Greener Grass

I think I’ve mentioned that due to Hurricane Sandy, my work location has been up in the air. My team can work between 2 locations or stay at home. One location leaves much to be desired because it’s dark and there is a lot of noise around the area. The group next to ours completely lacks work etiquette. Aside from having to hear the ipod shuffle of a person 2 row from me, I’ve also had the honor of listening into a girl’s SKYPE conversation with her mom and niece. I got to a point where nothing amazed me anymore. 

Then I ended up going to visit my old team when they were all in town for a group meeting. They were having their meeting in a conference center. Because I wasn’t part of the meeting (just visiting), I had to sit in the room next to theirs. And the room I sat in was just baffling.

There were 4 rows along this particular space and on both sides of those rows were monitors. Imagine a bunch of long banquet tables were people face each other, only to be blocked off by computer monitors for each guest. They call this the trading floor. I call it hell in an office building. The whole time I was there, I could see and hear every person in front of me, to an angle from me and to the side of me. I even got the residual noise from the people in the row behind me - not to mention the sniffing, snorting, coughing and nose blowing of the people in my arm's length. It was an extremely joyous and productive occasion (and if you can’t sense the sarcasm, I need to work on my writing)!

I don’t think I got a single thing done in the time I was there. Just after 12, I stopped in to say hi to my old team and decided to leave. I had so much to do and there was just not much of a chance of my getting it done in the environment. 

It was horrible and I can’t understand the thought process behind that configuration (except cost saving but even then, how much of a saving is it when no one is productive!). It made me really thankful for the situation I am in. Despite having to split my time between two locations, both of them now looked like a Caribbean work beach compared to that set up. It’s important to see something else from time to time because we often do think the grass is greener on the other side. Until the other side is filled with people taping away at computers, listening to conference calls on speaker phone right in front of you and a plethora of other annoying work activities! Then you realize maybe you didn’t have it too bad. 

Squeaky Wheel

My office building was flooded during Hurricane Sandy. It is still not open. My team has been displaced and working between two different locations. Honestly this doesn’t bother me too much. I’ve gotten to meet people on my team that I probably wouldn’t have met otherwise.


What has been interesting is how things were handled through this whole displacement. We were not allowed to go in and get our desk contents or anything like that. Normally that wouldn’t bother me if I knew we’d be going to back to that building. Recently the items in our desks were sent to us, which led me to believe that we weren’t going to be returning to our old building. However no one was communicating the details of what was happening. We were notified only that we would be getting our desk contents shipped to us at our current locations and nothing else.

A few weeks ago I received 3 boxes and I went through the items. 99% of my things were there (my shoes weren’t lacking – see blog entry “Shoe Fetish”) so I wasn’t going to complain. (The 1% I honestly wasn’t sure was in my desk so there was no point in complaining about it.) Without a desk to call my own now (our team has to grab the first desk available at either of the locations we’re using) and nowhere to put these items now, I had to bring them home.

My husband and daughter drove out to my office building so they could transport my stuff home. Before meeting them I loaded a card that had a squeaky wheel. This damaged wheel made me laugh for a number of reasons.

1) It reminded me how ridiculous this whole displacement situation has been

2) It made me think about how people who complain a lot are named a ‘squeaky wheel’ yet are the ones who get what they want

3) I began to wonder if I shouldn’t be a squeaky wheel more myself.

A number of years ago I worked for a totally ridiculous woman who did nothing but complain. She was the epitome of the squeaky wheel. Yet the more she complained, the more attention she got as well as everything to solve her complaints. This cart set off a thought process in me that I never imagined. I decided that I needed to speak up more often. It really seemed that the squeaky wheel did get all the oil and being quiet wasn’t getting me anywhere.

Of course, the more I became vocal about things that didn’t work or that were upsetting me, I found I wasn’t getting what I wanted. More often it led me to believe that it only works for some people. It’s the tone that I use or the way I say things. I guess I’m not that annoying in certain situations (at least not at work) because I definitely was annoying my husband with my complaining. I never thought complaining was a skill! But somehow my old boss used it to her advantage. Maybe I’m not complaining to the right people? Well, it has now become another item in my arsenal of perplexing things. How does a squeaky wheel type person get their voice heard? How can I learn to get this annoying habit to work for me? Perhaps with time, the truth will be revealed to me.