December 11, 2001
MADISON, WI - Three weeks in the fast-paced tech-world is a long time to go without change. And employees at Globetron, a small local software development company, have come to expect it. What they didn't expect, however, was co-worker Martin Desch to keep from changing his pants for three weeks straight."
| |
Desch with his favorite shirt (the pants have been cropped out for confidentiality reasons).
|
"Maybe he has several pairs of the same style," comments Terri Scott, who sits in the cubicle across from the fashionably disabled Desch. From over the cubicle next to her, Terrence Foster comments, "There ain't no way the man could have fifteen pairs of the same pants! He's got to have a rash by now o' somethin'."
"The worst thing about this," says fellow colleague and avid pant collector Joyce Eapen, "is that he could have been wearing those pants for months before, and I just started keeping track three weeks ago."
Interoffice efforts have been made to discretely target the source of Desch's problem. Joyce Miller, manager of the MIS/Finance department has set up a collection fund for Desch; donations to the coffee tin will be used to purchase a gift certificate to Structure. "Structure is the pants destination," explains Miller.
Yet still, colleagues are baffled as to Desch's motivation to constantly wear the same unwashed, ragged pants day after day. "He must have more pairs", Eapen gossips. Foster retorts, "Even if he has more, he seems to like to wear these, not that there is any question that they are the same pants. Not only do they look the same, but they have a triangle shaped stain right below the left pocket. What are the odds of him having multiple pairs with the same defect?"
For now, things will carry on as usual in the office, but employees agree something must be done eventually to combat his pants. "They're starting to smell like ham," explains Scott. "It makes me both hungry and absolutely disgusted."
|
