Pilot fish is a software developer who hates open offices. And who can blame him? Concentration is pretty much impossible when every little noise from six cubicles down gets amplified on the way to your ears. Nonetheless, he’s working in an open office, coping as best as he can, until an insurmountable obstacle to concentration shows up: A new developer nearby compulsively whistles show tunes. Loudly. All day long.

Fish and his colleagues ask him to please stop. He does not. Then the CIO, who can hear the whistling from his office, threatens the whistler with dismissal if he doesn't stop.

And that threat works — for about a week. Then, one morning, the whistler launches into a song whose title drips with irony. It’s “If I Only Had a Brain” from The Wizard of Oz.

It was much quieter in the cubicles a short time later.

Don’t whistle in the darkness; send your true tales of IT life to Sharky at sharky@computerworld.com. You can also subscribe to the Daily Shark Newsletter.