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Best Seat in the Office

ScottySkis

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Spend half the day working from home and the other half in the office. Have my own room...a bit on the small side (8x10 or so) but it faces north so no glaring sun. Up on the 4th floor but it looks over a parking lot. No official open door policy but people only close their doors when they are in a telecon or need the privacy.

We're moving in a few months to a smaller building, offices on the first floor. Main thing I'll miss is being within walking distance to a Panera Bread.

Panera Bread is very good
 

SkiFanE

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Oct 14, 2010
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Any seat where you can see your boss before she can see you.

My bldg is a huge L. My boss and bosses boss are at tip of L, work buddy and I are at tip of bottom of L (big space shortage when we both were hired). We are so grateful!!! Prob a quarter mile walk. They never show up unannounced.
 

Geoff

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South Dartmouth, Ma
Are you guys in offices or cube farms?

For me, it's not negotiable. My last time in a cube was in the 1980's. I think they make a clear statement about what an employer thinks of their employees. I've turned down several job offers over it.
 

gmcunni

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CO Front Range
For me, it's not negotiable. My last time in a cube was in the 1980's. I think they make a clear statement about what an employer thinks of their employees. I've turned down several job offers over it.

several of my company's offices have been converted to "open plans" where even managers and directors are pushed out of offices to the shared space. these aren't even cubes but rather long tables with 3/4 workstations per. offices were converted to conference/meeting rooms.
 

wa-loaf

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several of my company's offices have been converted to "open plans" where even managers and directors are pushed out of offices to the shared space. these aren't even cubes but rather long tables with 3/4 workstations per. offices were converted to conference/meeting rooms.

My office is close to this. Except we do all get our own desks and low cube walls.
 

deadheadskier

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several of my company's offices have been converted to "open plans" where even managers and directors are pushed out of offices to the shared space. these aren't even cubes but rather long tables with 3/4 workstations per. offices were converted to conference/meeting rooms.

My office is close to this. Except we do all get our own desks and low cube walls.

How the heck does anyone get any work done? I'd be far too distracted. I've had one desk job (Resort Sales and Marketing) in my entire life and had a cube in a small office with three other reps. I had the hardest time concentrating while on the phone with clients. I couldn't stand it and realized very quickly that a desk job wasn't for me.
 

wa-loaf

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How the heck does anyone get any work done? I'd be far too distracted. I've had one desk job (Resort Sales and Marketing) in my entire life and had a cube in a small office with three other reps. I had the hardest time concentrating while on the phone with clients. I couldn't stand it and realized very quickly that a desk job wasn't for me.

There's a lot of collaboration in our office so the set-up is great for just being able to chat with the person next to you about something. There are conference rooms that hold anywhere from 4 to 20+ people so if you need privacy it's easy to get. At this point I would feel weird and cut-off being in an office by myself.
 

hammer

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flatlands of Mass.
There's a lot of collaboration in our office so the set-up is great for just being able to chat with the person next to you about something. There are conference rooms that hold anywhere from 4 to 20+ people so if you need privacy it's easy to get. At this point I would feel weird and cut-off being in an office by myself.
It's almost the opposite where I work...most people are coding, writing documents, or testing, so while we do have meetings there aren't that many. I've had my own office for the past 16+ years (2 jobs) and it's what I'm used to.

There are times when I wish I could just work from home full-time (we have a few people from live out of state who do that) but I do need to be around the office at least part of the day.
 

bvibert

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There's a lot of collaboration in our office so the set-up is great for just being able to chat with the person next to you about something. There are conference rooms that hold anywhere from 4 to 20+ people so if you need privacy it's easy to get. At this point I would feel weird and cut-off being in an office by myself.

I mostly only need to collaborate occasionally with one other person, who sits in the only other cube in the room, right across from me. The room we're in is shared with another department that uses the space infrequently, mostly for storage. Normally they're in and out every once and while to move things around to send to trade shows. However, there's currently 3 of them in here trying to get some equipment setup for whatever, and it's making me crazy. I'm so glad I don't work in an open environment, I'd never get anything done. I'm ready to start throwing stuff at them...

You must actually like the people you work with, wa-loaf. :lol:
 

billski

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Floor space planners should do a little thinking about the occupants before they design "Office Beautiful". Absolutely groups that work together should be close by. At my company however, we have organizations that have been nuked, compiled, compressed, outsourced and otherwise fractured. I work in an office where a great many of us are "orphans". There is nobody in my building I work with directly or indirectly. The last three bosses I've had I've never met.

I'm not bothered by the chatter, as long as its work related, with a bit of socializing. All-day socializing does get to me, especially as it reveals where the high-value jobs are. Then there are the people who insist on working with each other sitting down, so they are shouting across these mini-walls. This is all fine for the ADD types, but when you must concentrate for long periods on lengthy, complicated tasks, it becomes burdensome.

I just moved from a social-chat group to an all-work group. They both chatter all day, on the phone or whatever. However this new group doesn't bother me at all.

Yeah, it's a new day. But people should still try to be a bit considerate of each other.
 

Geoff

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I mostly only need to collaborate occasionally with one other person, who sits in the only other cube in the room, right across from me. The room we're in is shared with another department that uses the space infrequently, mostly for storage. Normally they're in and out every once and while to move things around to send to trade shows. However, there's currently 3 of them in here trying to get some equipment setup for whatever, and it's making me crazy. I'm so glad I don't work in an open environment, I'd never get anything done. I'm ready to start throwing stuff at them...

You must actually like the people you work with, wa-loaf. :lol:

Is it in the basement and did you lose your red stapler?

officespace.jpg
 

SkiFanE

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Just remembered the worst location I've worked in. Wasn't THE oldest hospital bldg in the country (penn hospital, old marble floors, old art, bathroom from 40's). It was a Boston hospital, the old nursing dorm, from 1800s. Dorm rooms were offices, I shared one. Good thing was indiv a/c units and windows that could open. But once a pigeon was roosting on an a/c unit outside my neighbor's office. Don't know why the unit didn't have those spiky things to stop pigeons and I think the computer geeks in there always kept blinds closed. One day the geek turned on the a/c and all these little white things came flying out of the vents. Hmmmmm. Curious. Wtf? Told them to evac and shut the door (don't let them invade my office). Turns out they were pigeon lice. Great. For a week I was freaking at every piece of dust or hair I felt lol.

Now I'm in a beautiful office with cube farm. But really miss actually working in the hospital, feel to removed from the purpose of my job, even though I enjoy the perks of auto soap dispensers etc lol
 

Warp Daddy

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Just remembered the worst location I've worked in. Wasn't THE oldest hospital bldg in the country (penn hospital, old marble floors, old art, bathroom from 40's). It was a Boston hospital, the old nursing dorm, from 1800s. Dorm rooms were offices, I shared one. Good thing was indiv a/c units and windows that could open. But once a pigeon was roosting on an a/c unit outside my neighbor's office. Don't know why the unit didn't have those spiky things to stop pigeons and I think the computer geeks in there always kept blinds closed. One day the geek turned on the a/c and all these little white things came flying out of the vents. Hmmmmm. Curious. Wtf? Told them to evac and shut the door (don't let them invade my office). Turns out they were pigeon lice. Great. For a week I was freaking at every piece of dust or hair I felt lol.

Now I'm in a beautiful office with cube farm. But really miss actually working in the hospital, feel to removed from the purpose of my job, even though I enjoy the perks of auto soap dispensers etc lol


LMAO -- when i first started at the college my first office was a converted PIG PEN, Yep you read it right !!!

The college had started as a School of Agriculture but matured in to a full bore Technical College so many of the original farm bldgs were converted . They put the Economics faculty in a damn converted Pig Barn -------------H'mmm that should have been my first clue :D:D:D
 

billski

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LMAO -- when i first started at the college my first office was a converted PIG PEN, Yep you read it right !!!

The college had started as a School of Agriculture but matured in to a full bore Technical College so many of the original farm bldgs were converted . They put the Economics faculty in a damn converted Pig Barn -------------H'mmm that should have been my first clue :D:D:D

Potsdam???
 

wa-loaf

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LMAO -- when i first started at the college my first office was a converted PIG PEN, Yep you read it right !!!

The college had started as a School of Agriculture but matured in to a full bore Technical College so many of the original farm bldgs were converted . They put the Economics faculty in a damn converted Pig Barn -------------H'mmm that should have been my first clue :D:D:D

Sounds like Unity College in Maine that started in converted chicken barns.
 
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