Employee of the Month: The Friend Who Made It Weird

Give your friend Employee of the Month. The category is Made It Weird, and this month's honoree is him.

Order the real object: an oak board, an engraved header, a column of small brass nameplates waiting for future months, and a slot for the honoree's photo. Use the one from the company directory — unchanged, official, and reading completely differently now. The header:

EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH: MADE IT WEIRD

Explain nothing. The people who were in the room remember; the people who weren't have been told. Hold the standard high: ordinary awkwardness doesn't qualify, an off joke doesn't qualify, the event had to alter the room — and this month it did.

Hang it where recognition plaques hang: the main hallway, by the elevator, at the height where visitors' eyes rest while they wait. They'll ask. Whoever's at reception says only that it was earned. The honoree is your friend, and the vote was unanimous, and both of those are true at once. Nominations for next month are open. Precedent suggests they won't be needed.