Anyone Been in an Office?

15 years

Introduced to any new desk

Screen full of post-its around the bezel
pics of family, pets & kids, of the person who's left
Dirty mugs. Ruff kitchen
Mouse & keyboard filthy, old, some wireless
drawers full of junk - teeeaaa...
tins of old pens
shoddy mouse pads with coffee spills
cables lying around
Phones with extensions listed, which have been altered with tipp-ex...
All partitions adorned with drawpinned pieces of paper
One 4:3 screen
About every time, I insist on installing my own second and more monitors
for more space for windows
good excuse for...
NO!! I have never, ever moaned about anything!! I loved every job!!! Just thinking of that now, watching home property on TV with people wanting to clear up a place for rent, needing new carpets, painting, buried under junk, dirty beds...


Been involved in three office relocations: different buildings down the same road in London, from one town to another, and a change of floor from top to bottom of a building, all very much complete mint fresh new carpet, pristine desks all around erfect:
A good indication of the state of anyone's mind - care of a level of cleanliness
top floor is always best

Humans

Interview room always pristine. Only shown your desk once you begin

So.... You work in an office? Perhaps when you arrive early or possibly when you stay late... You might spot a mousy little woman, emptying bins,polishing desks, no doubt getting on everybodys nerves when she starts hoovering. She doesnt speak unless someone speaks to her first. keeps her eyes down and gets on with her job. No one knows her name, she is known simply as 'the cleaner'. She doesnt get asked along on any company meals out or 'dos'... Not that she would go if she was! Of course being the perfectionist I am, 'my' offices are spotless, as is the kitchen and the toilets. Does anyone even notice or appreciate this? Probably not...
Oh well... just thought I would add something to your office topic from a different perspective.

Yep.

Always a cleaner.
I'm the one who stays later, because I get a lot of relief when everyone is in such a rush to get home to meet their partner and look after the kids and make food.

I thrive on private time. Just a few minutes, after 1800 and I see the cleaners.
I can get on with things more easily when the place is empty.

My main topic is, that after being in so many companies, it's a clear signal for each business how their employees behave. I assume nobody cares about others' desk space, and nor would any manager. But there are so many socialite people who smoke, eat, drink beer at their desk and not care if they left chewing gum or snot all over their furniture.

If no cleaners were employed to do this, it would make it useful to leave the onus on employees to clean up after themselves. People who scream & screech all day, throwing things at each other, laughing, laughing, laughing, giggling

It's nice to be shown a new, untouched fresh desk, rather than having to clear up someone's spills, residues and mugs full of half-drunk coffee and fag ends, and endless swathes of piles of paper.

The signal reflects an entire company, an individual, or how each was treated by the other.

I get absorbed by the tasks I have to perform.

I don't giggle with others. I really did, a lot, for years, in junior school. I can't accept that an office is a junior school. They all were. Monkey business

Office? What is that? How do you eat it?

you have an interesting way of writing.

quite visual. i can the mess clearly as if i were standing right in front of it.

glad to hear you manage to get relief from it all, though.

mikebird said:

I'm the one who stays later, because I get a lot of relief when everyone is in such a rush to get home to meet their partner and look after the kids and make food.

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I've often thought that someday I'll become that stereotypical person at the office who gets taken advantage of and stuck finishing everyone else's work because she doesn't have to take any time off due to family commitments.mg:

mikebird said:

But there are so many socialite people who smoke, eat, drink beer at their desk and not care if they left chewing gum or snot all over their furniture.

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What?! Where I live, it's illegal to smoke indoors in any public building. Even if it weren't, I can't imagine why businesses think that's okay for their staff to smoke at their desks. As for drinking on the job, that's pretty pathetic.h:

awkwardamanda said:

What?! Where I live, it's illegal to smoke indoors in any public building. Even if it weren't, I can't imagine why businesses think that's okay for their staff to smoke at their desks. As for drinking on the job, that's pretty pathetic.h:

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Its the same where i live too