Happy Red Monkey New Year! Although officially it only kicks-in on February 4th (according to the Chinese Horoscope calendar), there’s no stopping of business as usual in the Western part of the world: we’re back to work!

Speaking of monkeys, have you noticed how popular the image of the cheeky primate is in the business world? Take, for example, MailChimp, Picmonkey, CreativeApe or SurveyMonkey. Ironically, the expression “monkey business” refers to mischievous behavior or a silly, time-wasting activity.

To help you (and us) avoid monkeying around in 2016, we have put together a half-serious list of dos and don’ts’ in the office:

No Monkey Business in 2016!

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Activity	Monkey Business	Serious Business
Leaving the printer jammed for the next person
Diligently answering emails after Christmas holidays
Diligently answering promotional emails
Microwaving fish for lunch in the office
Marking deadlines in bright colours on your agenda
Posting on a colleague’s Facebook wall when they’re away from the laptop
Following up on sales leads while they’re hot
Having an updated to-do list
Waiting for someone else to answer first in group emails
Reacting to the company’s social media alerts
Researching extensively on the negative effects of procrastination while at work
Googling if the person you’re writing an email to is a Ms or a Mr

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The Chinese horoscope promises the Red Monkey year to be full of changes. We take it as an opportunity to change for the best! However, we can’t promise that there won’t be any monkeying around in our office AT ALL 😉 So stay tuned and we wish everyone a very productive year!

Veronika Norvaisaite,
ELM team

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