I walked past an employee’s computer yesterday and noticed something was different.
Her desktop background.
It used to be the company logo.
Now?
A beach.
Palm trees, blue water, pure escapism.
I asked why she changed it.
She said, “I like looking at it.”
Exactly.
Looking at somewhere that isn’t here.
I immediately scheduled a Retention Risk Assessment.
“How often do you think about beaches?”
She laughed.
Avoidance.
“Exactly how many Tommy Bahama beach chairs do you own?”
She stopped laughing.
Now we’re getting somewhere.
By 2 p.m., IT locked all desktop backgrounds.
Every employee now gets the same approved image:
A photo of the office.
Taken from inside the office.
So when you look away from the office...
you see the office.
Consistency.
Then someone set their phone wallpaper to a mountain.
We expanded jurisdiction.
Personal wallpapers must now support organizational priorities.
Landscapes are suspicious.
Sunsets suggest endings.
Open roads imply departure.
Birds represent freedom.
Absolutely not.
The only approved personal wallpaper is a QR code linking to the employee handbook.
Yesterday, an intern tried using a photo of his family.
Emotional conflict of interest.
We replaced them with a photo of the leadership team.