Strung Out

Since last fall, we've been required to wear our company IDs, either on a lanyard or pocket-clip (my personal choice*), as part of our "enhanced security measures." Of course, this being Disney, the rules for lanyards are pretty stringent: plain black lanyards only, with no pins (unless you're combining it with a Pin Trading lanyard — revenue before style, kids), printing, or other decorations. Lanyards may, however, have a Disney Character on them — which conveniently has provided a new revenue stream for our employee-only stores. While we were each provided a plain lanyard for free, in this company, the need to be an individual takes over. For a while, it seemed everyone was sporting the Cheshire Cat, which was temporarily on sale. (Ironic how economy managed to overcome "the need to be an individual" somehow.) Now the range has widened to include the 'patriotic Mickey,' a surfboard logo for Lilo & Stitch, and any number of other Characters. As one internal web site says, "We all must wear our IDs so why not wear them in style!" Forget pins, baby, it's all about the lanyards now!

* I tried the lanyard at first, but found that the ID pouch tended to hang right at space-bar level when I was typing. Very annoying. Unfortunately, since the IDs aren't hole-punched like many security badges, the retractable-cord style are completely useless (even though they are also available for purchase, and seem like a great idea given that so many of us swipe our IDs to enter office buildings anyway) .