WENDELL HUSSEY | Cadet | Contact
A fully grown human male has made a concerted plea to his work colleagues today, to overlook one of his vices.
The 36-year-old Chief of Staff at Betoota Municipal Council was forced to request that the people around him in the workplace respect him as fully functioning member of society despite the fact that he plays games on his mobile phone at his desk.
The happily married Ben Thienpont has risen up the ranks in the office at the council over the last few years because of his lack of interpersonal skills and social awareness, ensuring that he is able to order people around and commit himself to the job without any care for his relationships with those around him.
And, because of those personality traits, Thienpont likes to find solace in the mobile game popular amongst insular teenagers and fedora wearing IT graduates, called Clash Of Clans.
Thienpont told one of our reporters that he doesn’t like the game to get in the way of his daily roles and tasks, but simply likes to enjoy it as a little break when he gets some downtime.
“That’s the beauty of the game. You don’t need to set aside chunks of time to play it. You just pop in here and there to check your village is on track and makes sure your army is adequately resourced,” he said.
“It makes me feel like a real strategist. But it’s just a shame that people have noticed me playing the game and now don’t take me seriously.”
Some of the other staff at the council chambers have told The Advocate that Thienpont is the butt of jokes around the open plan office, and his requests to be taken seriously have fallen on deaf ears.
Rachel Beechworth, a fellow employee explained that Thienpont’s habit has caused irreparable damage to his social standing within the office.
“Yeah, he was never really looked upon as an everyman, but the fact that he is constantly seen diving into this mythical world while he chomps on his ham and cheese sandwiches has meant that the rest of us won’t be taking him very seriously for quite some time.”
