The entire process of centralizing was not a move most of us wanted to do in the first place. Many of us worked in a building or clinic close to our home. If we moved, some of us would have to cross a bridge to work in a different state. This affected income tax and the traffic would be congested and often times bumper-to-bumper. Others would have to double their drive time and distance on their commute. Needless to say... most people were NOT ok with this change.
When the announcement was made of the inevitable move, we were told, "You'll have a brand new office with new state of the art computers! You'll be able to choose the colors on the walls, and the way the office cubicles are configured, etcetera. You have got to be kidding me. The color of the walls? That's supposed to make everything ok? Obviously this didn't seem to placate anyone and the bad feelings continued. Change is hard. The phrases, "It is what it is" and "At least we still have a job, right?" became commonplace. It got to the point where I wanted to punch a baby every time I heard either phrase (or any version of them).
No matter how much we protested, we moved anyway. The colors on the walls were lovely. Special note: Thank you design team for making those choices. The state of the art computers with DUAL monitors were ... state of the art. I will admit I was pretty stoked about the dual monitors. But why the hell did we have to wait for a new office before we got dual monitors, anyway? What is this, the stone age? I mean, come on!
The office was, indeed sparkly and new. But nobody seemed to care. The first couple of weeks were so quite and uncomfortable and it was super awkward. The disdain of moving hung in the air like a....well, I don't know what it was like. But it hung there.
Fast forward three months to today and things are functioning like a normal office. People are talking and laughing and gossiping and making copies and talking on the phone and popping (and burning) popcorn in the break room. With the exception of the toilets that continue to clog and overflow, everyone had settled down. Still not thrilled but, we've accepted our fate.
Yesterday as I was sitting in my spacious cubicle (Tangent: I keep getting people coming into my "office" and telling me how spacious my cube is. Every single cube is exactly the same size so, I'm not sure how mine is so spacious but... lucky me!)... Anyway, as I was saying, yesterday as I was sitting in my spacious cube I kept hearing power tools and a bunch of commotion going on on the other side of my wall but, I was busy and I didn't have time to investigate.
This morning I saw what all the noise was about. Our company had our engineers come in and install some inspirational pictures all over the new beautifully painted walls. "Nice touch." I thought to myself as I walked past a few of them. Then I walked into the break room. That's when I saw them. There were three pictures: One was a group of cherries, the next was a cluster of blueberries, and the third picture in line was a woman drinking a bottle of water. (I know it sounds like a strange combination of pictures but...they're meant to inspire healthy eating, but I digress).
I instantly became aggravated. The cherries and the blueberries should NOT be next to each other! Who's brilliant idea was it to arrange them this way? Where's the balance? Where's the pattern of: cherry, bottle, berry? I mean... it's so obviously lopsided. I just stood there looking at it feeling like someone had just clawed their fingernails down a chalkboard. No. No, no, no. I cannot stand for this! This must be fixed at once.
If I have to move to this office, and drive into a different STATE, and cross a bridge, and start paying income tax, and practically live in an office with the beautiful wall colors, and overflowing toilets, can I at least have the berry pictures put in their correct order? Please? And don't tell me, It is what it is.
