Mooooooo------- ve!

 

That's my cubicle up there, with the green panels surrounding it. I'm away from everybody else in the office, which works for me. The problem is the cubicle is about four and a half feet tall, which means everybody can look down into it from any spot. I've had people walk by and rap the top edge from one end to the other. We had an audit last week and one of the auditors took a "private" telephone conversation away from the small conference area (just visible to the left) and leaned up against my wall, leaned OVER it, actually, gesturing, talking. I stood up, walked in front of him and coughed loudly. He turned away, but didn't move away. I do AP/AR, it's kind of sensitive. This cubicle had no privacy whatsoever.

Friday morning the VP came over (leaning over the wall, of course) and said the company had purchased taller cubicles for me and my eventual accounting partner just behind me. Our maintenance guy needed to know when he could set it up. Translation: When could I move all my stuff OUT of my cubicle so he could dismantle it and build the new one. "Well I am off on Tuesday because I'm getting a new stove delivered...." OK, so it will be Tuesday. That means on Monday, before I leave, I had to move everything out.

My now empty cube.

 Well, I ALSO got a new printer on Friday, but the resident Geek wasn't there to install it, so he did that on Monday. Which disrupted my day more than once because there were little technical things I really needed (like being able to scan files to the network server). So my day got disrupted. But by the time I left I had moved my stuff to the other cube. (Which will be dismantled and rebuilt on Wednesday. Can you say Disruption?)

Here's most of my stuff in the extra cube.

OH! Remember I said I got a new printer? Guess where the old one ended up? Yeah, that's my desk at home. Looks kinda familiar, doesn't it. That's the company's laptop (closed) over there on the left. Which means I can work from home when needed.

This is handy, because...

Tuesday is the day the new stove arrives. So I've cleaned it out, and moved a lot of stuff on the counters so the install guys won't bump into anything.
 

I've also cleared out the stuff that usually lives under the sink because the dishwasher is getting replaced too. I expect plumbing will be done, so I am ready for that as well. (In theory...)

I will also move things out of the way on the path from the front door to the kitchen so the guys will have a clear path through the house.

It's gonna be a day.

Back in the Office

 

This was my OLD office (after I emptied it out last year). The cubicle walls were high, and we each had an overhead bin for storage.

This is an example of the new generic cubicles. Lower walls, smaller surface area, no overhead bin. I was told mine would be bigger to accommodate the printer I need.

 

When I got there the cubicle was totally empty. I had to move it all from the car to the office, unpack it all and assemble everything. I put it where I thought it would all work. It took me three hours. I set the printer on my right, because it has a fan on one side and I didn't want it to blow on me, but as I worked it was too crowded and unwieldy. I had lunch and then moved the printer to the other corner.

It's much better, and that big space in the middle is great for sorting and organizing. 

As you can see the workspace is fine. Thursday was my third day working in it, and it will be great. The lighting comes over my shoulder and I may need a small lamp but that's an easy fix. The closest person is in an office fifteen feet away.

Yesterday it was announced that 77% of the folks in the company are fully vaccinated and by the end of June that number is expected to be 90%. Effective Monday June 7 our company will be returning to pre-pandemic conditions. Masks and social distancing will no longer be required, however anyone who feels more comfortable wearing a mask may continue to do so. We were asked to be respectful of other people's wishes to continue to wear masks or social distance themselves. I can't really ask for more than that.

It was very nice to see everybody, and to hear stories. I had not realized how fatiguing it would be until mid afternoon when the CEO swung by and told me to "pace yourself. This is more stressful than you think, and we've all been through it." At 4:00 PM I was beginning to believe it. My boss came by shortly afterward and told me to leave a half hour early. By that time I was running on fumes, so I gladly complied.

THE COMMUTE HOME was everything I hated about the old commute home. Crazy traffic, stop and go, cars jockeying for position in front of me... I had forgotten the stress. My least favorite part of working at the office, is still my least favorite part - the drive home. But I know that, and I know how to manage it, so that's OK.

THE BEST PART... OMG, working AT the office, everything is so fast. Files that took 45 seconds to save when WFH now take less than a second. And if I need an answer to a question, I just get up and walk to somebody's office. 

AND... the IT guy told me to keep the laptop in case I needed to work from home. 

I worked from home for fourteen full months. At no time during this pandemic did I feel like I was being taken advantage of. The leadership at my company took steps to protect and support the workers every step of the way. I am very lucky. I am well aware that this is not common. I have worked for this company over 32 years. There's a reason for that. The last fourteen months were proof.

 

Changed It

I moved things around. The printer has a fan on one side and when it was working it would blow air on me. The room has outside walls on three sides so it's already chilly, with a fan blowing on me made it colder. So now I've rearranged the desk and we'll see how that works. Working remotely is interesting. I live alone, so it's easy. I don't have to share my living space with anybody else, but I imagine for most remote warriors who are home with family members it must be very frustrating. And although the commute is short, I never realized how much the commute was a stress reliever and an effective time to make the transition from "work time" to "my time."

I went to the grocery store the other night after work. I never thought of grocery shopping as a particularly entertaining chore, but now it's downright gloomy. The cashier never asks "Did you find everything you were looking for," because of course, we all know about those long empty shelves.

I came home, made dinner and watched some escapist entertainment on TV. Pretty sure I'm going to be doing a lot of that.