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We are very excited to unveil the new social networking website for OfficeLemmings.com!

A brief run down about OfficeLemmings.com from the Lemmings themselves:

Created by two lemmings, for lemmings everywhere, OfficeLemmings.com is a collection of daily anecdotes submitted by you, the employee, describing your day-to-day jobs and experiences in the corporate world.  Feel like you’re just a number?  Sit in a pointless meeting today?  Work on a project that led you to question your existence? Then tell us about it!  Hopefully you realize that many of the frustrations and funny experiences at your job are shared by millions of lemmings in offices of all types across the country.

Why Lemmings?

First and foremost, let’s get one thing perfectly clear: lemmings are real!  Documentaries, cartoons, commercials, and even popular video games have used lemmings as their primary subject matter for decades. However, there are many tales about lemmings, and the line between fact and fiction is somewhat blurry. For this website, we have chosen to associate office workers everywhere with the most universally recognized Lemming anecdote related to their migration habits. Why? Because it’s funny. Especially in the context of jobs and office life. As you read on, you’ll see why.

Legend has it that these cute, furry rodents traveled in large groups toward an imaginary land, letting nothing stand in their way. Eventually, the lemmings reached the top of a cliff, with nothing but the great ocean below (as you see in the cartoon on our home page). Unfazed by a little water, the lemmings simply jumped off; surely they could continue their journey by sea! Unfortunately, lemmings can’t swim.

This tale is not completely unfounded; real lemmings do in fact respond to overpopulation and density by frantic, single-minded migration across long distances in search of a new place to live. While this factual information is certainly interesting, we consider the mythical lemming to be far more entertaining, as the story above conjures mental images of thousands of lemmings blindly following one another to their ultimate demise. None of the creatures know where they’re going – or why – just that they must get there!

A Metaphor for Corporate Culture

Contrary to what you may be thinking, we’re not telling you something you don’t already know. The office-workers-as-followers story is nothing new, it’s just never been told before with a lemming as the main character. Hollywood and television have already capitalized on the corporate culture phenomenon with movies such as “Office Space” and the incredibly popular NBC comedy, “The Office”. Since its inception in 1989, the “Dilbert” cartoon has appeared in over 2,000 newspapers in over 70 countries. Self-help books, morning talk shows, and websites frequently target the disenfranchised cubicle-dweller who wishes for nothing more than to break free from the shackles of PowerPoint slides and Monday staff meetings to achieve his/her dream. Some succeed. Most do not.

Thus the inspiration for OfficeLemmings.com. On this website the term “Lemming” is used to describe the many types of employees that reside within the confines of corporate culture. You know, the employees that perform mundane tasks with little or no enthusiasm for their job other than the fact that it earns a paycheck. They engage in a lemming-like, frenzied migration every day as they pack the car and commute to work. Once at the office, they blindly follow a corporate mission that they have been told is for the greater good. Massive corporations are indeed what make the world go round, but it is often at the expense of the millions of workers who feel as if they are “just a number” in their company, a small cog in a big machine. Families, recessions, and fear of moving elsewhere keep people in a job they never liked in the first place for decades, never able to pursue their dreams.

We know what you’re thinking: Why am I even reading this? (if you still are) This is so… negative. You like your job, co-workers, and company and are angered and offended that anyone would ever question or mock the way you support yourself and your family. To you, we extend our sincerest congratulations. We couldn’t be happier for you. In fact, we envy people that like their jobs! After all, we’re talking about what most people do 8 or more hours per day, five or six day as a week, 50 weeks per year. Shouldn’t we enjoy the one thing in life we do the most?!?!

Do you…

• Wear a coat and tie to work for no other reason than “it’s company policy”?

You’re a lemming!

• Use acronyms and corporate buzz words like they’re going out of style or in your every day speech outside the office

Lemming!

• End emails with the words “best” or “cheers”?

Lemming!

• Shave every day not because you want to, but because you have to?

• Sit in meetings and think to yourself, “Why are we even here? This is pointless.”?

• Use phrases such as “Hump Day” and “Happy Friday!”?

Lemming, Lemming, and… you guessed it, lemming!

Perhaps we’re speaking to you loud and clear because you get really annoyed by all of the lemming attributes we’ve just described. If you in fact identify lemmings in your corporate surroundings on a daily basis, you might not be a lemming! But, then again, you work in environments like this, so guess what? That’s right. You’re a lemming too!

As you can see, we use the lemming as a metaphor for the oddities, frustrations, awkward moments, annoying bosses and coworkers, botched proposals, and subsequent humor that occur in the workplace. It is these things that often get you through the week and make the corporate world go round and round. No employee is immune to them, even those who love their jobs. This is why OfficeLemmings.com exists, to find the humor in all of these situations and share it with one another.

Our Reason for Existence

Our goal at OfficeLemmings.com is twofold: First, we hope to create a “lemming community”, where lemmings around the world can go every day for a few minutes of laughter. Whether you agree or disagree with our metaphor, whether you love or hate your job, we hope that you will revel in the opportunity to share your humorous work anecdotes with people who are just like you. Second, we hope to inspire you. For those of you who are taking our metaphor very seriously, we hope that we’ve inspired you to take off your coat and tie and pursue your dreams. If you like your job but perhaps have been slacking recently and life has been nothing more than “business as usual”, leave your business attire on and work a little harder. No matter your job-satisfaction, figure out what you want in life and go get it. Don’t follow the masses. Blaze your own trail. The creation of this website is the first step in our own escape from “lemminghood”. We hope it’s yours too.

So, to conclude this manifesto, OfficeLemmings.com was created for many reasons, but primarily to bring corporate humor into the 21st century by bringing it right to your fingertips. Take a few minutes out of your day to be entertained, and share your funny tales with other lemmings around the world. Did you sit in a pointless meeting today? Get berated by an incompetent boss? Spill coffee all over the materials for a big proposal presentation? Catch a co-worker doing something inappropriate on his computer? Get caught checking your fantasy football team page or watching March Madness? Figure out a way to make it funny, and tell us about it! And then tell us again, and again, and again. This site is not intended, in any way, shape, or form, to be a safe haven for those who want to rant and yell and complain about their jobs. There are other websites that serve that purpose. We will not post anything that purposefully and maliciously bashes your company or coworkers or has any profanity in it whatsoever. Stick to the three rules: 1. Work-related 2. Keep it clean and 3. Make it good. Tell us why you’re a lemming, and be amused at why the rest of the world is too.

All content copyright Monfraire Holdings, LLC. www.officelemmings.com