There was a great article over at the Brazen Careerist where Penelope Trunk breaks down some of the most annoying goings on of a typical workplace that most people wouldn’t miss. I think that she makes some valid points about the uselessness of a candy machine, the giant office party, and money solicitations at work. I think that people should be held accountable for their reluctance or inability to keep up with current work and office trends. Some of the things we find annoying in today’s office are remnants of the office of yesterday and should be put out to pasture and beaten down like the spiteful fax machine in Office Space.

Voicemail is a useless dinosaur, and people who insist on using it improperly should be held accountable. If you MUST leave a voicemail message, don’t just ask me to call you back or stop by. Give me an idea of what you want to discuss or it is unlikely that you’ll get anything back but an email. For that matter, if you want to talk to me, come by personally or propose a meeting time. Phone tag is annoying enough in my personal life so why do I need it to add to my blood pressure at work? In the time it took you to sit through my ancient voicemail message, wait for the beep, and babble incoherently for 45 seconds, you could’ve sent me a two sentence email with more substance. The point is this: If I work with you on a semi-regular basis, you shouldn’t have to leave me voicemail. The only exceptions should be to distribute important messages to employees in an emergency. I’m fine with receiving that kind of voicemail, but don’t leave a message for me asking me to come to the break room for the monthly birthday cake.

Eenie, meenie, miney, mo.

RIM is releasing about three hundred BlackBerries this year and Boy Genius was nice enough to break them down and let us know which device is which and which ones will have the features that we are looking for. He also differentiates between the prosumer devices and the devices intended for business.

According to his research I should be waiting for the 83xx which will include a Camera, WiFi, and GPS. Which BlackBerry are you getting?

[Link to RIM's BlackBerry 8300 Lineup : The Boy Genius Report]