesday, right?
posted by nickmark at 6:15 PM on August 8, 2017 [7 favorites]


What kind of weird capitalist stooge reads this and worries about who paid for the sticky notes

Umm, I wasn't exactly, but I was hoping they reuse the stickies instead of tossing them away.
posted by FJT at 6:29 PM on August 8, 2017 [4 favorites]


Building owners and managers have the right to control the look of their buildings, to present an image to prospective tenants. In many cases, art can improve a building (random link I happen to have open), but most of these are terrible and far from art (except maybe in its overall documentation, as a bleak condemnation of office ennui) and, unfortunately for the people who made the few good and clever ones, the overall look is of a kindergarten cum frat house, which might scare off potential lessors.
posted by Flashman at 6:43 PM on August 8, 2017 [1 favorite]


"Umm, I wasn't exactly, but I was hoping they reuse the stickies instead of tossing them away"

Me too. While I get the fun and whimsy, part of me disapproves of the waste. Post-its (specially non yellow ones) are a luxury where I come from (not a developed country, obvs).
posted by Tarumba at 7:03 PM on August 8, 2017 [2 favorites]


kindergarten cum frat

Okay, I resolved to grow up and stop snickering at these, but YOU ARE SERIOUSLY TESTING MY WILLPOWER HERE
posted by nebulawindphone at 7:23 PM on August 8, 2017 [7 favorites]


Stained or strained? Wait, don't answer that.
posted by maxwelton at 7:33 PM on August 8, 2017 [1 favorite]


"Cash me outside" will never get old for me.
posted by xigxag at 9:47 PM on August 8, 2017 [2 favorites]


Anybody who reads that note from the mgtm and didn't think "assholes" should have his license for humanity revoked.
posted by MartinWisse at 3:37 AM on August 9, 2017 [2 favorites]


Maybe the "don't turn our office building into a tinderbox" one?

BRB, gotta make Siouxsie Sioux out of post-its.
posted by bile and syntax at 4:48 AM on August 9, 2017 [3 favorites]


"Cash me outside" will never get old for me.

A local brewpub made a limited-edition raspberry kölsch called "Kölsch me outside, how 'bout razz?"

So, these aren't exactly masterpieces of sticky art, and it does make the building look a little dorm-y from the outside, but I will forever and ever fall on the side of joy and whimsy and think the building managers are humorless dorks.
posted by Rock Steady at 6:37 AM on August 9, 2017 [1 favorite]


Maybe the "don't turn our office building into a tinderbox" one?

This seems like a totally reasonable and not at all hyperbolic statement.
posted by duffell at 6:59 AM on August 9, 2017 [3 favorites]


A scary fact is that most offices are totally full of highly-flammable paper. Is there some reason that sticky notes on windows are more of a fire hazard than printer paper in the supply closet?
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 7:06 AM on August 9, 2017 [7 favorites]


As a person who sends these sorts of notes (your lease does not allow you to store a 100 pallets in your dock bay. Your lease does not allow you to put a hole in the roof. You need to move you truck so we can clean the parking lot. Your employees need to obey the speed limit. You must dispose of cigarette butts properly. Etc etc etc) I am conflicted.
posted by vespabelle at 7:20 AM on August 9, 2017 [4 favorites]


It just occurred to me, if I were building management I would also be inclined to shut it down not because I hate creativity, but because there is a non-zero chance that this Post-It War will just degenerate to people putting up "MAGA!" repeatedly. I'd rather be accused of being a wet blanket rather than deal with politics.
posted by FJT at 9:32 AM on August 9, 2017


So... and all this in "The Land Of The Free" right?

Just checking...
posted by DreamerFi at 10:18 AM on August 9, 2017


Is there some reason that sticky notes on windows are more of a fire hazard than printer paper in the supply closet?

A ream of paper is essentially a block of wood. Yes, a thousand loose little bits of paper are significantly more flammable than that. It may not be a huge fire risk, but risk is risk.

So... and all this in "The Land Of The Free" right?

Indeed. Landlords are free to evict tenants for violating their contracts.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:58 AM on August 9, 2017


I think Minecraft art at work is entirely justifiable. I have an entire whiteboard in my office devoted to Minecraft art.

(Well OK it's only the bottom 1/3rd that has Minecraft art, the top 2/3rds are full of important deadlines for things I am responsible for tracking - but my son has been told the bottom 1/3rd is his to decorate, so it is full of 8-year-old kid drawings of Minecraft things. It amuses me that I refer people to the ALL IMPORTANT GRID OF DEADLINES for reference, and they have to look at it seriously while trying to ignore Steve and an ocelot grinning at them from the bottom of the board)
posted by caution live frogs at 10:59 AM on August 9, 2017


(Not that fire risk is actually the reason for this. It's most likely just an eyesore thing.)
posted by Sys Rq at 11:00 AM on August 9, 2017


"pecksniffian"

Well I'll be. There's a real word for "virtue signaling" that sounds significantly better.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 4:03 PM on August 9, 2017 [2 favorites]


These an small office building near my house, with two offices side-by-side. Sometimes the one one the right will make something like a smiley face, and then the one on the left will make a frowny face. Or "Today is great!" and then "No it's not ---->"

I don't know if it's friendly or not, but it's amusing.
posted by Room 641-A at 5:43 PM on August 9, 2017 [1 favorite]


Well, there's a comment in the article that a number of people were purchasing their own post-it pads to avoid causing issues with use of employer property.

That is even sadder. Drugs, sex, and office supplies should ever be paid for.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:06 PM on August 9, 2017 [1 favorite]


NEVER, not "ever." Argh.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 1:30 PM on August 10, 2017


More Denver sticky note news: an office expressing support for Taylor Swift. Pretty sure it's the Craftsy office given the yarn.
posted by asperity at 10:15 PM on August 11, 2017 [2 favorites]


It was Craftsy! And Swift sent them flowers as a thank-you.
posted by rewil at 12:03 PM on August 16, 2017 [2 favorites]


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