The guy died of thirst because the water cooler was empty. It’s like those old comics set in the desert.
Water coolers are like office coffee makers: you only have to replenish the jug if someone sees you take the last bit.
I think this is about how people are unwilling to take a role in even the simplest task because they believe someone else should do it, whether it’s making a new pot of coffee, putting more paper in the printer, or changing the bottle on the water cooler.
It’s been years since I worked anyplace that had a jugged water cooler. When I did, as a strapping lad, I would replace the jug when needed, which is not difficult now that the jugs are plastic and they have the no-spill caps. They are heavy and unwieldy, though. However, the last several office placements I’ve had have had water coolers plumbed into the water line that are supposed to go through filters (there is a lot of stuff attached to them, so it does seem a filter is present). I always wondered how often, if at all, filters were checked and changed. Given that the water flow doesn’t stop, as with a judge, they could be neglected for…well, forever.
I thought all the Right-Thinking Office Drones brought in their very own name-brand bottled water these days anyway? (Maybe a cartoon should modify the trope to show a skeleton ignoring a waterhole because he realized the water in it had not been carbonated or something….)
I just wondered why HR is responsible for the water in the water cooler?
beckoningchasm has it. Singapore Bill is overthinking it. (Note: it’s not that no-one changed the water; it’s that there is no water to change it with.)
Dang all those vowels!
I had the same thought Andréa mentions, then decided this is a small enough place that Health & Safety falls under HR.
Shrug, the *really* right-thinking employees might bring their personal reusable bottles.
That wouldn’t be Health & Safety, Mitch4, it would be “facilities management”, at least at the giant corporations I was working for. I just figured “HR” would be an easily understood stand in, meaning “people who have to take care of the employees”.
beckoningchasm has it. Singapore Bill is overthinking it. (Note: it’s not that no-one changed the water; it’s that there is no water to change it with.)
Even if they did not replace the water, HR would either have to recruit a replacement (or at least check off an accomplishment against their goal of reducing head count).
MJSR said approximately what I was going to. HR isn’t involved in the water, but in the dead employee (with possibly more to come).
I must be only seeing half the posts woozy is: I see no post by beckoningchasm, and I have no idea what he means by cursing the surfeit of nonconsonants…
beckoningchasm had the very first post. It was a simple “guy died of thirst like the guys in the dessert comics”. I thought that was all there was to it. It’s cute. It’s just the standard what’s an extreme case of a common occurrence.
The dang vowels was a comment about why the heck my boring comment went to moderation. All I can figure is beckoningchasm is a no-no.
Or maybe the moderation program doesn’t like semi colons. Does it; or does it not.
When there was just one comment, which is when I first saw this, it was beckoningchasm’s. When I looked again this morning there were apparently 16 comments, but beckoningchasm’s first spot one had disappeared. Then I refreshed my browser and it reappeared in first spot (and one other did too, as now there are 18 comments)(well, 19 if this one gets through).
If beckoningchasm’s comments are disappearing, I’m totally stumped: removing a comment that’s already online is not something the program’s supposed to do. Even beckoningchasm can’t remove one of his comments. This leaves the most reasonable explanation as “Bill wakes up in the middle of the night, deletes beckoningchasm’s comments, wipes his memory of the incident and then goes back to sleep” — and yet that seems somewhat unlikely.
Also you’d have to wake up again and reinsert the once-missing comment and forget doing that too.
No, I think the most reasonable explanation is that WordPress works in mysterious ways. Dare not try to understand lest you go mad.
The difference may be WordPress’s mobile vs. desktop pages. After I refreshed the browser on my desktop, the comment reappeared @1. Refreshing earlier this morning (on a tablet) did not help.
The WordPress Gods have selected my comment as the One True Explanation.
@Arthur: “No, I think the most reasonable explanation is that WordPress works in mysterious ways. Dare not try to understand lest you go mad.”
That’s nothing compared with GoDaddy.
Kilby: “The difference may be WordPress’s mobile vs. desktop pages. After I refreshed the browser on my desktop, the comment reappeared @1.”
That sounds right to me. Or, a variant, a difference between WP in a browser (which could be desktop or mobile, equally) and the separate WP app. I see differences that seem to correspond to that, such as whether a comment gets marked as in-reply-to an earlier comment or always Bill’s topnote.
I agree with the first commenter who is to remain unnamed to avoid the possibility of going into moderation. And count me in with those who say HR in this strip is responsible for ordering supplies, including water, not for physically changing the jugs.
“count me in with those who say HR in this strip is responsible for ordering supplies, including water, not for physically changing the jugs.”
Count me for “HR is responsible for knowing that something’s disposing of human assets, not dealing with the root cause.”
I’m still utterly stumped as to what in:
“beckoningchasm has it. Singapore Bill is overthinking it. (Note: it’s not that no-one changed the water; it’s that there is no water to change it with.)”
could cause this post to go into moderation twice.
Experimenting: Ignore the next three of for posts I make:
beckoningchasm has it.
Singapore Bill is overthinking it.
And that is it:
Apparently I am not allowed to complain that someone is overthinking it.
Final experiment:
overthink
Anybody else think the cartoonist is channeling Charles Addams?
I don’t think there has been any indication that posts mentioning beckoningchasm were disappearing. Just ones made under that ID.
You can not use the term “overth*nking it”. Seriously. That is why my posts are in moderation.
Because of the coloring (or lack thereof)? Many if not most of this artist’s comics are in sepia.
Style, too.
It’s funnier that they are considering calling HR (rather than Facilities), since it shows even more cluelessness.
woozy, the message is clear. Don’t every doubt me.
Comics I Don't Understand 
The guy died of thirst because the water cooler was empty. It’s like those old comics set in the desert.
Water coolers are like office coffee makers: you only have to replenish the jug if someone sees you take the last bit.
I think this is about how people are unwilling to take a role in even the simplest task because they believe someone else should do it, whether it’s making a new pot of coffee, putting more paper in the printer, or changing the bottle on the water cooler.
It’s been years since I worked anyplace that had a jugged water cooler. When I did, as a strapping lad, I would replace the jug when needed, which is not difficult now that the jugs are plastic and they have the no-spill caps. They are heavy and unwieldy, though. However, the last several office placements I’ve had have had water coolers plumbed into the water line that are supposed to go through filters (there is a lot of stuff attached to them, so it does seem a filter is present). I always wondered how often, if at all, filters were checked and changed. Given that the water flow doesn’t stop, as with a judge, they could be neglected for…well, forever.
I thought all the Right-Thinking Office Drones brought in their very own name-brand bottled water these days anyway? (Maybe a cartoon should modify the trope to show a skeleton ignoring a waterhole because he realized the water in it had not been carbonated or something….)
I just wondered why HR is responsible for the water in the water cooler?
beckoningchasm has it. Singapore Bill is overthinking it. (Note: it’s not that no-one changed the water; it’s that there is no water to change it with.)
Dang all those vowels!
I had the same thought Andréa mentions, then decided this is a small enough place that Health & Safety falls under HR.
Shrug, the *really* right-thinking employees might bring their personal reusable bottles.
That wouldn’t be Health & Safety, Mitch4, it would be “facilities management”, at least at the giant corporations I was working for. I just figured “HR” would be an easily understood stand in, meaning “people who have to take care of the employees”.
beckoningchasm has it. Singapore Bill is overthinking it. (Note: it’s not that no-one changed the water; it’s that there is no water to change it with.)
Even if they did not replace the water, HR would either have to recruit a replacement (or at least check off an accomplishment against their goal of reducing head count).
MJSR said approximately what I was going to. HR isn’t involved in the water, but in the dead employee (with possibly more to come).
I must be only seeing half the posts woozy is: I see no post by beckoningchasm, and I have no idea what he means by cursing the surfeit of nonconsonants…
beckoningchasm had the very first post. It was a simple “guy died of thirst like the guys in the dessert comics”. I thought that was all there was to it. It’s cute. It’s just the standard what’s an extreme case of a common occurrence.
The dang vowels was a comment about why the heck my boring comment went to moderation. All I can figure is beckoningchasm is a no-no.
Or maybe the moderation program doesn’t like semi colons. Does it; or does it not.
I also don’t see the post by beckoningchasm. But I believe the reference to vowels is in the thread starting with https://godaddyandthesquirrelmustbothdie.wordpress.com/2019/09/06/bruce-lee/comment-page-1/#comment-37389
Yeah, the first post I see is Singapore Bill’s. None from beckoningchasm.
It would seem that WordPress has an ax (or perhaps a halberd) to grind with beckoningchasm. This is at least the second time that a comment appears to have disappeared retroactively. I’m pretty sure that I saw that comment yesterday (it was just a few lines). It’s gone now, but larK’s Comment Harvester shows that it once existed:
> https://godaddyandthesquirrelmustbothdie.wordpress.com/2019/09/10/water-works/comment-page-1/#comment-37574
When there was just one comment, which is when I first saw this, it was beckoningchasm’s. When I looked again this morning there were apparently 16 comments, but beckoningchasm’s first spot one had disappeared. Then I refreshed my browser and it reappeared in first spot (and one other did too, as now there are 18 comments)(well, 19 if this one gets through).
If beckoningchasm’s comments are disappearing, I’m totally stumped: removing a comment that’s already online is not something the program’s supposed to do. Even beckoningchasm can’t remove one of his comments. This leaves the most reasonable explanation as “Bill wakes up in the middle of the night, deletes beckoningchasm’s comments, wipes his memory of the incident and then goes back to sleep” — and yet that seems somewhat unlikely.
Also you’d have to wake up again and reinsert the once-missing comment and forget doing that too.
No, I think the most reasonable explanation is that WordPress works in mysterious ways. Dare not try to understand lest you go mad.
The difference may be WordPress’s mobile vs. desktop pages. After I refreshed the browser on my desktop, the comment reappeared @1. Refreshing earlier this morning (on a tablet) did not help.
The WordPress Gods have selected my comment as the One True Explanation.
@Arthur: “No, I think the most reasonable explanation is that WordPress works in mysterious ways. Dare not try to understand lest you go mad.”
That’s nothing compared with GoDaddy.
Kilby: “The difference may be WordPress’s mobile vs. desktop pages. After I refreshed the browser on my desktop, the comment reappeared @1.”
That sounds right to me. Or, a variant, a difference between WP in a browser (which could be desktop or mobile, equally) and the separate WP app. I see differences that seem to correspond to that, such as whether a comment gets marked as in-reply-to an earlier comment or always Bill’s topnote.
I agree with the first commenter who is to remain unnamed to avoid the possibility of going into moderation. And count me in with those who say HR in this strip is responsible for ordering supplies, including water, not for physically changing the jugs.
“count me in with those who say HR in this strip is responsible for ordering supplies, including water, not for physically changing the jugs.”
Count me for “HR is responsible for knowing that something’s disposing of human assets, not dealing with the root cause.”
I’m still utterly stumped as to what in:
“beckoningchasm has it. Singapore Bill is overthinking it. (Note: it’s not that no-one changed the water; it’s that there is no water to change it with.)”
could cause this post to go into moderation twice.
Experimenting: Ignore the next three of for posts I make:
beckoningchasm has it.
Singapore Bill is overthinking it.
And that is it:
Apparently I am not allowed to complain that someone is overthinking it.
Final experiment:
overthink
Anybody else think the cartoonist is channeling Charles Addams?
I don’t think there has been any indication that posts mentioning beckoningchasm were disappearing. Just ones made under that ID.
You can not use the term “overth*nking it”. Seriously. That is why my posts are in moderation.
Because of the coloring (or lack thereof)? Many if not most of this artist’s comics are in sepia.
Style, too.
It’s funnier that they are considering calling HR (rather than Facilities), since it shows even more cluelessness.
woozy, the message is clear. Don’t every doubt me.