Musical Chairs

It's moving day – sort of. My team at work was relocated to new cubicles over the weekend. And although we're technically only one row over and one column down (Excel talk!), it feels like a whole new world to me.

The IT department moved us over the weekend, which meant they unplugged our phone and plugged it in at the new desk. Oooh, difficult! Everything else we needed was already there – monitors, docking station for the laptop, external keyboard and mouse. (Although truth be told, I did sneak over and bring my old monitors, keyboard, and mouse with me. The ones on my new desk SUCKED, and I wanted to keep the good ones. Plus, I kept my chair. I finally found one with good hydraulics, no icky "stains", and doesn't kill my back.)

For once I'm actually glad that we moved. Our old cubes were right up next to a large conference room. So all day long people would loiter around my desk, waiting for the conference room to empty out. They'd talk loudly, they'd fill my garbage can with their lunch leftovers, and every once in a while they'd sit on my desk while waiting their turn. Yes, there's nothing like trying to work while there are 3 stranger's asses parked on your desk next to you.

But it was mainly the noise that chased us away. There's a door on the conference room – haven't you rude pigs ever learned how to shut the damn thing? And really – do you need to have the speakerphone cranked up to 11 if you're the only one in the room? Geez.

But that's now in the past – our beloved manager (The Grand Poobah) finally got sick of our whining about the noise level, and cajoled upper management to let us switch cubicle pods with a group of temps. They'll have to put up with the butts and the yakking now instead.

As we hoped, it's much quieter here in the new digs, but it'll take a little time to get used to it. I'm on the opposite side of the hall now, facing the other way. It's like re-arranging your bedroom as a kid and needing a week or so to get used to having your bed facing a different way. And with a little luck this will be the last time we have to move for a while.

Back when I worked for "The Company Who Must Not Be Named Because They Suck", it was common to have to switch desks every month or so. Seriously. In my first two years there, I had only 5 different desks, but some of the people in my group switched seats probably close to 30 times. Managers would come and go, and seating arrangements would inevitably change. (We had 12 managers in 2 years.) Team members would move from one group to another, and then move back a few days later because they hated their new manager/shift/seat/job duties. There never was any real rhyme or reason to all the moves – it just seemed to be on the whim of whoever was in charge at the moment.

The worst moves were when I switched departments and became a full-time writer. It was at that point that our moves became multi-floor. Upstairs, downstairs, flipped around, back upstairs, back downstairs, across the skybridge to the other building and then back again.

We learned to pack lightly.

When we weren't moving, we were preparing to move, since there was always talk that we'd be moved out to somewhere else any minute now. Floor plans were displayed, room configurations were laid out, measuring tapes blazed across doorways and floor spaces. We'd get all set to make the move and then – poof! – someone decided to scrap the whole thing and start over.

So these days I'm pretty flexible about living in a cubicle from 8:00-5:00 everyday. Nothing is ever set in stone in the business world, and you'll never know where you'll be until you get there.
Being able to adapt to change is beyond being a "good trait" – it's a necessity for survival in the world today. Because what you see from your chair today may be completely different tomorrow.

And at least I still have my chair.