The home away from home
The workplace is our home away from home. It’s where we spend a third of our day for 71% of week. We spend our waking hours there sharing more time with co-workers than we do our families on a regular basis. Not everyone loves there job, or even likes it. For some a job is just a means to end, but even if that’s the case, if you’re gonna spend a good part of your life there, it needs to be “you”.
I’m pretty sure I’ve spoken on the topic work environment before, but there’s some new motivation behind me this time. I have an up-close look at my own work space.
I’ve been in my my current office for almost 2-years now (I think) and it is conveniently (or unconveniently) placed on the top floor in the farthest corner away from all other forms life. One door. No windows. And the average temperature is probably a brisk 65 degrees. But shy of it being a tad chilly, I share the office with one other guy and this is by far the pinnacle of work environment in our building.
For starters, we designed the room layout ourselves and they built it for us. We planned it out and gave the construction people a Visio drawing and after 3-weeks our room was built and painted to specification. Cubicles are for chumps. Since there is only two of us, we made a penninsula of sorts. We each have an L-shaped desk space with a corkboard wall separating our sides of the room. The wall is just high enough to keep us out of each other’s face, but low enough that a little lift of the chin gets you in eye-shot of the other. Not to mention, the wall is perfect for just about any battle you can think of: ping-pong, paper football, paper airplanes, frisbee…and whatever other game needs a halfway point.
As I do with any space I am forced to work in, I fill it up with stuff that makes me happy. I’m there to serve them, so I need to be as happy as I can to get the most of my job and to create the best products possible. We all have crappy days, but I can’t tell you how much 15 minutes of Lego time can really help you calm down and lower that stress level.
Talking about it is one thing, but words can’t grasp the level of customization this pad has. There’s a little bragging in there, but I feel more so it should be taken as something that should get you thinking about your own workspace. Rules be damned. Make your space your own and be happy at work. If you job doesn’t make you happy, at least your toys can.
Take an up-close look at my home away from home*
*Please, please, please wait for the entire page to load. This feature is filled with big images, so the background especially might not come in instantly. And it’s really wide so you’ll have to scroll side-to-side. I hodge-podged a few shots together to create a weak panorama of the room.
And if you have any questions about anything you see…just ask…
Pretty cool!
I need to redo my office at the store. I need to make it my space. Too bad I can’t lock the door and keep everyone else out. I really don’t share work space very well, so it really bugs me to have people in and out of there all the time.
G+
That’s true. I never really thought of the security factor.
Our door gets locked every night and there is usually one person in the office during the day.
I suppose if I had a more open space, like a cubicle, there would be less - though still some. Of course, that also assumes that people would actually want what I have.
Very nice but I don’t see any photos of your lovely wife in your office. I see lots of toys she bought you but no photo of her.
You have two pictures up, thank you very much.
Your pictures are on the corkboard right next to the monitor. Although I do need some frames for them.
While reading and leaving some feedback on another blog, I realized that the workspace you create can be used as an anti-politics tactic.
I, like many, can’t stand office politics. Sometimes they are a necessary evil, but just as most evil, should be avoid as much as possible.
The author over at Slacker Manager (link below) has a good list of tactics started based on his own experience. One of them is “being yourself” which seems like a given, but everyone knows those that play politics rarely present ‘themselves’.
As can be seen here, my workspace is me. I filled it with things I like and love. It’s not a ruse or an attempt to make me appear something I’m not. But I’ve seen the looks I get from people when they walk in, and I can instantly tell (and obviously know) that my office is a little - shall we say - abnormal.
But with that brief look of fear, each of them log a mental note: stay away from this weirdo. And for the people at work that aren’t my friends and don’t know me, that’s fine because I probably don’t want to be bothered by them.
When the suits walk in and find my version of Children’s Palace, I would bet they write it off as an excentric nerd and know not to bother me with office shinanigans because shit’s getting done and when it comes down to it, that’s all they care about - and if that means toys hanging from the ceiling, so be it.
Anyway, I never really looked at my office that way until now. Just an interesting thought.
Slacker Manager
http://slackermanager.com/2006/04/how-to-avoid-office-politics.html
The LEGO bricks are a great way to relax. I need to see if I can bring some into my JOB office.
My home office is full of creations me and my son make (robots, animals, castles, etc).