They’re using Windows Vista, that’s one explanation (I’m joking) ; plus, no privacy. But I think this is staged.
Silisays
. . .
Praxitelessays
Genuine security cameras don’t have microphones attached, do they?
Like so many of these “office workers losing it” videos, I strongly suspect this is an intentional skit for advertising, or something. Not an actual occurrence of office rage.
Also, what workplaces (aside from correctional institutions) have security cameras trained on the staff during working hours?
qedprosays
i think the fact that nobody stepped in is a dead giveaway that this was staged.
It might be staged, but the fact that nobody stepped in is NOT a clue.
The whole attack lasted exactly 14 seconds onscreen. Plus these are office workers, probably not cops or ex-military people.
If this place has something to do with banking, or some other high-security industry, I can easily imagine surveillance cameras with sound might be placed in the office.
…
And hey, did you all catch that video with Bill O’Reilly melting down on camera? Definitely not safe for work.
Autumnsays
Every fucking day I have to explain to people that the humorous pictures arranged above my counter aren’t actual photographs.
Fuck people. I hate you all.
mike spearsays
RE: #12
brilliant, i love you.
Richbanksays
Etha, that was brilliant! Haven’t seen them before, but now i just know I’m going to be up watching the rest until some ungodly hour.
Etha, that was brilliant! Haven’t seen them before, but now i just know I’m going to be up watching the rest until some ungodly hour.
If you want to stay up even longer, Mr. Deity is also pretty good.
Michael Xsays
Mr. Deity is by far the best, in the genre of “deity-reality-parody”. Which is what I’m sure it has to be called. Right?
As for this vid, I’m with Sili. “…” Maybe it’s my not having worked in an office. But still.
richbanksays
totally worth it. Thanks Etha!
ssjessiechansays
OMG! *spaz* I know this is totally unrelated, but man. I saw this thing at Penny Arcade.
A VIDEO GAME in which the user…. FOLDS PROTEINS.
Not fake ones. Real ones.
Could you imagine kids getting a hold of this in high school!? You’ve got to go see it. You’ll have to download a client and register, but they’ve got one for XP/Vista and a beta for OSX on Intel machines (meh for my old iMac). But gee wiz. The SCIENCE!
#6: “Also, what workplaces (aside from correctional institutions) have security cameras trained on the staff during working hours?”
(Looks up at the cameras over his head right now.)
Mine.
The line from management was “they’re there for your protection since you’re there alone all night”, but frankly the ones at the doors and in the hallways serve that purpose quite well, thank you very much.
James Steinsays
@#6: I was a telemarketer in my youth, and we had video cameras with mics trained on us at all times. I don’t precisely know why we were video-taped, but I know the mics were to help ensure we did not veer off of our designated scripts: variation from the script was grounds for immediate dismissal.
DLCsays
@21: See, Ben Stein was wrong.
Science doesn’t lead to killing, it leads to Telemarketing.
I vote staged. Any office I ever worked in, if there was a fight or some other kind of meltdown, everyone would get up long enough to watch the action. I doubt anyone in that podspace would have not noticed the fight after about 5 seconds worth.
Martinsays
I thought it was staged at first but that’s a lot of big screens to destroy for an ad or prank.
O-dot-Osays
He’s got the guy on the ground, pounding him. Then he turns around 180 degrees — and up 45 — and grabs a keyboard to use as a weapon.
#6: I’ve been to the shipping department of the home office of a chain of jewelry stores. Not a good place to go if you value your privacy.
#23: if it was staged, the screens could be fake (you can buy fake monitors for use as props in furniture stores), or they could be ones that were already defective.
davidstvzsays
You beat me to it #24. The give away is the guy grabbing the keyboard instead of using his fists.
baloosays
It’s actually a commercial for Oslo Stockmarket. However, the guy being attacked actually got a lumbar hernia after the shooting of the movie.
“i think the fact that nobody stepped in is a dead giveaway that this was staged.
Posted by: qedpro”
“It might be staged, but the fact that nobody stepped in is NOT a clue.
Posted by: Hank Fox”
I’m not sure whether this was staged or not, however the fact that no one else became involved is actually evidence that it was not faked. The sense of embarrassment and desire to vanish into the work, while still watching the altercation, that the others show is further evidence for the reality of the incident. The use of whatever “weapons” are nearby is also evidence; people like to think well of themselves, not getting their “hands dirty”; using a keyboard to hit another in an office is seen as one step away from “actually” hitting them.
I say this after observing several thousand assaults/fights in my many years of work in Psych Nursing and Corrections (and a decade of hanging around “outlaw” bikers). It is rare for someone to get involved in other persons’ fights without some powerful connection between the fighter and the witness (gang affiliation and racism being the most common connections).
Torsteinsays
Hahahaha, poor man. Must be terribly frustrating to work in an environment like that.
(This is the Google translation which at least give you an idea of waht it’s about)
Maybe for you it does.
Am I the only one who doesn’t “get” it? Why’s the guy angry?
Richardsays
A reasonable and prudent response I think.
Physicalistsays
@ woozy (#31): Looks to me like the one guy kept throwing bits of paper or something at the guy across from him, and the target finally got fed up.
Sengkelatsays
People might step in to such a fight, or they might not. (I’m guessing not) But they would certainly react. These people just sit there and show no acknowledgement that there are fisticuffs occurring. That’s not realistic at all.
And, as baloo says in post 27, it’s apparently a commercial for the Oslo stock market.
I cut ‘feathers’ into the top of a paper cup and threw it over my cubicle wall at my coworker. When she asked me what I thought I was doing, I replied, ‘Cubicle Badminton.’
All it takes is six months of building up a reputation for that kind of thing and you can pretty well get away with anything, because you’re That guy.
Geoffsays
Norwegian Television commercial for the stockmarket in case anyone was wondering.
“People might step in to such a fight, or they might not. (I’m guessing not) But they would certainly react. These people just sit there and show no acknowledgement that there are fisticuffs occurring. That’s not realistic at all.
Posted by: Sengkelat”
The initial first reaction of a witness to a violent incident is to not react, it is to freeze or run. In the same way, the victim didn’t react as the assailant came over the table, but continued to do his script on the phone.
It takes training to respond to violence, especially when directed towards another.
As for “show(ing) no acknowledgement that there are fisticuffs occurring”, it certainly appears to me that all are watching the assault; several of them shifting into better positions to see the incident.
In our society, people often think they are knowledgeable about violence because they are exposed to vast amounts of simulated violence in the media and mediated violence in the news. In fact, most people in the U.S. have limited experience of actual violence.
Ryan Cunninghamsays
You think that Bill O’Reilly meltdown is good, check out this one!
“#37: running is not a reaction?
Posted by: Donnie B.”
Yes it is, but it is an unmediated reaction, there is no thinking involved.
My choice of words should have been, “The initial first reaction of a witness to a violent incident is to not respond, it is to freeze or run.”
Reaction and response have subtly different meanings from each other.
A reaction is a specific “action” in a specific situation (ie. a chemical reaction).
A response is an “answer” to a specific situation, and answering requires cognition.
A reaction will be the same for the same situation; a response need not be the same as it is mediated by knowledge/memory.
Martial Arts training is focused on avoiding or responding to a threat rather than reacting to that threat, as a reaction is easily countered since it is predictable.
I had an interesting experience that relates to this issue. Quite a few years ago, I was witness to a road rage incident turned violent. At first I thought that the two drivers were merely talking, but on second look realised that the one had punched through the driver’s side window and was pounding the other who was still in his car. The next thing I knew, I had parked my car (even remembering to turn the hazard lights on) and stepped in to talk down the puncher. I’ve studied some kung-fu, but have never really been in a fight (or even sparred), and it was all the subtle conflict resolution stuff that was talked about during coffee after kung-fu classes that came to mind: angle the body rather than square off, have an arm and hand out ahead of you in case you need to develop a block or a punch quickly, but also as a measure of reach so that you and the assailant know that you’re no closer than talking distance and not close enough to be aggressive without having to move, etc.
The guy himself was shocked when he saw me, and you could see the light turn on in his head when he realised what he had been doing (assault, property damage, general assholity) He got back in his car and scrammed while my attention was on the other driver. Good thing too, because guy could have ripped my arms off if he’d decided he wanted to.
Anyways, long story short, no more punches were thrown, the conflict fizzled and I went home and almost had a heart attack from the adrenaline rush, yet proud to realise after all that I’m not one of those bystanders who freezes, apparently.
Kseniyasays
Did you threaten him with a paper shuttlecock?
themadlolscientistsays
“Your call may be monitored for quality assurance.”
It is remarkable the difference that one calm person can make during a violent incident. I taught Management of Assaultive Behavior for 25 years in an in-patient Psychiatric setting as well as studying Judo, Aikido & Tai Chi.
I have “interfered” with people acting violently in public a number of times. Whether it is just calling the police (A fight between a man & women with a large crowd cheering them on), yelling from a distance to stop (a man a half block away beating his wife at the curb. “She’s my wife. What business is it to you?” “It’s my business because you’re beating someone in public.”), or getting physically involved (Chasing a knife wielding mugger down Nob Hill using two full shopping bags as a shield).
My favorite incident happened about 27 years ago in Santa Cruz. While walking up Pacific Ave., I saw a young man slapping a young woman under the Bell Tower. I started walking that way, when a woman near me asked, “Do you think it’s OK to call the police?” I asked her to indeed call the police as I was going to intervene. Several other bystanders heard and followed me. As soon as I challenged the young man (Stop that!) I became his focus. Some of the young woman’s friends (street-hippies) spirited her away, while the young man was given a Civics lesson. He was seething at me for daring to interfere, but those of us who confronted him were calm, quiet and obviously in control of the situation (I was impressed by the way the bystanders automatically arranged themselves in the way MAB is taught, an arc within the aggressors line of sight with enough space to move.). When we were sure the young woman was safely away, we disengaged & dispersed. He called me a few names and then ran away. I was very proud of my fellow citizens who “interfered” and backed me up. I have little doubt that if I was alone in confronting him there would have been a physical altercation.
I witnessed an assault once while waiting for an outdoor concert to begin. Two teens ran into amphitheatre and one of them started to punch the other – but it was hard to see what was going on and I wasn’t sure if it was being staged or not, to get a rise out of the old fogies. Then the second kid called for help. That got a couple of people out of their seats and the assaulter ran away.
Kseniya’s comment highlights the importance of training. Sometimes it can be tough to intervene without inadvertently escalating the situation (into a game of cubicle badminton, for instance, a lose-lose scenario for everyone.
PZ,
If Connlann lives on Langdon Street, you may want to give him a call. There is a massive fire in one of the apartment buildings .
AHAHA, highstress place + annoying people around you = recipe for entertainment.
Watching that reminded me of this great piece: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOTBWlt0-Y0&feature=user
They’re using Windows Vista, that’s one explanation (I’m joking) ; plus, no privacy. But I think this is staged.
. . .
Genuine security cameras don’t have microphones attached, do they?
Like so many of these “office workers losing it” videos, I strongly suspect this is an intentional skit for advertising, or something. Not an actual occurrence of office rage.
Also, what workplaces (aside from correctional institutions) have security cameras trained on the staff during working hours?
i think the fact that nobody stepped in is a dead giveaway that this was staged.
Watching that reminded me of God, Inc.
(This is beginning to feel a bit like some sort of youtube free association game…)
It reminds me of the video at http://shutthefuckup.com/ too. How very annoying. (apologies for the url, by the way)
I agree, it looks staged.
#8 was in response to #3….
lulz
It might be staged, but the fact that nobody stepped in is NOT a clue.
The whole attack lasted exactly 14 seconds onscreen. Plus these are office workers, probably not cops or ex-military people.
If this place has something to do with banking, or some other high-security industry, I can easily imagine surveillance cameras with sound might be placed in the office.
…
And hey, did you all catch that video with Bill O’Reilly melting down on camera? Definitely not safe for work.
Every fucking day I have to explain to people that the humorous pictures arranged above my counter aren’t actual photographs.
Fuck people. I hate you all.
RE: #12
brilliant, i love you.
Etha, that was brilliant! Haven’t seen them before, but now i just know I’m going to be up watching the rest until some ungodly hour.
@#15 Richbank —
If you want to stay up even longer, Mr. Deity is also pretty good.
Mr. Deity is by far the best, in the genre of “deity-reality-parody”. Which is what I’m sure it has to be called. Right?
As for this vid, I’m with Sili. “…” Maybe it’s my not having worked in an office. But still.
totally worth it. Thanks Etha!
OMG! *spaz* I know this is totally unrelated, but man. I saw this thing at Penny Arcade.
A VIDEO GAME in which the user…. FOLDS PROTEINS.
Not fake ones. Real ones.
Could you imagine kids getting a hold of this in high school!? You’ve got to go see it. You’ll have to download a client and register, but they’ve got one for XP/Vista and a beta for OSX on Intel machines (meh for my old iMac). But gee wiz. The SCIENCE!
http://fold.it/portal/adobe_main/
#6: “Also, what workplaces (aside from correctional institutions) have security cameras trained on the staff during working hours?”
(Looks up at the cameras over his head right now.)
Mine.
The line from management was “they’re there for your protection since you’re there alone all night”, but frankly the ones at the doors and in the hallways serve that purpose quite well, thank you very much.
@#6: I was a telemarketer in my youth, and we had video cameras with mics trained on us at all times. I don’t precisely know why we were video-taped, but I know the mics were to help ensure we did not veer off of our designated scripts: variation from the script was grounds for immediate dismissal.
@21: See, Ben Stein was wrong.
Science doesn’t lead to killing, it leads to Telemarketing.
I vote staged. Any office I ever worked in, if there was a fight or some other kind of meltdown, everyone would get up long enough to watch the action. I doubt anyone in that podspace would have not noticed the fight after about 5 seconds worth.
I thought it was staged at first but that’s a lot of big screens to destroy for an ad or prank.
He’s got the guy on the ground, pounding him. Then he turns around 180 degrees — and up 45 — and grabs a keyboard to use as a weapon.
Nah, it was staged.
#6: I’ve been to the shipping department of the home office of a chain of jewelry stores. Not a good place to go if you value your privacy.
#23: if it was staged, the screens could be fake (you can buy fake monitors for use as props in furniture stores), or they could be ones that were already defective.
You beat me to it #24. The give away is the guy grabbing the keyboard instead of using his fists.
It’s actually a commercial for Oslo Stockmarket. However, the guy being attacked actually got a lumbar hernia after the shooting of the movie.
http://tinyurl.com/3zqab4
(This is the Google translation which at least give you an idea of waht it’s about)
Don’t you just love how the other four guys keep sitting talking on the phones?
“i think the fact that nobody stepped in is a dead giveaway that this was staged.
Posted by: qedpro”
“It might be staged, but the fact that nobody stepped in is NOT a clue.
Posted by: Hank Fox”
I’m not sure whether this was staged or not, however the fact that no one else became involved is actually evidence that it was not faked. The sense of embarrassment and desire to vanish into the work, while still watching the altercation, that the others show is further evidence for the reality of the incident. The use of whatever “weapons” are nearby is also evidence; people like to think well of themselves, not getting their “hands dirty”; using a keyboard to hit another in an office is seen as one step away from “actually” hitting them.
I say this after observing several thousand assaults/fights in my many years of work in Psych Nursing and Corrections (and a decade of hanging around “outlaw” bikers). It is rare for someone to get involved in other persons’ fights without some powerful connection between the fighter and the witness (gang affiliation and racism being the most common connections).
Hahahaha, poor man. Must be terribly frustrating to work in an environment like that.
Did anyone else notice that they spoke Norwegian?
Maybe for you it does.
Am I the only one who doesn’t “get” it? Why’s the guy angry?
A reasonable and prudent response I think.
@ woozy (#31): Looks to me like the one guy kept throwing bits of paper or something at the guy across from him, and the target finally got fed up.
People might step in to such a fight, or they might not. (I’m guessing not) But they would certainly react. These people just sit there and show no acknowledgement that there are fisticuffs occurring. That’s not realistic at all.
And, as baloo says in post 27, it’s apparently a commercial for the Oslo stock market.
I cut ‘feathers’ into the top of a paper cup and threw it over my cubicle wall at my coworker. When she asked me what I thought I was doing, I replied, ‘Cubicle Badminton.’
All it takes is six months of building up a reputation for that kind of thing and you can pretty well get away with anything, because you’re That guy.
Norwegian Television commercial for the stockmarket in case anyone was wondering.
Full version:
http://www.weshow.com/us/p/15606/office_fight
“People might step in to such a fight, or they might not. (I’m guessing not) But they would certainly react. These people just sit there and show no acknowledgement that there are fisticuffs occurring. That’s not realistic at all.
Posted by: Sengkelat”
The initial first reaction of a witness to a violent incident is to not react, it is to freeze or run. In the same way, the victim didn’t react as the assailant came over the table, but continued to do his script on the phone.
It takes training to respond to violence, especially when directed towards another.
As for “show(ing) no acknowledgement that there are fisticuffs occurring”, it certainly appears to me that all are watching the assault; several of them shifting into better positions to see the incident.
In our society, people often think they are knowledgeable about violence because they are exposed to vast amounts of simulated violence in the media and mediated violence in the news. In fact, most people in the U.S. have limited experience of actual violence.
You think that Bill O’Reilly meltdown is good, check out this one!
I like the classics.
#38, I KILL YOU!!!
#37: running is not a reaction?
“#37: running is not a reaction?
Posted by: Donnie B.”
Yes it is, but it is an unmediated reaction, there is no thinking involved.
My choice of words should have been, “The initial first reaction of a witness to a violent incident is to not respond, it is to freeze or run.”
Reaction and response have subtly different meanings from each other.
A reaction is a specific “action” in a specific situation (ie. a chemical reaction).
A response is an “answer” to a specific situation, and answering requires cognition.
A reaction will be the same for the same situation; a response need not be the same as it is mediated by knowledge/memory.
Martial Arts training is focused on avoiding or responding to a threat rather than reacting to that threat, as a reaction is easily countered since it is predictable.
I had an interesting experience that relates to this issue. Quite a few years ago, I was witness to a road rage incident turned violent. At first I thought that the two drivers were merely talking, but on second look realised that the one had punched through the driver’s side window and was pounding the other who was still in his car. The next thing I knew, I had parked my car (even remembering to turn the hazard lights on) and stepped in to talk down the puncher. I’ve studied some kung-fu, but have never really been in a fight (or even sparred), and it was all the subtle conflict resolution stuff that was talked about during coffee after kung-fu classes that came to mind: angle the body rather than square off, have an arm and hand out ahead of you in case you need to develop a block or a punch quickly, but also as a measure of reach so that you and the assailant know that you’re no closer than talking distance and not close enough to be aggressive without having to move, etc.
The guy himself was shocked when he saw me, and you could see the light turn on in his head when he realised what he had been doing (assault, property damage, general assholity) He got back in his car and scrammed while my attention was on the other driver. Good thing too, because guy could have ripped my arms off if he’d decided he wanted to.
Anyways, long story short, no more punches were thrown, the conflict fizzled and I went home and almost had a heart attack from the adrenaline rush, yet proud to realise after all that I’m not one of those bystanders who freezes, apparently.
Did you threaten him with a paper shuttlecock?
“Your call may be monitored for quality assurance.”
Even if it were real, it would still be nothing compared to the famous Taiwanese Legislature Fistfight.
Brownian, OM
It is remarkable the difference that one calm person can make during a violent incident. I taught Management of Assaultive Behavior for 25 years in an in-patient Psychiatric setting as well as studying Judo, Aikido & Tai Chi.
I have “interfered” with people acting violently in public a number of times. Whether it is just calling the police (A fight between a man & women with a large crowd cheering them on), yelling from a distance to stop (a man a half block away beating his wife at the curb. “She’s my wife. What business is it to you?” “It’s my business because you’re beating someone in public.”), or getting physically involved (Chasing a knife wielding mugger down Nob Hill using two full shopping bags as a shield).
My favorite incident happened about 27 years ago in Santa Cruz. While walking up Pacific Ave., I saw a young man slapping a young woman under the Bell Tower. I started walking that way, when a woman near me asked, “Do you think it’s OK to call the police?” I asked her to indeed call the police as I was going to intervene. Several other bystanders heard and followed me. As soon as I challenged the young man (Stop that!) I became his focus. Some of the young woman’s friends (street-hippies) spirited her away, while the young man was given a Civics lesson. He was seething at me for daring to interfere, but those of us who confronted him were calm, quiet and obviously in control of the situation (I was impressed by the way the bystanders automatically arranged themselves in the way MAB is taught, an arc within the aggressors line of sight with enough space to move.). When we were sure the young woman was safely away, we disengaged & dispersed. He called me a few names and then ran away. I was very proud of my fellow citizens who “interfered” and backed me up. I have little doubt that if I was alone in confronting him there would have been a physical altercation.
#39
:D
I witnessed an assault once while waiting for an outdoor concert to begin. Two teens ran into amphitheatre and one of them started to punch the other – but it was hard to see what was going on and I wasn’t sure if it was being staged or not, to get a rise out of the old fogies. Then the second kid called for help. That got a couple of people out of their seats and the assaulter ran away.
Kseniya’s comment highlights the importance of training. Sometimes it can be tough to intervene without inadvertently escalating the situation (into a game of cubicle badminton, for instance, a lose-lose scenario for everyone.