For the past four months, I've been bringing donuts into my office every Friday. It's a tradition I started to get people to like me.
It didn't really work at first. I would just come in in the morning, walk into the break room and set the boxes out on the counter while I took a seat and waited the praise to come in. Instead, people would just nod politely, say "Thanks for the donuts", very brief, dispassionate and obligatory greetings like that. Then they would take their donuts and walk back to their cubicles eating, rather than stay for a conversation. And I'd have to get to work to, rather than stay in the break room all morning. It was disappointing.
So I upped the ante. Six weeks ago, I got this authentic, old-fashioned Dunkin' Donuts hat, and come Friday morning, I burst into the office, boxes in hand, singing:
"IT'S TIME TO MAKE THE DONUTS! TIME TO MAKE THE DONUTS!"
As I dance into the break room with our treats.
(It's a reference to this advertisement campaign retired before I was born. I discovered it in my online research on funner ways to present donuts)
This really works. It got people riled up. They grin, they clap, even sing along. And they line up for the donuts and give me high fives.
Now they expect it. It's become a weekly ritual everyone looks forward to. They do things like tousle my hair on Thursday afternoon, telling me, "Looks like it's about to be TIME TO MAKE THE DONUTS!"
My secret is: I'm sick of it. I'm tired of doing this ridiculous song and dance, and to be honest, I'm kind of tired of buying donuts for the entire office every week. But they look forward to it now. How can I stop?
