The New Digs

Well today my division moved to our new work space. The Lord giveth; the Lord taketh away. On the plus side, we are all now in one place as a department. On the down side, I've lost my office and am now in a cubicle with my back to the world.

It's actually not that bad in that my boss got us cubicles that are red on the outside with black trim. The desk tops are bamboo, so there's this awesome Asian vibe to the whole thing. But obviously, there will be no more internet micro-breaking for me. I'm right by the kitchen, and I don't want folks to get the wrong impression.

This is exactly what happened to me at my last job. The irony was, it was imperative I be on the internet. I minuted meetings that covered economic commentary. So call me crazy, but I thought I was doing the right thing reviewing some key articles in the business sections of various papers so I would have some semblance of what had ocurred in the economy by the time it came to minute the meeting. I did this first thing in the morning for about 15 minutes and sometimes on my lunch.

Of course being right by the kitchen, it seemed to everyone that I was on the internet all the time. That's because whenever they came by for morning coffee or to nuke their lunch in the microwave, well, I was. Anyway, I suppose I shouldn't hold any grudge. Since I've left, a tape recorder now gets taken into the meetings on a regular basis so that the minutes can be completed. No harm to the present secretary who needs this. My point is that I know I did a good job, even if no one else recognized it at the time.

But at any rate, I've no desire to court such a perception again so I'll just need to be careful. Sometimes taking five minutes to check the headlines gets you in trouble. People think what they think.

On the upswing, this is probably a good push for me. Being so visible is just going to force me to confront what I don't know and deal with it in earnest. I know I'm smart and I know process like the back of my hand. But we've just posted for a writer position and part of me feels like once again, I've missed the gig I really wanted. What am I going to say? Hey, I know you hired me to whip you into shape process wise, but this is what I really want to do. That wouldn't be fair, and I don't want to let them down.

For the first time in well over half a decade, I feel like I have once again obtained a sane employment situation. I don't work with jerks but a great boss, or a jerk for a boss and great co-workers, or in a generally great division run by a tyranical, narcissistic maniac.

Here's another compelling issue. I got an email from our sales division asking me to sit in on a brainstorming session. I suspect I'm getting sussed out for a role there. Oy! The machinations!

I'm just trying to trust in the notion that I'm where I need to be right now, but it was such a strange day. I've been through so much change in so little time. Our office is great, but sparse. We need stuff on the wall, all our staff in there, plants fer chrissakes. The place needs some life injected into it.

I wonder where we'll be a year from now?