Recent | Best Of
Engineer #1: Can I borrow these probes?
Engineer #2: Are you going to bring them back?
Engineer #1: Yeah, sure.
Engineer #2: Probes never come back. There's like a probe-hole somewhere. Like the same place socks go in the laundry.
Engineer #1: ... Did you just say 'probe-hole'?
Engineer #2: Ummm... Yes.
Rochester, New York
Engineer: So, apparently she holds out her cell phone to people on the street and says, 'This is my husband. Tell him he's an asshole!'
Toronto, Ontario
Canadia
Overheard by: thankfully unmarried
Engineer #1: I'm going to head back to where I've been working. Nobody knows where it is. I call it my happy place.
Engineer #2: Take a muffin!
Engineer #1: Nice! I just want half, though.
Engineer #2: Don't take half! Take the whole thing. [To Engineer #3] Stick the rest of that muffin in your happy place.
Engineer #3: That's disgusting.
The Loop
Chicago, Illinois
Overheard by: Nic
Office engineer #1: Why are you washing your hands in the water cooler?
Office engineer #2: Oh, I was playing with my dirty, failed parts.
Oil pump company
Claremore, Oklahoma
Overheard by: Tony
Engineer to lunchroom: So do you guys know if we're officially called 'United States of America' or is it just 'United States'?
413 Pine St
Seattle, Washington
Engineer #1: So how's it going?
Engineer #2: Crazy. Completely crazy. Why'd you ask?
Engineer #1: Because I care, dumbass.
500 Howard Street
San Francisco, California
Overheard by: really touched
Admin: Do you need help with anything?
Engineer: Nobody ever asks that here. What are you up to?
Anchorage, Alaska
Overheard by: Overworked
Engineer #1: If you flush the toilet, you lose water pressure?! So it's like, "Sorry, the dishwasher is running. We have no fire protection."
Pause.
Engineer #2: Who flushes the toilet if their house is on fire?
700 West Capitol Avenue
Little Rock, Arkansas
Engineer #1: Drew*, you're having corned beef again?
Team leader: Yeah, I got a big piece of it and cooked it all at once.
Engineer #2: Did you get it at Costco? It's real cheap there.
Team leader: Yeah, but the thing that sucks is it shrinks when you put it in the oven. You're thinking you have a big piece of meat, and then you pull it out and you're all disappointed.
Deer Park, Illinois
Overheard by: office peon/cubicle monkey
Five maintenance engineers stand staring at a window with rain pouring down on the inside of the glass.
Engineer: If we all knew about this, why didn't we fix it?
6th and Sycamore
Cincinnati, Ohio
Overheard by: Alice
Engineer #1: What the hell were you thinking when you wrote this code?
Engineer #2: Boobs.
Engineer #1: Huh?!
Engineer #2: Truthfully, it's likely I was thinking about boobs.
Columbia, Maryland
Engineer: Nasty letters always work!
315 Park Avenue South
New York, New York
Overheard by: Priscilla Perez
Engineeron phone to production guy: Let me call you back. I might have someone check the Mandarin label for correctness.
. . .
Engineer on phone to production guy: Yeah, Pei* can come by tomorrow at 8:00am to check the label. Is that OK?
Production guy: No.
Engineer: Oh, is that a problem?
Production guy: Yeah, there are a lot of much better looking Chinese girls in the building.
Engineer: Uh...You are on speaker phone.
Three-second silence.
Production guy: Well uh yeah, that should be fine.
800 Beaty Street
Davidson, North Carolina
Engineer: So, did you enjoy your Cinco de Mayo?
Secretary: Um. I was in Rhode Island for the weekend...
Engineer: Yeah, so?
Secretary: Ever been?
Engineer: Yeah, couple of times... what's your point?
Secretary: Heh. Rhode Island is like the white-bread capital, at least the part where I go is.
Engineer: Okaayyy... so there was no Cinco de Mayo celebration?
Secretary: Dude, lemme put it this way for ya: It's so damn white up there, they have white gardeners. Mexicans are like freakin' nonexistant up there. And don't even get me started on the nonexistance of black people. Hell, the last time I saw a black person while I was up there was the one we brought with us. . .and she kept singin' "Massa got me workin'" just to freak the rest of the whities out.
One Penn Plaza
New York, New York
Overheard by: *snicker*
Engineer: I have this weird beeping signal on my phone. Do I need to dial a 1 when calling this number?
Tech support guy takes the phone and hits redial.
Tech support guy: No. That is a busy signal.
5032 South Ash Avenue
Tempe, Arizona
VP: This'll be the director's Easter present to you.
Coordinator: Oh, you mean I don't get any eggs this year?
VP: No, you don't.
Coordinator: Well, can you at least hide it so I can find it?
VP: Yes, we can do that.
900 Simpson Street
St. Paul, Minnesota
Engineer: Let me guess, are you going to put on your "MBA Hat"?
Supervisor: How about I put my "Foot Hat" in your "Butt Hat"?
500 North Gulph Road
King of Prussia, Pennsylvania
Enginee: I'm gonna beat you up!
Senior Engineer: What are you going to do, beat my chin up with your nuts?
117 South Street
Hopkinton, Massachusetts
Overheard by: Fat French Kid
Receptionist: What did you think of that visiting speaker? He was kinda cute!
Engineer: What a dork!
Receptionist: So he was a dork by dork standards? Wow!
ASU Engineering Center
Tempe, Arizona
Project Engineer: If you expect me to do quality work I'm going to need a raise.
10 West Mifflin Street
Madison, Wisconsin
Engineer: Excuse me, those Splenda packets are for our department only. You're going to have to pay me for the two that you stole.
2525 West 190th Street
Torrance, California
Engineer: How much longer will you be using those prints?
Safety Manager: Five minutes.
Engineer: What if I borrow them for three minutes and then give them back to you?
Safety Manager: I'd say yes, but you won't give them back in three minutes. So, no, you can't borrow them.
Engineer: You're so much like your dad, it's not even funny.
186 Gilman Avenue
Campbell, California
Overheard by: Shannon
Director: ...so, do you have any ideas why all these clips are showing up as being not on server?
Engineer: Ah, yes, it's a procurement error. We bought shit.
201 Wood Lane
Shepherd's Bush, London
UK
Project Engineer: We have relatively clear instructions, kind of.
4170 Santa Fe Road
San Luis Obispo, California
Engineer #1: You don't understand...the program's got unresolved
symbols that won't work.
Engineer#2: Yeah, I got 2 unresolved symbols for you right here.
8000 West Sunrise Boulevard
Plantation, Florida
Engineer: It's probably a computer that likes to see abstract choices.
Translated from the Dutch.
10 Wissenstraat
9200 Dendermonde
Belgium
Overheard by: Bart Verhofstadt
Secretary: Well, we're going to Jersey for that meeting, so we could go to the Village Gourmet.
Engineer: Yeah, that was good the last time.
Surveyor: Doesn't the guy that owns that one own another one too, right down the street from the Village Gourmet?
Secretary: Yeah, but it's really expensive, everything's a la carte.
Engineer: What does a la carte mean anyway?
Secretary: Dude, you're 26 years old and you don't know what a la fucking carte means?
Surveyor: Aren't you French Canadian, too?
One Penn Plaza
New York, NY
Overheard by: Melissa Miller
Client: May I ask you a question?
Patent Agent: Uh, sure.
Client: I'd like your opinion on my [douche] invention as an engineer and as a woman.
508 Riverbend Drive
Kitchener, Ontario
Canadia
Intern: So yeah, the first twenty minutes I was just sitting next to him in the breakroom I didn't say a single word.
Engineer: Does he freak you out that much?
Intern: Well no, I just thought he didn't speak any English.
Engineer: So you finally said something?
Intern: Yeah, I tried to make some small talk by asking what cubicle he sits in. But he spent the next 5-10 minutes trying to explain.
Engineer: He's not that bad at English...
Intern: I don't know. He kept asking what direction was North. By the time I made him point to it, I wished I never said anything. Seriously, what do cardinal directions have to do with your cubicle?
41131 Vincenti Court
Novi, Michigan
Engineer: Don't kill anyone.
Tech Writer: Can I maim them?
Engineer: Yeah. If you maim them you seem like more of a team player.
1550 Buckeye Drive
Milpitas, California
Japanese engineer: So how is Detroit?
American engineer: Well, Detroit is what Chicago would look like if a nuclear bomb blew up there.
Japanese engineer: Nuclear bomb?
American engineer: Yeah, you know, like what a city would look like after you dropped a nuclear bomb on it. Kinda like that.
300 Takatsuka
Hamamatsu, Shizuoka
Japan
Manager: It's just that I don't want any of those old, white computers. The only good ones are black nowadays.
Engineer: That sounds pretty racist...
Manager: Well, I don't care.
41000 Vincenti Court
Novi, Michigan
Overheard by: Stefan Bankowski
Network engineer: Do you have a pen? I need to make a mental note.
305 North Drive
Melbourne, Florida
Engineer #1: ASCII porn?
Engineer #2: Yeah, it's sweet.
1 Federal Street
Camden, New Jersey
Program Manager: Dude! You know that one tech writer, that one chick?
Engineer: Yeah, the older one? She's a nice person.
Program Manager: Yeah, I know. Man, sometimes she gets like this massive camel-toe.
Engineer: Dude, you need whisper those kinds of things.
Program Manager: But man, you could measure it in inches! Oh shit, here she comes.
She walks by. The Program Manager follows her, turns around seconds later and gives the split finger sign.
41311 Vincenti Court
Novi, Michigan
Utilities engineer: I have gas, and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.
618 E. South St.
Orlando, Florida
Building Engineer: A freon leak won't kill you. It'll just asphyxiate you a little.
2100 Second Street, SW
Washington, DC
Project Manager: Wegman's was voted the #1 company to work for in America.
Sales VP: Really?
Project Manager: Yeah. Do you know what their slogan is? "Employees first, customers second."
Engineer: Well, we've been putting customers second for years!
Sales VP: Actually it's customers second, employees third, and we don't know what the first is.
350 Madison Avenue
New York, NY
VP Engineering: Printing has been dropped as a feature, but at least we're not sacrificing quality to meet the schedule.
2279 Vista Del Mar
San Mateo, California
Sales guy: When I was in Princeton [NJ], I worked out every day and I still gained 7 pounds.
Engineer: I gained seven pounds and I didn't work out at all.
Sales guy: That's why you're an engineer!
350 Madison Avenue
New York, NY