Are you comfortable wearing a lanyard?

Are you wondering what a lanyard is? If the answer is no, please wait till I explain it to the others. You are either wearing one at work or seen your colleagues wearing this. If you are not employed, then go out to where most professionals meet for lunch and you will see many wearing lanyards. It is that thing worn around the neck with an ID badge hanging from it. Yeah right! There is a name for that thing.

 For the major part of my career, I avoided using it. I carried the ID badge in my pocket refusing to display it to anyone, taking it out only when I have to present it to the card reader. The reason was simple. I didn't want anyone to know my name. If I wanted them to know my name, I will tell them. Anyways, all resistance to wearing and display an ID badge vanished as soon as I moved back to India. Now, I do wear a lanyard around my neck.

Despite having your ID badge tied to a lanyard, many people do not wear it around the neck. They tend to carry it in their hands. They also tend to place it somewhere and conveniently forget to take it back. I have one friend who kept it on the dining tray and forgot to take it back while keeping the tray on the conveyor belt that takes the tray directly to the kitchen. With most of the ID badges getting smarter every day, it is better to hang it around the neck.

The most interesting story is that of my young friend (the original young friend for lack of better word. This is the same guy whom I started referring to as young friend for the first time for the sake of anonymity). He never wore it around his neck. When asked why, he had an interesting story to share. He was walking with a friend through the office campus. His friend is a non-stop chatterbox. He was getting annoyed at her talking all the time. As there were walking near the water fountain cut deep into the earth (Surprised? Ohhh! You haven't the Indian IT campus!), he pushed her into the water to make her stop talking. Guess what she caught in order to maintain her balance. Yes, the lanyard around his neck. The net result, both of them fell into the water!



Comments

  1. Did that really happen? That he pushed her, etc, etc, ... :)

    Thank God, I finally know what the thing around the neck is called. I was looking for the straps (lanyards) for one production recently, and went crazy trying to explain what I wanted.

    Though I have a feeling, saying "I want lanyards" is not going to help either.

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  2. @Banno - Thanks for dropping by. On the bright side, you learnt something new. And you are right, saying lanyards is not going to help you either. It is better make a mock model to show them. :)

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  3. hehe LOL :)
    lovely ending...
    Here in Chennai, i hate traffic and next thing is lanyard...
    DeePaK

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  4. hahah nona bhai..the last line made me lol...and my colleague was looking at me..whats wrong with this guy..:)

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    1. :) I don't know why! Your comment went into spam. I noticed it now. Anyways, thank you. :)

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  5. Lanyard- that was a learning. Your friend's experience is interesting. Humorous!

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  6. @Hariharan - Thanks. I haven't seen you here for a long time. I have seen you have written a new post. I will drop in there soon.

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  7. I used to call it badge holder, never knew this word. It can be cumbersome and odd to have it hang round the neck, most firms now give an option to tag it along with belt for men, try that

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  8. @Pesto Sauce - Yes, you can put it on your belt. At the same time, some organization have this rule for displaying the ID badge in a way that anyone can read it from a few feet away. Some of the organizations only give out lanyard. You still can the belt thingy(I do not know the name of that. ;) ) on your own. On the flip side, you get stopped by the security every now and then!

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  9. Lanyard - didn't know it was called that. I think the lanyard adds to the professional attire - or is accepted as that these days. And yes, I do not want strangers to know my name ( why should they?

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    1. It is mandatory at most work places to wear one.

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