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facepalmsunday

In Finland, facepalmsunday refers to the historic parliamentary election day of Palm Sunday 17. April 2011. On facepalmsunday the nationalist populist party True Finns gained 39 seats in the 200-seat parliament, compared to the 5 seats they had gained in the previous elections four years ago. This made True Finns the third largest party, as opposed to the 8th place they held before. It was a huge shock for everyone who did not vote for True Finns.

The term facepalmsunday was probably first used in this meaning in this Twitter message during the vote counting: https://twitter.com/#!/yousifabdullah/status/59702195561570305 The origin as a Twitter hashtag contributes to the fact that the word is written as a compound word, as opposed to two words "facepalm Sunday", because hashtags cannot contain spaces. Also, Palm Sunday is properly written as a compound word "palmusunnuntai" in Finnish.

I almost choked on my drink when the preliminary votes were published on facepalmsunday.

by ZeroOne^ April 19, 2011

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In a real organization

"In a real organization..." is the start of a sentence that is used to sarcastically mock an organization or similar entity that is being a cheapskate or is doing something unprofessionally. The format of the sentence is usually "In a real organization they do/have something" which implies that the organization the speaker is mocking does not do/have that something even though it should. The context should also make it clear what is missing from the current organization but it can also be explained in the sentence.

If the organization is hierarchical, the ones at the bottom of the hierarchy may use this sentence for complaining. In those cases the "In a real organization..." remarks are not meant to be heard by the ones higher up in the hierarchy as they would most likely consider them insulting.

When used by coworkers as described above, this phrase can also boost the team spirit as it indicates that you have a common problem and suffer from it together. In these cases the form "If this was a real organization, we'd do/have something" is also common.

The word "organization" can also be replaced with anything that describes the environment more accurately: software company, library, warehouse, etc.

Example 1: "In a real army we would've received a full magazine of blanks for this exercise, instead of just five rounds."

Example 2: "If this was a real IT company we would have a dedicated continuous integration server."

Example 3: "In a real library you'd have a dedicated shelf of sci-fi novels."

Example 4: "In a real organization you would've had a raise by now."

by ZeroOne^ July 22, 2010