I would not have made a good pioneer. Purple Systems has grown so much since we moved into our building at the end of 2003 that we just leased most of another building across the street from the first one. When the floor plans came out showing who was going to be where, one of the other members of the sub-team I’m on asked me why I thought we were being exiled to the new building. I didn’t see it as a negative–I figured we were chosen to move because we could be trusted to work even though the boss wasn’t just down the hall, able to stop by anytime to check up on us. (Though the boss did stop by this afternoon to check on us, so that weakens that theory.)
But now that I’m in the new building for my first full day here, it does feel a little negative. It started with the move, which we had to do ourselves. Granted, we didn’t have to bring over our desks, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but we did have to take our desk chairs and PCs, and we had to provide our own boxes. I brought some big Rubbermaid totes and my folding luggage cart, which made it easier, but it still took me more than two hours to move all my stuff, and I’ve got an impressive bruise on my thigh to show for it, too. It would have taken longer if one of the admins hadn’t taken pity on me and assigned an IT guy to help me with my PC. When we moved before, the company provided crates and all we had to do was pack and label them, then unpack after the movers brought them to the new space. That was much nicer.
Everyone else seems to think I got the best office in the new building, since it’s on a corner and has a view of trees and sky. I’m not entirely convinced. Yes, it has been nice to be able to see outside–I’ve been missing that ever since the guy who moved into the office across from me in the old building started keeping the blinds closed and the curtain across his doorwall window shut so I couldn’t even get a glimpse through my doorwall window anymore. But in the afternoon here the sun glares right in–even with the blinds closed because they are perforated (why? I have no idea)–so it’s in my eyes and that makes it hard to see my monitor and therefore work. This office is also smaller than my old one (and smaller than the one in the other corner of this building) and the furniture has less drawer and cupboard space and sometimes size does matter. On the plus side, there is no window in the doorwall, so I’ll be able to close the door and actually have some privacy, which I realize makes me very fortunate.
Today has been a series of realizations about what we don’t have here in the colony that we did on the mother ship–hot water for tea, ice for soda, a garbage can in the kitchen. There’s a printer outside my office, which I thought was very nice since in the other building I had to traipse through half the building to get my printouts, but try as I might, I haven’t been able to get anything to print there, so I have to traipse just as far as ever. I realize these things will get resolved eventually–I went out at lunch and bought ice cube trays and a bin and some other kitchen supplies, so that’s progress already–but right now I’m a bit frustrated. I know, petty.
I went back and read the entry I wrote when we moved into the other building, and I wasn’t happy then, either. But I got over it. I mitigated the depressing green walls with a pretty lamp and a decorative tile on the wall (and a coordinating Kleenex box, which made me happier than is perhaps healthy–it went just perfectly with the lamp and I was delighted every time I saw it, so delighted I took apart the box and refilled it rather than give it up when the tissues ran out–though later I found the same design again and so now have two unopened boxes which do not go with my new office). Soon I’ll come up with a plan to soften the glaring white of these walls, and my boss has already approved new blinds to solve the glare problem, and tomorrow the ice in the new trays I bought will be ready, and I’ll settle in and this new place will start to feel comfortable. I did like the pinkish walls in the office I had in the old old building–I wonder if anyone would notice if I pinked these up a bit. Probably.
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