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Have you noticed lately that more and more of your work colleagues are embedding what appears to be a famous or clever quotation under their company email contact information? 

The quotes I’m seeing are usually attributed to renowned or famous people.  Some of my fellow employees are even taking this a step further by inserting what looks like their own original quotations or phases that promote their personal view on an issue or maybe life in general.

One guy in my company from Australia shows this message under his contact information: “Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a GIFT……So….. “GET BUSY LIVING”….This kind of sounds like the Aussies from what I’ve heard about them – they’re a pretty energetic bunch.

I see messages that appear to be conveying wisdom or sound advice.  One person in my group shows this: “A day of worry is more exhausting than a week of work.”
– John Lubbock.”  But who in the heck is John Lubbock?

I also see that some others are taking this a leap further – here is a green message from a fellow employee: “Please consider the environment before printing this email. 1 ton of paper = 17 trees. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.”  Oh great; what’s next – a message not to buy plastic bottled water?

Because I’m somewhat amused by reading and pondering famous quotes, some of the quotes in these emails do catch my interest, even if they seem pretty measured.  And, who can argue with someone attempting to articulate a little inspiration or wisdom into our daily tension-packed corporate environment?  That would be me.

This trend somewhat reminds me of those annoying 11” x 14” framed motivational posters that management hung up on our office and factory walls back in the 90’s.  Do you recall those thought provoking words or quotations, surrounded by multicolored abstract designs that corporate management deemed acceptable to inspire us?

This was the same time period where we were forced to study and understand our company’s Mission Statement in group meetings that suddenly became so critical to corporate management to make us stop and understand our company’s ultimate purpose.

These same Mission Statements were also pretty important to management back then because they spent mega company funds in off-site vacation resorts to generate these fabulous Mission Statements that would be the impetus to lead us into new horizons of paradigm busting, corporate culture transformation and increased earnings.

But, hey, we didn’t mind playing along with the social experiment because times were good.  The global economy hadn’t yet choked the jobs out of our companies.  We were all getting raises, buying everything in sight (a lot on credit) and we couldn’t afford to lose our jobs.

Wasn’t it interesting how the motivational posters disappeared when corporations didn’t have the extra money to fund these boondoggles?  What they should have known all along was that a company’s best people know how to motivate themselves and inspire the people around them….and, they don’t rely upon email quotes or wall posters to achieve productive behavior in an organization.    

All of a sudden it dawned on me that I don’t have an intriguing or inspiring quote under my email contact information yet!  Now I’m thinking I really need to do something about this, soon!

Who knows where this trend is going?  I’m wondering if the quote thing can eventually show up in my annual performance objectives?  I can hear it now: “J.J., the quote under your contact information is not very inspiring.  It doesn’t make your fellow employees want to ponder the possibilities of thinking out of the box, or putting large issues into precise context, or to show everyone that you’re a clever individual.  And J.J., this runs contrary to our corporate culture so you’ve got to improve on this by your next review period.”  Yikes!

This isn’t the 90’s anymore.  Times are not very good so I can’t give management any excuse to send me packing with all the others around me who’ve seen their jobs off-shored to places like India, Brazil or Thailand.  With a little research and inspiration, I know I can do it….or can I?

What makes this tough for me is that none of the quotes I’ve seen from my fellow employees or others even remotely resemble humor.  My favorite quotes are either humorous or satirical.  But if I were to go that route, I would surely be crossing the line of proper behavior in the serious world of corporate business.  Oh no!

Management usually doesn’t look too favorably upon satire as it blatantly pokes fun at the folly and shortcomings of people, or more directly, corporate management.  I must remain serious or I could be deemed a dissenter!  Damn it, I’ll have to scrap a ton of Dilbert-type material that would outrage management but probably appeal to most normal individuals in our company.

I also got to thinking; wouldn’t it be funny to be able to pick a famous, edgy quote and connect it to some of those petty tyrants we all work for and find a way to stick that thing right under their email contact information?  Even if it was for just one day’s worth of emails, especially the most feared and hated managers.  For example, just for that nasty, miserable manager we have to put up with, wouldn’t it be splendid to insert the following quote, right smack under his or her contact information:

“I’m not a monster.  I’m just ahead of the curve!”

- The Joker (from the latest Batman movie)

And, for one of those arrogant, self important Administrative Assistants of one our company’s big wheels, how about something such as:

“I’m busy. Can I ignore you some other time?”
- Unknown

For the overpaid CEO, I like this one:

“I get so tired of listening to one million dollars here, one million dollars there.  It’s so petty.”

– Imelda Marcos

Or better yet, another beauty for the esteemed CEO:

“Any organization is like a septic tank.  The really big chunks rise to the top.” – John Imoff.

Do you think that would get their hackles up once they found out this one ended up in his or email message?

For the Legal Affairs Manager who feels that his or her opinion about everything is the only opinion:

“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers” – Shakespeare

Let’s not leave out the uncooperative Purchasing Manager who turns a requisition into an inquisition:

“Fire the whole purchasing department.  They’d hire Einstein and then turn down his requisition for a blackboard.” – Robert Townsend

So who do I turn to for mine?  I must have visited ten websites and read a couple hundred quotes from my favorites like Mark Twain, Abe Lincoln, Winston Churchill, and even Mae West (”When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I’ve never tried before.”).  I’m still finding it difficult to decide upon only one quote that’s just right – and politically correct enough for the corporate weenies.

Actually, I have to admit that the best part of this exercise has been a chance to review a large number of pretty witty and clever statements out there that people have supposedly created.  So, after much deliberation, here is what I’ve narrowed my best choices down to….a short list of only three:

“Tell your boss what you really think about him and the truth shall set you free.”

- Patrick Murray……just kidding!

“Never mistake motion for action”

- E. Hemmingway

“Whether you think that you can, or that you can’t, you are usually right.”

- Henry Ford

“If you are going through hell, keep going.”

- Winston Churchill

I’ll probably go with the Hemmingway quote and feel a little like I’m selling out but this is a tight job market so my survival instincts are now paramount.

However, if you don’t yet have your special quote yet with your email contact information, and you feel so inclined, you may want to think about finding a message or quote that is right for you.  You never know – you may want to get this going before management, in their infinite wisdom, decides to mandate this into your performance objectives – it’s cheaper than 11 x 14 posters!

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