Am i the only one here who works in a cubicle farm? I'm going nuts because our unit had to move (i work in a tall office building) and all the prime real estate (window units) were taken..based on seniority, oh joyous day. So I get stuck in a half-cube that has a missing drywall, which basically means I'm cubesharing with the most hanously obnoxious woman on the planet. God help me, how do I keep my sanity? I thought of bringing a cuckoo clock to work...at least I wouldn't be the only one going nuts anymore. I also thought of buying one of those divider screens and putting it up there although that might make me stick out as the non social team player. Help, i'm drowning in corporate hell!
Btw does anyone know where to buy rear view mirrors that will attatch to your monitor?
Have you contemplated watching OFFICE SPACE? Or cultivating an ingratiating nervous habit out of spite for your coworkers?
Well, at least here is a link to that mirror you wanted (http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/accessories/2940/).
I've seen "office Space" - there comes a point when movies like that cease to be a comedy and move more toward the horror/reality genre..
This job is just far from what I'm used to. For 7 years I worked independently, no co-workers or supervisors or cubicles so the past year it's been quite an adjustment for someone like me who is very independent, outspoken and not always the "team player." And you begin to realize your intelligence often surpasses your superiors...and those meetings are NEVER productive!
As juvenile as it is for someone my age I find myself trying to break the sanity by shooting rubber bands over the cubes, hanging witty signs outside someones door as a joke even tho i'm often the only one who finds the humor. Why is sense of humor lost in the workspace? Because everyone is afraid to offend somebody, you sort of turn into this herd of cattle.
That is SO the mirror i'm looking for..the ones some have at work are just standard handmirros but I need the complete view..particularly since my back is more exposed than before without that wall up
I used to work in a cubicle too. Not much fun. Not sure what you do but I used to do tech support for Dell. Every other night I would get a least one person yelling and screaming or crying desperately for help. I did love helping people but what I hated was the environment. Seems Dell wants the customer's problem fixed in 15 minutes. It just can't be done everytime. So I had L2 on my back if I was taking too long. Well anyway, here's a cute site I found that might cheer you up.
http://hometown.aol.com/divamermaid/groovystuff.html
I work in a company of about 20 people. We all have offices (although, some of the lower level people have to share an office). The only people not in an office are an administrative assistant who is in a cubicle and the receptionist who is at the front desk.
Next month, we are moving to a nicer office. Unfortunately, only managers and above will have offices. Everyone else will be in cubicles. I am a Senior Manager, so I get one of the best offices (HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! It's good to be the king!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!)
I used to work for Compaq Technical Support in Houston. Biggest mistake I ever made. I hated my job and my whole family hated the place (we moved there from rural Louisiana).
After I was there a little over a year they moved us from the main campus to an old TI factory. Our cubes had been in small areas called quads, where only your team had cubes. When they moved us they put us in two big wings of the building with about 500 cubes each. They gave us a map the first day so you could find your cube. Mine was buried way down in the middle, it was horrible.
I started working the evening shift because my supervisor had moved over there. She was the only decent supe in the place and a couple of guys conspired with her manager to get rid of her. They trumped up a discrimination charge against her and they shifted her to a made up position printing reports or something. I never knew a hispanic would discriminate against another hispanic. She sued and they settled out of court, but she had to sign a non-disclosure so I don't know what she got from them.
I was under some much stress after that and my wife was about ready to kill me for bringing it home. I finally had to quit to keep my sanity. I know this, I will never work a job like that again. They paid extremely well at the time (94-95), but no amount of money is worth your family or your sanity.
Good luck Susan, I sincerely sympathize and hope you can work it out.
hanging witty signs outside someones door as a joke even tho i'm often the only one who finds the humor.
Try some Motivational Signs (http://www.despair.com)
>>Not sure what you do but I used to do tech support for Dell.<<
Thank god I only deal with customers on a very limited basis which is verifying info, I wouldn't want that type of job. i'm lucky in that we don't work at the home office, we're a sales office in the financial district so our cubes are tall and more spacious..at least. I hate to get used to it, one never knows where the budget may send you. My job deals with sold groups and setting them up for insurance. It's so new we have no reference books or anything to help us with the systems we work on (which are also new), so we're essentially making up procedures and stuff as we go. I don't feel at this point I need to have a box on my desk in case I go, insurance will always be busy and our positions are quickly become more urgently needed. My cousin on the other hand works for EDS and for the past few years she's always afraid of their regular mass layoffs, I would hate to live with the fear that I could be layed off because of outsourcing. And her job experience limits her in ever finding a new job in the same field if there are mass tech layoffs. Not to mention she's paid chump change, it's never in the budget for a big raise so they give them those tiny incriments of "bonuses". She's seriously considering changing careers entirely and starting from scratch just to get out of the IT field
>>I never knew a hispanic would discriminate against another hispanic.<<
I've noticed in companies minorities have better opportunities at moving up so maybe he saw her as a threat.
As much as I hate corporate america, it pays the bills and the benefits are outstanding..i mean gold stars all the way. It's hard to give that up, considering my last job as much as I loved the independence of it, i was scraping by with NO benefits of any kind. I began to realize i'm not getting any younger, I need insurance and a 401K. I have a friend who is on the other spectrum, she tends to work for small real estate companies and her job has a salary cap, since the office are small and alot of times family members work there..there's just nowhere to even move up and there's alot of favortism with those related and NO upper management she can go to (mostly since it's them doing the discrimination), she has a feeling of being trapped because it's hard for her to find a job opening in the same environment she's used to...small real estate companies. So she's been more miserable than me. I have to keep telling myself...it could be worse.
and burgo - you totally suck!! :-p~
Post Edited (11-21-03 10:47)
>which basically means I'm cubesharing with the most hanously obnoxious
>woman on the planet.
You just have to be even more obnoxious and make HER put up some kind of divider. Maybe keep 'borrowing' stuff from her area, or develope a habit of spitting when you talk to her, then make her your best friend while snacking. Be creative. :)
DISPAIR.COM.....
Oh, i am SO gonna tell Stephenie about this site monday!
She's stuck in a cubicle...in creative service, fortuinatly, so she's not surrounded by idiots...but , hey, she still has to deal with customers and managment.
Man...i do delivery driveing.
Could get killed by a stupid driver...hey, i AM surrounded by idiots!...but, i don't have to deal with managment all the time....
Still, better impaled on the hood of a semi, then stuck in meetings all day....
I too work in a cubicle farm.
I have yet to see a computer tech/network tech that doesn't work in a cubicle. I believe that someone brought up Office Space in an earlier reply. You really don't understand the film until you live it.
One of the best scenes in the film involves the copier and a PC Load Error. This unfortunatly has actually come up in my job numerous times. Not that hard of an issue to fix, just extremely aggravating.
As for the mirror for your computer Susan, check out http://www.thinkgeek.com. I was on there yesterday and I believe I saw one.
As for making the cube time go faster, check out fark.com sometime.
>> You really don't understand the film until you live it.
<<
Tell me about it, it was a whole different appreciation watching it after captivity in cubicleworld. The scene with them taking the fax to the field is so true, for some time I had to fax out tons of papers to another department and the fax always had a memory overload we couldn't get around. Our copier is tempermental and eats paper, in fact it breaks down so frequently that we have a repairman out there every week. I keep trying to rationalize that...i mean isn't it cheaper in the longrun to just buy a new one that works and doesn't have a hamster running in a wheel when you open the panel door? I'm just glad of the recent "move" to a different part of the office, I was located right by the office snitch who we refer to as the "time nazi" (you know the one, who is bitter and jaded about their position that they spend a good deal of their day simply monitoring everyone elses time. probably explains why their cube is a pigstye, it's like a dumptruck with boxes of papers exploded in there.
And I ordered that mirror from thinkgeek, they had alot of cool stuff I think I might get for myself after x-mas. I also decided to get something totally useless..a can of that putty. I LOVE putty..the fact they had all those colors got me all excited and everything. check out the action shots, a riot!
I need serious help.
Post Edited (11-22-03 17:08)