Office is moving

[Tradd]

I did this just three years ago when my company merged with another one. We moved into their space (we just had office) as they had office + warehouse space. We knew we'd be moving sometime in the next 6-12 months as the warehouse is overflowing (we have cargo stashed in rented space at another warehouse), but it's apparently going to happen before the end of the year. We're just moving two blocks.

We're going to get bigger cubes (current ones are 6' x 6') with walls about waist height. Current walls are about 6' high. I was the only one who really didn't mind the small cubes. My only issue is that I need to keep a lot of reference materials and files for things in progress readily at hand since I do all the Customs stuff. I didn't have space for that.

I had to chuckle to myself at this: the regional VP, who had been in our office a lot what with the previous GM getting fired, the planned move, etc., told my immediate manager that she had way too much personal stuff in her office. That wouldn't be allowed in the new building. Her office has boatloads of family pics, all over the walls, her desk, and the window sills. Plus multiples of the decorative plaques (some quite large) that say things like "Sisters are best friends." There are several others who have so much personal stuff in their cubes that I wonder how they have any working space.

No hanging things on the cube walls in the new building. This irks me because I do hang up reference materials that I need to have handy and use many times a day - such as our extension list.

But it's time to declutter again. I've been working on that already. But this move is going to be much different than the past one. As the supervising broker, I'm responsible for all our back files, which by law must be kept for five years. They're on a mezzanine of the warehouse, right off the second floor where I am. But it's open to the rest of the warehouse, and the boxes are black from soot from the propane-powered forklifts. Ugh. Good news, though. The corporate customs compliance folks are in the process of getting Customs to approve us keeping all files in electronic form, not paper form. We'd still have to keep the paper files for something like six months, but that would be so much better. We're still in the process of getting everyone to scan completed files into the system.

On the workload front: things are slowly getting better. New people have started and we're getting them trained. My hours are now mostly 8-7, rather than 8-8 or 8-9. But I'm on vacation for a week, beginning next Wednesday, and right now I'm just trying to get things cleaned up and done ahead.

[iris lilies]

awwwww, that's too bad that you can't hang up lists that you use daily in your work. I suppose that was put into place to counter all of the junk collectors' propensity to cover every surface with--well, junk. I've got lists hanging in several places, ones that I look at daily.

I'm the mean manager who dictated to my staff that they couldn't have 3 dimensional personal crap on their desk, but two dimensional items hung on cube walls was ok. That means they can pile photos and images on, it's ok. I just got tired of staff work space that were not kept organized, with clean surfaces. It culminated in notes from our custodial staff who said that they came in to clean desk surfaces but found them too cluttered. Not surprisingly, there is a correlation between getting work done and piling your desk with junque, at least in my small world.

[Tradd]

IL, I know exactly what you mean. The walls of my cube are covered with stuff, but it's all things I use constantly. Everything will have to be put in binders now. It's much easier to just look at my wall to see the phone number of someone at Customs I need to call, rather than having to pull down a binder, and look for it.

In the previous office, before the merger, the IT guys would tell the woman who is now my direct manager that they wouldn't work on her computer at all until she got some of her junque off her desk. And they meant it. She was so peeved that she had to move stuff off her desk so they could work. I always found it highly amusing.

I'm very happy the cubes will be bigger, as I will have more open workspace. Nearly all of one side of my desk is occupied by the monstrosity - the huge catalog rack with the Customs regs, tariff schedule, and textbook from the brokers exam. I still use that constantly, as do coworkers, since it's tabbed nicely and stuff is easy to find.

[Zoe Girl]

our main office moved in the last year and it is much better. Okay the old office was an unused elementary school building, toilets and water fountains were tiny, the cafeteria had been turned into meeting space with the lunch tables that fold up into the walls. Pretty bad space, our school district is not wasting money on buildings! (or my flip phone)

The new office is a real office. However there are fire codes and no one can put things stacked up on their cubicle walls. it is nice, and less junky. However my boss has the same issue with needing things on the wall. There are things that really helped in our old space that used to be on the walls. Like the current registrations for all 18 sites, then she wouldn't have to email or call every time a funder needed to know. I think she has adjusted and found a way to not call us all the time. The biggest issue is the low walls and privacy and phone calls. We have had to find ways to not interrupt people or be too loud. Sounds like that should be better for you.

[ToomuchStuff]

I would specifically ask the boss about hanging both reference materials, and more specifically, YOUR LICENSES. I thought they had to be posted and would expect things like that would be OK'd.

[Tradd]

My license is on the wall in the lobby, along with all our other operating licenses.

[Zoe Girl]

Sometimes it is building codes or fire codes, not just office protocol

[Lainey]

I'm surprised they're lowering the walls to waist height. I know that's another office trend, but with the amount of time you have to be on the phone I'd think it would be a noise and privacy issue.

With that, I heard that one of our divisions is going one better: no cubicles, only unassigned open work stations. You come in and put your purse in a locker and then take your laptop to an empty workstation. No personal items of any kind anywhere.

Bad enough to be expected to work like robots, now the drone-like office environment will match it. It hasn't hit our division yet, but I believe they'll be watching out things play out in the other div. Ugh. How about we all just work out of Starbucks all day and call it good??

[Tradd]

The previous office we were in before the merger had the low walls. So we're no stranger to them.

Unassigned work stations might work for those workloads that are all electronic, but not for mine. Too much paper, files, and reference materials needed.

[mschrisgo2]

Slightly different but very similar- we just moved into a brand new elementary school and the Fire Marshall says only 20% of the walls can have paper on them. So the bulletin boards are empty, and there's no student work or posters in the halls, looks weird and feels, well, weird!