Wednesday, February 27, 2008

My desk at work is so clean; you would never even recognize it. You may not know this about me, but I am a slob by nature. Not dirty, mind you, but sloppy. I am much more comfortable in piles of paper, with pens strewn about, 45 pictures of my kids (and my cats and family), with my kid’s art on the walls than I am in this environment. I looked for 5 minutes this morning to find a pen—which was neatly put away in one of my sliding trays (along with a letter to a friend I haven’t mailed for 4 months, leftover valentines, paperclips, post-its, and a whole lot of other crap) where it probably should be, but I prefer it to be resting on my keyboard. If you opened any of my overhead bins, you would see my entire desk jammed in there—bins full of papers dating back to 2001 that I probably don’t need; but what if, photo frames, trinkets received from my employees over the years, cards from Hub, a super-cool 3-D drawing of my name from a former employee, magazine cut-outs of Patrick Dempsy and any number of random items accrued over my nearly eight years of employment. Yesterday, I carried home 3 empty travel mugs, 2 pair of shoes and a crapload of invoices that I work on for Hub during my lunch. And today, my desk is immaculate, marred only by my lunch sitting on top; to be eaten soon. It is not me, that’s for sure, but it looks really nice.

I am going out this evening to find an outfit, which I more than likely will return over the weekend. White Trash, I know. I do have a suit, however, I’m reasonably sure that the blazer I have will look ridiculous over a long flowing maternity top. The dress shirt I have also has very wide sleeves that will not fit under said blazer. What am I to do? We are fighting for our lives here.

I have been on desk inspection duty all day; going through my associate’s items with a fine toothed comb. “That calendar needs to come down!” “Please take down the wrinkled papers!” “Can you cover that stain with something??” “Homer Simpson needs to go in a desk drawer, please” They are less than thrilled with me to say the least. How do they think I feel? It’s hard when you have to support a business decision without necessarily agreeing with it. “There is a light though”, I tell them, “You can put it all back out on Monday”. My words make no difference though. They are disgruntled regardless.

These same visitors are touring our NC site today. A friend of mine there was talking with another of the managers here and said something to the effect of “the next thing you know there will be a live band and floats coming through here”. This manager went to our site manager and said “NC has a live band!!!” and proceeded to get everyone more riled up. She ended up in a ton of trouble for causing widespread panic.

Maybe I’m too laid back. I’m getting done what needs to get done, but I don’t have this sense of insanity that is ripping through here. What will be, will be. I don’t see any sense in being worked up over it. I don’t know. Maybe their insanity coupled with my lack there of is what makes our business work.

5 comments:

Misty said...

Ick ick ick. I am so glad I work at a non-profit. Corporate America is scary!

Good luck with the suit thing. It does stink that you need one. Shame on them for even suggesting it. A pox on them all.

Jess said...

I totally agree with Misty. This kind of stuff makes me really glad I work at a nonprofit.

Also, I am the same way with the sloppy, not dirty, tendencies.

Tess said...

Good luck! I'm with you. My employees would be screeching and rending their garments and generally FREAKING OUT, whereas I would be "meh".

It's Just Work. That's my motto.

Also, you should SEE my desk. I am a piler.

Sarah said...

Good for you! Resist the spreading Sense of Urgency!

LoriD said...

I always clean up my "front desk" before a meeting so I have space to work, but my "back desk" has a lot of piles. I have suprisingly few personal effects around - stuff just never reappeared after taking 2 one-year maternity leaves within 3 years.