Office rituals

The design team at Morgan Lovell bemoan the effect of peer pressure on our perpetual office ‘traditions’.

When I checked my inbox last week, I couldn't help but feel disappointed. Amidst the barrage of work emails, there was no sign of the message I had eagerly anticipated from The National Lottery, congratulating me on my big win. Alas, it seems I'll be returning to work this week, unless, by some miraculous stroke of luck, our office managed to scoop the grand prize!

Speaking of our syndicate, there are regular participants in our weekly gamble who only join in to avoid being left out in the office. Most of them have no real interest in playing the lottery, well aware that their chances of winning a share of the multimillion-pound jackpot are 15,000 times slimmer than winning an Oscar.

While it may seem peculiar to contribute one's hard-earned money for such a reason, I completely understand. What if, by some twist of fate, the week you decide not to chip in or worse, forget to pay, happens to be the week our office hits the "life-changing" jackpot? As much as we'd hope for our colleagues to show sympathy in such an unfortunate scenario, it's unlikely. More probable is that most of them will go radio silent.

The lottery is just one among the many unnecessary office rituals, like baby showers and Secret Santa, that plague us. Why must we feel compelled to buy a gift for someone whom we only interact with because of our shared workplace? Let's face it: under normal circumstances, we would likely avoid such individuals and go to great lengths to avoid contributing financially to their collection of tacky mugs and novelty chocolates.