Originally published Jul 24, 2014 at the blog of School Datebooks Inc.

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Over the past couple of months, I have been patiently listening to the buzzing office around my little cubicle. I'm the kind of person who observes things first. If I am at a pool, I'm the one who sticks a toe into the water to test it before jumping in. This works for me. 

 

While I have been observing, I have collected many wise words from my coworkers. Some (edit: MOST) of them are said sarcastically, after a long meeting with my team and a derailed story, but I still write them down. Here is my little collection, and a bit of context for each bit of advice.

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"Hoooowwww would you feel if we did ______, Jon?" - Leslie

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This is Leslie's way of sugar coating an idea for something at SDI that she knows Jon won't really like. Effective 50% of the time.

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"The best ideas come from tangents!" - Jon

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After talking briefly about a NYC media project, we got on a tangent and this prompted a story about how a Red Lobster businessman was trying to create advertising for the next month at the restaurant. He said to his partner, "I don't want to go overboard with this ad," and low and behold, "Go overboard" was the next big thing to wash up at Red Lobster.

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"Eavesdropping is also the best." -Me, and Jon

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After taking another scenic route in a round-about discussion during a meeting, I mentioned that I made Leslie's day by eavesdropping on her. She mentioned that she wanted to add a new proofer to work for SDI. I mentioned this to my English teacher mom, she got curious about the position, and that's how two Thomas ladies kind of got jobs (we'll see if my mom wants to accept) at School Datebooks. 

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Bananas are fool-proof! -Leslie, Jon

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 During a weekly Friday meeting, for some reason the topic of sending bananas in the mail came up. This is an actual thing that you can do: if you write an address on a banana, and stick a stamp on it, it can be mailed.

This prompted the golden marketing wisdom from Leslie and Jon. 

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*Note: Victoria and Darren are also very wise, but they refused to help me remember their enlightened musings for this blog.