I came to my office this morning and found this on my desk (edit: since removed). Wondering how I should handle it, without escalating things further. This is a professional uni environment, and I’m nice to all my co-workers, so I find the note rude for such a minor transgression. Plus I can’t read the bugger’s signature, so I can’t even be sure who wrote it. I have a suspicion, but I’m not sure. Any suggestions? Or anyone have any similar difficulties with their co-workers?
The proper passive-aggressive response is to just ignore it. Just out of curiosity, what countries do your co-workers come from? My guess is that the writer isn’t from the U.S.
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We all know the only reasonable way to handle this: leave the pc on.
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Does it seem British? Because the guy I suspect the most is a Brit. But it’s strange, because I’ve never had a prob with him before.
Make sure you switch all the lights on everytime you leave the office from now on.
It’s not an entirely unreasonable request to keep stuff switched off over a holiday break, especially if the person concerned has some responsibility for power consumption, but he could have been a bit more polite about it (and spoken to you in person). Reading between the lines, some anal-retentive boss had phoned him over the holidays and told him to come in specifically to make sure everything’s powered down. I assume you do at least put your PC in standby when you leave?
‘damned thing’ could be either a British person, or Mark Twain.
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Yes, by the writing style.
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Not the most appropriate way to communicate. But in the interest of not escalating things, just turn off the computer when you leave. It’s not like you gain anything from letting it consume power for 5 days.
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I wonder if said co-worker is on Forumosa. If so…well, game on!
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I simultaneously hope he is, and isn’t at the same time. It’d be a shit show, at least.
he’d gain the joy of witnessing the other person’s ultimate meltdown and descent to the underground of butthurt. That’s a huge gain in my book.
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In the interests of providing our community with more quality reality-based entertainment, I hope the answer is yes. 
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This is why passive-aggressive is always the way to go in small-time office disputes. The first one to have a public meltdown is the loser.
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Americans say “damned thing” or “damn thing” all the time. @finley , How is that exclusively British?
Is it because of the ed? I suppose different people everywhere say it different ways. I would think a truly British person would say “bloody” instead. But maybe that is just Hollywood.
Not posting the note here, where the guy/gal might see it…?
Nutcase.
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Yeah, thinking about it, British people are probably more likely to say ‘fucking thing’. Americans are a bit better at toning down their expletives when necessary and are more likely to go with ‘damn’.
That’s possibly another point in favour of being an American. Most British people under 25 can’t spell or construct a grammatical sentence, because for some years now it’s been considered damaging to a child’s tender ego to correct his writing at school.
That writing doesn’t look like American writing to me.
Not red-blooded enough, eh? Perhaps written with a slightly limp wrist? 
Also, he wrote the month first, then the day. So not British. Unless he’s adopted the local convention. Taiwanese person with a good mastery of ‘a’ and ‘the’?