Pack 'Em and Stack 'Em

Our office building management was having work done on all offices. This included repainting of the walls and changing of the carpets. This was an enormous project and schedules were sent out to the tenants at least a month in advance. They briefly described the work that would be done, but didn't provide a whole lot of details. It really didn't matter to us how they'd do it. But what was important was what we needed to do.

Well, we needed to pack our stuff in moving boxes and get out of their way. That was basically it.

This whole packing activity was actually good for me because it allowed me to clean my cube and get rid of all the unnecessary paper and documents that I have accumulated during the past year (yes, maybe more). Anything old or obsolete went straight to the shredding bin. I had a total of 6 boxes, which included one for spare binders and another for old laptop accessories, such as keyboards, batteries, and cords.

There were two activities that needed to be done -- wall painting and carpet changing, spread over two days. On our side of the floor, I believe they've divided the work into 4 sections. For our team, we were divided into 3, just because of how we're physically laid out. My side of the break was for a Tuesday paint and a Wednesday carpet. This meant that I needed to pack all my stuff and be ready by Tuesday, 3:30pm. The rest of our team were divided up into Wednesday-Thursday, and Thursday-Friday.

Frankly, we didn't know how anyone could work on the second day of each schedule if all your stuff were in boxes. For our team, we were instructed to vacate our desks by 3:30pm on the first day, and go home. We would then work from home on the second day, and would return to work the day after. By then, our offices would be ready, and all we needed was to unpack.

I will be in Southern California on Thursday for union negotiations, so I won't be back in the office till Friday. I've heard different comments about the new paint job and carpet, from the other side of the building. I will reserve my comments when I get back.