‘In case of wet floor, recline luxuriously’ and other strange workplace signs
April 30, 2008 by Fred HosierPosted in: Fun stuff on the Web, Latest News & Views
Workplace signs have increasingly moved toward pictographs so that their messages may be communicated to people who don’t read English. As one blogger shows on his Web site, not all of these pictographs are works of art, and some are just plain funny.
Have you ever been the recipient of snarky comments from workers about the signage in your building?
Whether it’s warning signs or inspirational posters (HRB’s classic favorite is the kitten clinging to a wire with its paws with the caption, “Hang in there”), there’s plenty for employees to make light of.
So, now that there is a blog for everything we send you to the Hall of Technical Documentation Weirdness.
Don’t let the title scare you. Many of the listings are workplace signs accompanied by wacky (mis)interpretations.
For example, there’s the Wet Floor sign in which a figure that is supposed to look like someone who has just fallen instead looks like someone lounging at home on their sofa. The sign gets the new suggested title, “In case of wet floor, recline luxuriously.”
“Warning, 80s band present,” is the new caption for a sign showing a worker who is tied off to fall protection. (You’ll have to go to the Web site to fully understand. For those of you who are 80s music fans, think Devo.)
HRB searched the Web site for the kitten poster, to no avail. So we offer our own new caption: “Caution, kitten line drying. Approach with care.”
Tags: pictographs, signs, wet floor
May 2nd, 2008 at 2:30 pm
How about this on the entrance door to the kitchen in a Denny’s restaurant: “Do not enter while foaming” - they eventually changed it to something more precise, such as “Do not enter while kitchen floor is being foamed.”
And for unintentionally unfunny grammatically incorrect (or spelling-challenged) ones:
“Open Monday’s” - signmakers should review the apostrophe rules. “Opnig Soon” for a cleaners - all the hard words were correctly spelled and the easier ones were misspelled - (”brankets” for blankets, for example.) At least the creator of that flyer had the excuse that English was not his/her first language!
June 6th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
RE: “Hang In There, Baby”
1. Hang in There! Inspirational Art of the 1970s - cover has a variation of the famous picture
http://www.amazon.com/Hang-There-Inspirational-Art-1970s/dp/0811839974
2. From the Wikipedia article on motivational posters:
One famous motivational poster features a kitten hanging from a tree branch along with the phrase “Hang in There, Baby!” This poster has also been the target of various reproductions and parodies, such as an appearance on an episode of The Simpsons where Marge Simpson notices the copyright date (1968) and comments, “…determined or not, that cat must be long dead. That’s kind of a downer.”[6]. Another reference to the poster is The Onion’s “In the News” photograph titled “Inspirational Poster Kitten Falls To Death After 17 Years”.