I Miss My Door

About a year ago, I was forced to give up my door at work. They were going for this new concept. Yes, the dreaded cubicle.

It's not really a cubicle, as we do not have tall walls around us. There are short walls around us. So that we can see each other and *share*...

This has got to be about the worst way to work ever invented. People are freakin' rude. They will see me sitting at my computer, busily working away, and will just STAND there behind me, or worse yet, start asking me their question, even if I'm on the phone.

All of this forced me to make a sign that read, "Please let me stop what I'm doing so that I can handle your emergency!" This prompted the PC Police to swoop down on me, as someone found it "offensive". The funny thing was, the person that found it offensive is the worst offender of interrupting me when I am busy.

My job does require a lot of contact with people. Everyone that works in the plant uses the system that I run. I'm in high demand, and being that visible is not a good thing.

I have now taken to acting like people are invisible. Oh, and mute. If I'm obviously busy doing something, I act like they aren't there. Rude? Oh yes, it is very rude, but I'm beyond the point of caring.

The longest someone ever stood there while I pretended they were invisible and/or mute? 9 and 1/2 minutes. What an idiot.

It's also really loud. I do things like dissect the whole electrical system for a car into graphical form. This, my dear readers, is a rather daunting task, as most things I do are. Programming is also involved, and anyone that has ever done either of the things will tell you that you need absolute quiet.

The guy next to me loves to blast his music. The guy on the other side of me has a crush on the girl two desks to the other side of me, and is always joking around with her, talking over me and the dude with the loud music.

I.just.want.to.scream.

This is one good thing about the horrendous shift I work, 5:30pm to 5:30am. I forgot how nice it is to work in peace and quiet. Barely an interruption, I am at least 10 times more productive.

So what brain child came up with this concept? I guess our European counterparts have this concept going on, and our company thought it would encourage people to communicate and work together.

I asked one of said Europeans that visits our plants on a regular basis if this really works over there. He told me, "Yes, it works quite well actually. It is not such a good idea here as Americans tend to be a bit more boisterous."

Translation: We are loud as hell.

So any of you Americans out there that might be considering going to an "open" concept at work: DON'T DO IT. Keep your door, and window if you are lucky enough to have one.