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I’ve been evicted


BuffJim
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"...my objections were that I will be very isolated, and I’ll miss the social interaction and the free coffee..."

I had a similar situation after our high school's science department was renovated. The results of the renovations resulted in great classrooms and labs, but there was a big downside.  Where 15 of us had had a group office, we each ended up isolated with the desk in our own classroom. The group coffee pot disappeared because there was now no convenient location for it.  I was also about 1/4 mile walk from our department's end of the building to the main office, in our largest high school in Maryland, to check our mailboxes, arrange parent meetings with guidance counselors, etc.

The school was originally one of those idiotic "open classroom" buildings with no walls between classes. When I first taught there, they have put up walls, but with 2 foot gaps at the ceilings and large doorways with no doors because of the requirements of the heating and cooling system.  When the AP Biology teacher in the next room was talking loudly about sex, it was hard to keep my chemistry students' attentions.

The one large, lockable-door area was the centrally-located teacher's office where all 15 of us science teachers had desks, so we had one group coffee pot we took turns supplying with coffee and where we met often.  We also had use of each other's Senior Aides to set up labs, etc.  One, the winner of a beauty contest, overheard someone asking me about stock funds and asked me, "Are you rich enough so that if, after I graduate, I hit on you and move in with you, I won't have to go to work?"

I later saw her on a TV commercial, prominently filmed as the receptionist for some construction company.  I bet she soon found someone rich enough to let her stay home!

Then all that came to an end when they renovated the whole department with doors and complete walls.  It became inconvenient to maintain a group coffee pot because we no longer had desks in the much smaller teacher's office, which was way over on my end of the, big, 15-classroom department - I had managed to get one of the four classrooms at the ends of the department with windows to the outside.

Soon I began bringing in a 25 oz. thermos of coffee.  We teacher's now interacted mostly during lunch - and since there were 3 different lunch periods for our 2,900 student school, we had much less interaction with some colleagues.

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1 hour ago, BuffJim said:

Another department  has claimed the space we’ve been occupying. There are three of us in our department in Tonawanda; we’re part of a larger department in Connecticut. So sometime in the next couple weeks we’ll get moved to a tucked away area of the complex which gets very little foot traffic. 
They asked if we had objections, and I do , but didn’t think they were valid enough to raise. I insisted on having an office, not a cubicle, and that was granted. But my objections were that I will be very isolated, and I’ll miss the social interaction and the free coffee. The other two guys in my department almost always work from home. It’s not far from the old area, and not far from BuffCarla, so that’s a plus. 

Free  coffee is nice ..which is what I  missed in office. We had to have self-serving coffee...for well...external committees, councillors. After all, our municipality cut  out/budget for all their free catered  lunches, and for very long city council meetings, simple buffet dinners.

In our organization it is a bit tougher to insist on an office...even for all managers. Now with social distancing, working part time even when it will be normal, there's just going to be less people around one another.

Enjoy your new digs!

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I’m still waiting for my boss to move me out of my nearly vacated building.    At some point I need to leave as we are giving up the building but at this time I have the place for myself.

Since it’s only me in the entire building and I have total access, I went on a scavenger hunt and have my own big screen TV with Direct TV, refrigerator & microwave.  IT pulled all of the network printers so they set me up with my own printer. I only leave my office to go to the bathroom!  

It gets lonely at times but I don’t get anyone’s germs (unless I leave my office…)

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59 minutes ago, MickinMD said:

"...my objections were that I will be very isolated, and I’ll miss the social interaction and the free coffee..."

I had a similar situation after our high school's science department was renovated. The results of the renovations resulted in great classrooms and labs, but there was a big downside.  Where 15 of us had had a group office, we each ended up isolated with the desk in our own classroom. The group coffee pot disappeared because there was now no convenient location for it.  I was also about 1/4 mile walk from our department's end of the building to the main office, in our largest high school in Maryland, to check our mailboxes, arrange parent meetings with guidance counselors, etc.

The school was originally one of those idiotic "open classroom" buildings with no walls between classes. When I first taught there, they have put up walls, but with 2 foot gaps at the ceilings and large doorways with no doors because of the requirements of the heating and cooling system.  When the AP Biology teacher in the next room was talking loudly about sex, it was hard to keep my chemistry students' attentions.

The one large, lockable-door area was the centrally-located teacher's office where all 15 of us science teachers had desks, so we had one group coffee pot we took turns supplying with coffee and where we met often.  We also had use of each other's Senior Aides to set up labs, etc.  One, the winner of a beauty contest, overheard someone asking me about stock funds and asked me, "Are you rich enough so that if, after I graduate, I hit on you and move in with you, I won't have to go to work?"

I later saw her on a TV commercial, prominently filmed as the receptionist for some construction company.  I bet she soon found someone rich enough to let her stay home!

Then all that came to an end when they renovated the whole department with doors and complete walls.  It became inconvenient to maintain a group coffee pot because we no longer had desks in the much smaller teacher's office, which was way over on my end of the, big, 15-classroom department - I had managed to get one of the four classrooms at the ends of the department with windows to the outside.

Soon I began bringing in a 25 oz. thermos of coffee.  We teacher's now interacted mostly during lunch - and since there were 3 different lunch periods for our 2,900 student school, we had much less interaction with some colleagues.

You are describing my high school. Opened in 1976. I remember sitting in French class, with the teacher describing French croissants, while the biology class next door was discussing excretion. It looked like a big department store. Even had an outdoor smoking “lounge” for sophomores and up with parental permission. 

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2 hours ago, ChrisL said:

I went on a scavenger hunt and have my own big screen TV with Direct TV, refrigerator & microwave.  IT pulled all of the network printers so they set me up with my own printer. I only leave my office to go to the bathroom!  

You know, if you moved all that stuff into the bathroom, you'd never have to leave your 'office'!

 

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12 hours ago, BuffJim said:

Another department  has claimed the space we’ve been occupying.

At one of our offices, one my employees retired suddenly right before I became the boss.   I did the exit interview, etc...  and a few days later I stopped at that office to see what stuff he left behind, and what else needed to be done.   His stuff was all moved and another dept commandeered the space.  WTF...

I went nuts and called out everyone on that.  I got to our 'Office Systems' dept they allocative office space.   It took about 1 week but I got my dept space back in that office building.   I'm sure the manager of the dept didn't like me for a while... but you don't just steal office space when a guy retires. 

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On 1/8/2022 at 8:24 AM, BuffJim said:

the free coffee.

I'd bring in my own coffee maker.  If it is just used by you, at least it is tasty and still inexpensive coffee. If others come by to share it, you get some company :)

I wouldn't like being too far from other folks.  Human interaction is one of the positives of going to the office.  Without them, I might as well continue to WFH.

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