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I'm used to Thursdays being one of the quieter days at the office, because it's when many in Merchandising go on store tours—particularly in "Center Store," which is the arena I work in. I don't do store tours, though, so I'm in the office and no one else in Center Store is.
Those days of quiet Thursdays are over, though. This morning it seemed basically everyone in Deli is in-office, and they've all basically taken all the desks surrounding me. This was probably the case at the old office too, it's just that previously they were all on the other side of a set of conference rooms and phone rooms, effectively isolating me from them. No more.
There was some discussion yesterday about needing some gentle reminders of people sticking to the allotted desks for their own departments before they start sitting in those for a different department. There is of course the understanding that there will be ebb and flow, and if one department has overflow for their alotted desks they can start taking up empty desks for a department that is light o the same day. We have 33 people in the Merchandising department, and 18 desks. This will likely change over time, but so far, I have yet to see all 18 Merchandising desks get occupied at any given time.
We had our Office Relocation Committee meeting yesterday—we're continuing these at least through September, though they have been shortened from one hour to a half-hour, thank God; it's already scheduled during my usual lunch break—and this got a fair amount of discussion. Grant, our Office Administrator, got direction from the Leadership Team (LT), which met yesterday, to come up with some sort of signage.
He came up with an idea I think is simulateously effective and clear, and also subtle: he came up with color coded signs, roughly the size of a store shelf tag, to affix to the upper-right-hand corner of the slight wall affixed to the back of each desk. This raises and lowers with the sit-stand desks when adjusted. He had already made a color coded map of the desks, which has actually been quite clearly visible at the front desk since our first day in-office on Tuesday last week. Late yesterday afternoon, Grant went around sticking these to every desk; the "
MERCHANDISING" ones have the department word in all-caps above a light blue horizontal line. But, much to my true delight, because it has already been made quite clear that I have claimed my own desk as I come in every day, Grant made a special one for my desk that says "
MATTHEW." I laughed really hard when he stuck that on my desk and I saw it.
Anyway. Cathryn lives on Bainbridge Island and she and her husband are building a new house in Kingston. She has long come into the office only once a week, and it's on Thursdays. Although she's on the Pricing, Promotions & Project Management team with Gabby, Amy, Brandy and me, Cathryn works in Deli and Meat—I suspect her choice of Thursdays is no accident: as I said, basically everyone in Deli and Produce (the Fresh team, which is headed by Tracy M—the equivalent to Justine, who is Center Store Director) is in today. I got to the office at about 7:23 this morning, and Cathryn was already here. So was Kyle, and Brandy, and the two Produce guys, Elliott and Tyler. What's with all these people getting here so much earlier than me? I like to be first!
Soon enough, Tracy arrived. He bikes in, just like I do (except for today, because I'm meeting both Shobhit and Laney for a movie after work). I had just noted to Noah the other day that I had seen no fewer than three people sit at his desk, where he has his monitors arranged in his very peculiar way—resting right on the desktop and tilted up toward him—take one look at his setup, and just move to another desk. Until today, no one besides Noah had used the desk directly to my left for this very reason. Noah was clearly delighted to hear this.
Well, today was the change: Tracy chose that desk today, and immediately set about reconfiguring the monitors. Now Noah will come back and have to reset them. It almost felt like Tracy was trying to prove a point: you can't claim a space you aren't using every day. Both Noah and Frank, before the move, kind of openly felt they should be able to, because they come in three times a week. Well, there are still the two other days.
I'm feeling pretty comfortable at this desk, even though it would not have been my first choice of location. I only sat here because of the desks Noah and Frank had already chosen, and I want to be near them when they are in-office. But I have already put stuff in the drawers in the file pedestal under the desk, and I think I will indeed bring my plant back here sooner than later. I should note, however, that I will still stash my laptop, keyboard, mouse and headset in one of the cubbies on any day I happen to take PTO. There's no reason someone else can't use this desk on the occasional days I'm actually not here. That doesn't mean I won't still personalize the space though.
If this is the closest we're getting to office drama, especially in light of a recent change this dramatic, I think we're doing pretty well.
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— पांच हजार आठ सौ तिहत्तर —
Let's see, what else can I tell you today? Oh: I'm finding the time it takes me to get between the office and home to be kind of frustrating. The distance to the old office was 2.4 miles; the distance now is 1.4 miles. Each time we've moved, the distance has shaved off a solid mile: the distance to the Roosevelt Way office in the U District was 3.4 miles. And still, while I typically got home on my bike from the Elliott Ave office in about half an hour, it's still taking me a good 23 minutes to get home from here!
I figure there are a few reasons for this. The first leg of the ride from the old office was much flatter—essentially riding to the downtown area where I now leave from. I was able to ride that leg much faster, and the ride up to Capitol Hill was steep and took most of the time. It's that last part I am still riding, so it still takes a while. I think the time it takes me to get down to the garage where my bike is locked and ride it up to street level is also a factor—as is the awkwardness of just getting the one block north to Pike on my way home. I don't want to go out of my way one block to the west just to get one block north to Pike, especially when the bike lines both directions are on the west side of the street. That means four extra traffic signals just to get one block to the north. Still, I tend to ride that block up 5th via the sidewalk instead, and I don't get through that very quickly either.
Sadly, it seems age is also a factor. In years past, leaving the office at 4:30, even with the 2.4-mile distance, I got home consistently on my bike by 5:00, sometimes even 4:25. I'm just not as fast anymore: these past several months, I was consistently getting home at closer to 5:05. I guess I should keep that in mind when comparing to my getting home yesterday at 4:23. Comparing to 4:25, it seems bizarre to be so close—but compared to 5:05, I really am saving time now. I should also stop feeling like it takes me so long that I might as well walk: I keep thinking it's a 20-minute walk but really it's a 30-minute walk. Still, I'm used to cycling being a
lot faster than walking, and here it's more like 25% faster, just because the hill is so steep that I can only ride a little faster than walking. Whatever, I'm still getting good exercise.
As for last night, I had no social engagements. Shobhit and I watched this week's episode of
Platonic on Apple TV, which I really enjoyed. I spent more time coming up with lists of things to do in the Netherlands and Belgium next year. I should probably pull back a little before I have more stuff than we'll ever have time for, but I get excited by this kind of planning. Shobhit figured out that flights should be available for booking by the 15th, so we'll look again for that. My savings are already over $1000 for this trip alone—I've been setting aisde $333 each paycheck since we got back from D.C. in June.
I probably should have just walked to work today, but I saw a bus was coming in only one minute while I was headed down from the condo so I hopped on that. I got off at 9th so I could cut over to the Convention Center and then walk the rest of the way through the Underground Concourse. As I noted already, I skipped the bike today because we'll be walking home together after the movie tonight. I did forget the sandwich I made this morning that I intended to bring to work—for the second day in a row. And, for the second day in a row, Shobhit took a walk downtown and so he brought the sandwich to me on his way.
In any case, socializing kicks back into gear tonight. I'm seeing a movie with Shobhit and Laney tonight; seeing a movie with Laney after work tomorrow; Laney and I have
another movie
and Happy Hour on Saturday. My Sunday is actually free, largely because I want to watch the Emmy Awards that evening. Monday evening is also free, but then Shobhit and I go to the Tasveer Film Festival launch party on Tuesday and then the next Action Movie Night is Wednesday. I'm taking Friday off next week—the first day I'll want to put my work shit in a cubby, I guess—and then there are more plans next weekend. And on and on it goes!
— पांच हजार आठ सौ तिहत्तर —
[posted 12:31pm]
