The office is not a place that initiates fun. It’s black, grey and dull and unless you work in a place where everyone sits on beanbags holding hands in a circle and chants their company motto before their morning briefing then the reality of it is your office was not designed for fun.
The weekly stationary order is probably the only time anything in your communal working space gets updated and it can be expected that there is quite a bit of fraying and yellowing going on from computers to carpets. Perhaps only the CEO gets a swivel chair and after the effort it took to get ‘Dress-down Friday’ approved no one can be bothered petitioning for swivel chairs for all. Instead each brown desk has a foam covered itchy chair with wheels that don’t work or have fallen off and backs that can’t be adjusted or are stuck at odd angles, all in various shades of faded blue.
Lunch times are spent either hurriedly cramming in the weekly shop, checking your dating profile or trying to catch up with yesterdays work whilst balancing a salad bowl on your lap. There are attempts to bring in a bit of ‘personality’ to the office place in the form of mugs with silly slogans on the side but when people go on holiday, mugs go missing. No matter how many ‘Wash your own mug’ signs are stuck on the back of the kitchen door there’s always someone who leaves their half empty coffee mug on the side and it doesn’t get moved until the culprit comes forward. The same can be said for yoghurts, oranges, biscuits or packets of sweets that mysteriously vanish from fridges and cupboards overnight however heavily labelled they are and hidden right at the back- there is always someone who finds them. Sometimes people bring in their own post it notes that are not company standard yellow, square and super sticky. Sometimes they are pink and heart shaped and fall off peoples computer screens and onto the floor where they get stuck to peoples shoes.
On birthdays tradition is that a cake is brought in and everyone has a plastic cup of something bubbly. However, there is always one that knocks over their drink and reports go flying, soggy folders are flopped over radiators and their desk never fully recovers. From then on every piece of paper you receive from their desk is ever so slightly sticky and no one wants to borrow their stapler.
As impractical as bean bags may be they could be just the update our offices need? Perhaps if more people had swivel chairs and longer lunch breaks there would be no need for any mug or biscuit stealing and the office would be a much more harmonious environment. Just a thought for the next office meeting.
Image is licensed under CC Attribution
Kelly Devereux
The weekly stationary order is probably the only time anything in your communal working space gets updated and it can be expected that there is quite a bit of fraying and yellowing going on from computers to carpets. Perhaps only the CEO gets a swivel chair and after the effort it took to get ‘Dress-down Friday’ approved no one can be bothered petitioning for swivel chairs for all. Instead each brown desk has a foam covered itchy chair with wheels that don’t work or have fallen off and backs that can’t be adjusted or are stuck at odd angles, all in various shades of faded blue.
Lunch times are spent either hurriedly cramming in the weekly shop, checking your dating profile or trying to catch up with yesterdays work whilst balancing a salad bowl on your lap. There are attempts to bring in a bit of ‘personality’ to the office place in the form of mugs with silly slogans on the side but when people go on holiday, mugs go missing. No matter how many ‘Wash your own mug’ signs are stuck on the back of the kitchen door there’s always someone who leaves their half empty coffee mug on the side and it doesn’t get moved until the culprit comes forward. The same can be said for yoghurts, oranges, biscuits or packets of sweets that mysteriously vanish from fridges and cupboards overnight however heavily labelled they are and hidden right at the back- there is always someone who finds them. Sometimes people bring in their own post it notes that are not company standard yellow, square and super sticky. Sometimes they are pink and heart shaped and fall off peoples computer screens and onto the floor where they get stuck to peoples shoes.
On birthdays tradition is that a cake is brought in and everyone has a plastic cup of something bubbly. However, there is always one that knocks over their drink and reports go flying, soggy folders are flopped over radiators and their desk never fully recovers. From then on every piece of paper you receive from their desk is ever so slightly sticky and no one wants to borrow their stapler.
As impractical as bean bags may be they could be just the update our offices need? Perhaps if more people had swivel chairs and longer lunch breaks there would be no need for any mug or biscuit stealing and the office would be a much more harmonious environment. Just a thought for the next office meeting.
Image is licensed under CC Attribution
Kelly Devereux
About the Author:
Kelly Devereux writes her thoughts on life in the corporate world on behalf of www.cultfurniture.com
Kelly Devereux writes her thoughts on life in the corporate world on behalf of www.cultfurniture.com
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