Let's say the video portrayed colleagues as egomaniacs, including an office-supply thief and a Blackberry addict? And it described your office as moving from your company tagline - ''clever, fast, witty'' - all the way to ''tragic, despondent, bipolar'' - and back again?

For Wilson Cleveland, associate vice president of Cubitt Jacobs & Prosek Communications in New York City, his boss not only gave the green light for such a video, but she even appears in it. The 10-minute video is called ''CJP Behind the Magic'' and is posted for all the world to see at YouTube.com. Cleveland and his colleagues created it in response to a query from the London office: What's a typical day like in the New York office?

A growing number of employee-created videos - some sophisticated like Cleveland's, others shot in a goofy way on hand-held devices - are showing up on sites such as YouTube.com, MySpace.com and Metacafe.com.

On Metacafe you can see workers from offices around the world - rowing crew-style while seated in a line of rolling office chairs; enacting a colleague's fake fall from an office chair; disco dancing behind their office friends.

Fun, yes. But fun can be in the eye of the beholder. Video scenarios can be embarrassing to the employer or even to other employees. They can violate trade secrets. And they're even potentially illegal.

Just when employers were getting a handle on workplace blogging - whether it's OK for employees to blog about the office and, if so, under what kinds of restrictions - companies are starting to call their attorneys about this latest online happening.

Matt Halpern, a partner in the New York office of workplace law firm Jackson Lewis Llp, says he recently started getting a call about this issue every two weeks or so.

It's telling that even as technology is allowing employers to monitor and regulate employee behavior, it's also paving the way for workers to spoof, or even vilify, the boss or workplace. Some employers have begun to add yet another layer to their employee policy manual with the do's and don'ts of camera and video use in the workplace.

But it's an issue few workplaces have come to grips with. A recent online survey of 424 human resources professionals found that 65 percent did not have policies on workplace use of cell phones with multimedia capability. The survey, from the Society for Human Resource Management, found that only 7 percent expected to have such a policy in place within six months.

''It's a pretty dangerous world,'' says Nancy Flynn, executive director of the ePolicy Institute, a training and consultant company in Columbus, Ohio, which helps employers set policies regarding e-mail and Internet use.

''You don't want to lose your job over a photo,'' and posting a photo or video can trigger any number of employer policies, she says, whether it involves accessing the Internet, use of a company-owned cell phone, blogging or posting a video to a blog.

And then there also are a company's confidentiality or ethics policies to consider.

Employees should beware: Employers are becoming more sophisticated in the use of search engines to sniff out anonymous posts about the company.

On the other hand, workplace videos can have values that employers appreciate. Jennifer Prosek, managing partner in Cleveland's office, encourages the videos as a way to build team spirit and attract hip, young workers.

Employees - dare we say occasionally bored? - are ''always looking for creative outlets,'' says Shiv Singh, director of enterprise solutions in the New York City office of Avenue A/Razorfish, an interactive marketing firm.

Cleveland's employer sees the value of allowing employees some creative license. Such videos - his is clearly identified as a spoof - can function as a recruiting tool, as a way to distinguish a creative company from the competition.

According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 36 million Web users have shared some sort of creative endeavor online - videos, photos, stories or visual artwork. Much of that is provided by people younger than 30.

It is essential to label the source of any content you post to the Web - be it office spoofs or strategic videos a company might create for clients, says Cleveland of the CJP public relations company. ''You do not want to dupe today's Internet users. They'll bury you.''

Employers would be wise to recognize the value of such office video projects, he says. After all, ''employees have a lot more power than they used to.''

One arena where employee-generated videos can be used constructively is on the company's intranet, says Singh, who helps employers update the employee-only area of their sites.

Get the boss's OK before making a workplace video

Let's assume you want to do this aboveboard.

That does diminish your creative license, as well as that underground rebel rush, but keep in mind it's nice to have a regular payday. So you are wise to clear this with a boss.

First, come up with a use that the boss can buy into - say, a video from the summer outing to be posted on your intranet or company blog, sent to outlying offices or even posted to a YouTube.com-type of site as a recruiting tool.

Find some enthusiastic colleagues to help, and make everyone promise not to badger or video those who don't want to participate.

And don't let this enterprise overshadow your regular work.