(Working in corporate America is bizarre for me. Having spent the great majority of my adult working life either slinging coffee at Starbucks or slinging peanut-butter and jam sandwiches at African kids in Johannesburg, this whole office environment is a little weird to me. This week, I’ll share a few of the many stories that are emanating from my time as a corporate lemming. Yesterday, this space addressed Ted from Accounting.)Part 4: The Bearable Pieces
The average day of the cubicle-dweller is broken up into many parts. It is in this process that an otherwise unbearable whole becomes many bearable pieces. It is in this process that we all maintain our sanity and our employment.
We all have: morning news-reading time, morning caffeine search and intake time, morning bathroom time, pre-lunch cool-down time, lunch time, post-lunch news-catch-up time, mid-afternoon bathroom time, mid-afternoon sugar rush search and intake time, late afternoon almost-home-don’t-want-to-start-something-new so-I‘ll-just-browse-the-internet-time, and finally going home time.
Somewhere in there, corporate America works. I haven’t figured out where yet, but when I find it, I’ll pass on the secret.
Well, nothing so frustrates a cubicle-dweller as much as the disturbance of this schedule. And none of these scheduled activities is more important than lunch time. So, just imagine my despair when I realized that my Hot Pockets in the 2nd floor freezer had been stolen or when I realized that someone threw away my ranch dressing from the 2nd floor fridge or when I noticed that Bill from Mapping was eating my salad at the company-sponsored lunch at Sea Island (even though his meal came with 14 side dishes and my gumbo only came with salad!!!!)… Bill from Mapping!! OK, deep breath…
Let me restate: The average day of the cubicle-dweller is broken up into many parts. It is in this process that an otherwise unbearable whole becomes many bearable pieces. It is in this process that we all maintain our sanity and our employment.
Having stolen not just a salad, but a little piece of my sanity, I am still working on finding forgiveness for Bill from Mapping.
Seriously, this is what you gotta do. One time, when someone mixed the jelly in MY peanut butter (oh, and they didn't ask if they could have peanut butter) I sent a nice but threatening email. It was stated in such a way that HR could not can me. Trust me people will respect you and start asking if they can have something. Oh, what a thought, if people just didn't touch stuff that wasn't theirs? Last Resort - you could write your name on everything that is yours - but that is more work for you so go with the letter first.
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