World of Suck

I and a couple other co-workers are "temporarily" relocated to another part of my building - away from our office mates. Usually it is fine. Relatively peaceful, in fact. However, the group who we are sitting near frequently has conference calls, out in the open, loudly. A couple of guys insist on using the speaker phone even when either one is the only person on his end. It is distracting.

Then lets not forget the daily sports talk. Watching the game was simply not enough, discussing it for an hour is necessary.

Then there is the secretary who has Poison as a ring tone at the highest possible setting.

Someone in this group complained about our "kitchen" - a fridge, coffee maker, electric kettle and toaster. The only thing slightly unusual is the toaster and I use the kettle may once a month. So the toaster got put in the proper kitchen and the kettle got stowed. Besides the "safety issues" - the kettle is only plugged in when used, the coffee maker has a timer, the toaster is only "on" when the little lever is pushed, and I never heard of a refrigerator causing a fire - the complaining party (who did not sign their letter to management) cited a "distracting atmosphere".

Hello!!!! I know Dick's kid just started at the local community college. I know the Yanks are in the toilet. I know Will just bought a house. I know some chick that I have never seen is moving to Arizona. I know way too much about the secretary's social life. I know someone in large city is fucking up an important program. I hear things I know I shouldn't know and might have bright lights shown in my eyes if anyone realized I knew them. And it goes on. How do I know this stuff? Certainly not cause anyone ever told me directly. And headsets can only go so far.

So, who are the distracting ones? The people who carry on all day about everything, private and work-related, or the people who might yap for all of about a half hour while getting their morning coffee and might occasionally confer with each other? I realize I may not be the most quiet person, but the volume coming out of all of your pie holes is not on whisper either and I'm also not the one bitching to management. Cubicle hell offers little privacy - deal with it.

Oh and by the way - the fridge and the coffee maker are staying. Whoever complained can go fuck himself.

There's a lot of things we take for granted until they're absent. Standing on a long line will make you wish for something to sit on. At a certain point we're willing to compromise and anything, even a fire hydrant will look good. After that initial rush of relief as you take the weight off your feet, it doesn't take very long to realize that yes - you're sitting on a cast iron bullet and it's pretty damn uncomfortable.

Office work chairs are a practical example of this. It's really hard to find an office chair you can sit in for hours and still be comfortable in, however once you do find that perfect marriage of tukus to tapestry the lengths one is willing to go to defend the item is without precedent.

It's an unusual thought that a component at one end of the torso can have so much affect on the other, but to do good, extended work the quality of comfort at the ass-end cannot be underestimated in terms of value.