"OKAY!!!!!" Everyone! Come to the 3rd floor conference room. Christmas Karaoke is about to begin!!!!!!! Whooo-hooo!!! Come join us!"
This what screamed from the overhead p.a. speaker--while I was in the middle of a phone call--yesterday afternoon.
As part of our holiday celebrations at work, the 3rd floor hosted a karaoke party. They had put up fliers, sent "All Staff" emails, and were now advertising by screaming into the building-wide p.a. system.
"ATTENTION EVERYONE!!! Christmas caroling and karaoke is starting in the 3rd floor conference room. It will be fun!!!!! Where are you!?!?!?! Come join us!!! Fun!!!!!!!"
I have a general rule. If someone has to go on a public address system and declare how much fun something is going to be...an assumption should be made that said event will, more than likely, be extremely un-fun.
The announcements continued to come every few minutes. Two things were becoming increasingly apparent from these messages: (a) no one had shown up to the 3rd floor conference room, and (b) the party hosts were becoming increasingly desperate.
"Where are you guys?!?!?! Whooo-hoo! It's holiday singing time!! We need your voice!!! Join us in the 3rd floor conference room! Ho ho ho!!"
and
"Hey! Come join us!! We have food too!! Free food!!! Whoo-hoo! Come to the karaoke party in the 3rd floor conference room."
I'm sure many people have many varied holiday traditions. It seemed kind of apparent that standing in front of a group of sober co-workers in the middle of the day and singing "Silver Bells" was not a popular choice among my co-workers. Perhaps the organizers of the 3rd floor Christmas Karaoke should have considered this before decorating and setting up a karaoke system. In Japan, karaoke bars are often filled with small rooms so that people can karaoke in private. Many people like to sing karaoke. Many people like to watch karaoke.
Few like to be watched singing karaoke.






