Don’t shoot the messenger
Today I was wishing I had one of these.

In a world where the office is unattainable for everyone mid-level to peon on the totem pole, the cube farm has become a frustrating environment. Today’s sign of achievement in the workplace is no longer the corner office with a window, it’s simply a closet-sized office with a door. For someone whose company is already overflowing the building and has little opportunity for career growth, that holy grail is nowhere in sight.

While I’m no Emily Post, I’m the first to tell you that the modern age has brought about many evils which I only half-jokingly refer to as the Degradation of the Workplace. Cube farms have removed all resemblances of privacy or concentration, allowing me to hear my manager’s HR-related decisions and have him hear me schedule my appointments with my OB/GYN. The lack of privacy doesn’t even venture into the realm of my pet peeves, where I constantly have rude coworkers standing at my cube waiting for me to get off the phone, trying to talk to me while I’m on the phone or expecting me to drop everything simply because they stand at the entrance to the seven-by-seven space that is mine. For a writer whose concentration is easily broken on some days, this is extremely frustrating, and could all be solved by a simple door.

On that note, I can’t begin to explain the numerous rude, inconsiderate, snippy and condescending things that I’ve witnessed over email in my years in the workplace; things those individuals never would have said in person and if they were, quite reasonably should have been followed with a “You wanna take this outside?” from the recipient.

I realize the paradox. It seems that I work in a field where I communicate, but wish the opposite from my fellow peers. Perhaps it’s not the vehicle I wish eliminated, just the message.

posted by paula 7:44 PM