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#Post#: 25745--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cubes Open Office land - what breaches of etiquette have you
seen?
By: Soop Date: February 11, 2019, 2:09 pm
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When we have auditors come into the office (a couple of times a
year), they are spread out to the various empty cubicles through
the office. Last year there was one that was so loud. She was
the supervisor of the other auditors and they would often have
to come over to ask for her input. She talked at the top of her
voice all the time. My co-worker finally asked her to keep it
down.
We are the client and you are coming into our office...keep it
down.
Oh, that just reminded me...auditors again...I walked into the
kitchen and witnessed one young guy finish drinking his water
and put the glass back in the cupboard. I wasn't even sure I had
seen correctly. I checked the cupboard and there was his wet
glass, so I moved it to the dishwasher. I mentioned it to our
controller and he dealt with it.
#Post#: 25875--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cubes Open Office land - what breaches of etiquette have you
seen?
By: Twik Date: February 13, 2019, 11:00 am
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Cologne and perfume can be tricky. I've had cases where the
scent was noticeable enough that you spent the time with a
person thinking "That's STRONG!" all the meeting.
But the worst was a young gentleman who entered our office to
speak with a different group. I was in my own room, working away
when this ... odour ... wafted in. It was so thick it was almost
visible. Sweet, certainly, but cloying and slowly strangling.
Coughs and gasps could be heard from further down the corridor
as the scent crept along.
I had to pop out to the front area to see what was going on. The
young man was quite well dressed, and obviously thought he was
well-groomed. The manager he was meeting was apologizing, but
he'd just come down with a cold, and that MUST be why he was
sniffling, and his eyes were watering.
It took the rest of the day to get a breathable atmosphere back
after he left. The next day the scent was still there, although
at more tolerable levels. Sort of like the office was filled
with roses with a particularly sugary smell.
I never experienced anything like it, and I hope I never do
again. I've no idea how his regular co-workers exist without
supplied air breathing apparatus.
#Post#: 25891--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cubes Open Office land - what breaches of etiquette have you
seen?
By: Venus193 Date: February 13, 2019, 12:46 pm
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The one thing i don't miss about working is open offices.
Cubicle farms were not as bad, but the one thing about the Mad
Men era that I would long for are offices with doors you could
close and lock:
HTML http://midcenturymodernist.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Mad-Men-Drapers-Office-5.jpg
(*Why didn't the photo post when I tried the icon?)
My last place had total open space, which was nightmarish. I
realize that this is about cost and limiting the per-person
square footage but it isn't conducive to productivity. It had
no carpets, which also increased the noise. Everyone had
speaker phone and there were only two conference rooms, so if
both were in use we would have to deal.
What was worse was that the head of HR would have her nanny drop
off her 3-year-old on Wednesday afternoons and we would have to
put up with her noise for the last two hours of the day.
A previous place had a cubicle farm. I had a standing
conference call on Mondays with a major client and it was
typically two hours long. I usually would go into my
supervisor's office and she and I would both listen until we
needed to speak. One morning my boss was on another call with
another client, so I had to handle this call from my desk. I
would listen while getting other stuff done, like filing or
updating a flow chart.
One person at the end of the next row came to me to complain
about my speaker phone.
She:"Can't you pick up the receiver?"
I: "I can't, as I then wouldn't be able to do anything else
while waiting for my turn to contribute."
Headphones for telephones cost $150 each in those days and the
IT department was not budgeted to buy them for everyone.
The complaining colleague complained about so many things like
this that the HR department told her "This is an advertising
agency, not a library" which was their way of telling her to get
used to it. She didn't return from maternity leave.
The CEO of this company also insisted that although our cubicles
were large enough to accommodate a two-person meeting we weren't
allowed to bring people in because of their concern about
visible files being read on people's desks or screens along the
way. That straight-jacketed my department's ability to meet
with people if the conference rooms were unavailable.
And we wonder why corporate productivity is down and errors are
increasing.
#Post#: 25942--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cubes Open Office land - what breaches of etiquette have you
seen?
By: NewHomeowner Date: February 14, 2019, 5:51 am
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Oh, the smells!!! I am one of the fortunate(?) people who
developed asthma as an adult, and suddenly I *understand* what
everybody has been going through. It's awful! Even though mine
is mild. Anyway, I tend to be set off by allergic reactions
(also now) to various perfumes, colognes, and cleaning products.
Not all of them, thankfully.
The cleaning crew in my building uses some kind of spray that
immediately makes my lungs start to shut down. The problem is,
it is apparently being carried around by the ventilation system,
so I can't even find out where it starts, or ask them to stop.
I did mention it to one of the cleaning crew managers, and she
was sympathetic, but this is a federal office and they're not
likely to change anything.
I just have to keep my puffer close by.
At least I can avoid the 'marinators' since the building is
pretty large.
#Post#: 25952--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cubes Open Office land - what breaches of etiquette have you
seen?
By: Songbird Date: February 14, 2019, 8:46 am
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The grumbling that is going on at my office right now....
NYC has strict recycling rules. today the Powers That Be
removed every trash can from the workstations, we must now go to
the break room to dispose of trash and recyclables.
#Post#: 25953--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cubes Open Office land - what breaches of etiquette have you
seen?
By: gramma dishes Date: February 14, 2019, 8:56 am
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[quote author=Songbird link=topic=656.msg25952#msg25952
date=1550155612]
The grumbling that is going on at my office right now....
NYC has strict recycling rules. today the Powers That Be
removed every trash can from the workstations, we must now go to
the break room to dispose of trash and recyclables.
[/quote]
Okay. Recyclables I understand. But trash? Regular office
paperwork? If people have to jump up and run to the break room
every time they need to throw something away, there will be a
lot less time to actually get the work done. Seems bizarrely
counterproductive!
#Post#: 25955--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cubes Open Office land - what breaches of etiquette have you
seen?
By: wonderfullyanonymous Date: February 14, 2019, 9:11 am
---------------------------------------------------------
I worked with a lady who used perfume heavily. It was so bad,
the 4 of us that worked when she came in were sick with in 5
minutes. We could smell her before she arrived, and taste it
when she showed up. When we asked why she wore so much, she said
she didn't think she had enough on until she could smell it.
We then explained to her how perfume worked.
#Post#: 25970--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cubes Open Office land - what breaches of etiquette have you
seen?
By: Aleko Date: February 14, 2019, 12:23 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
[quote][quote]The grumbling that is going on at my office right
now....
NYC has strict recycling rules. today the Powers That Be
removed every trash can from the workstations, we must now go to
the break room to dispose of trash and recyclables.[/quote]
Okay. Recyclables I understand. But trash? Regular office
paperwork? If people have to jump up and run to the break room
every time they need to throw something away, there will be a
lot less time to actually get the work done. Seems bizarrely
counterproductive!
[/quote]
That appears to be a management fad. Two years ago a directive
came from on high at my organisation that nobody was allowed to
have a bin under their desk any more: we were all to take our
rubbish to three or four big bins at intervals along the
corridor that ran the length of each floor of the building.
(They never told us why - maybe they thought all those bins made
the place look messy? Or they thought they could shave something
off the cleaning contract if there were fewer bins to be
emptied?) Well, of course it would have been insane to trot
along to the bin with a used envelope every time you opened a
letter, so everyone dropped their rubbish under their desk and
only went to the bin when they were packing up to go home, or
had a accumulated a serious pile.
#Post#: 25971--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cubes Open Office land - what breaches of etiquette have you
seen?
By: DCGirl Date: February 14, 2019, 12:51 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
I've heard that trash can story in other environments. It's
definitely a fad.
At the old job I mentioned previously, the one that had moved to
an open office concept, there were no coat racks anywhere when
we moved into the new suite. The new cube walls, such as they
were, were so low you couldn't put a hook on them for a coat as
we all had in the previous office.
We asked where we were supposed to hang our coats. The reply
was to hang them on the back of your desk chair. Well, my coat
is fairly long and, if I hung it on the back of my desk chair,
I'd be rolling over it all day long, which I pointed out to the
person in charge of the move. His response was that the CEO
didn't want the "visual clutter" of having coat racks scattered
throughout the suite, which was all white and looked like a
picture from an office equipment manufacturer's website. That's
trendy too. So, he told me, if I didn't want to hang it on the
back of my chair I could 1) get another, shorter coat or 2)
leave it my car every morning since it wasn't "that long a walk
from the garage to the building." I was dumbfounded. How do you
respond to that in a way that won't get you fired, KWIM? I
started laying my coat over a chair at an empty cubicle. The
no-coat-racks-thing was hugely unpopular as a symptom of how
employees felt they were being treated by the move (for example,
the CEO made a conscious decision not to have acoustical tiles
installed in the ceiling because she liked the industrial look,
which greatly exacerbated the noise issues found with open
concept).
One of my coworkers happened to be in a cubicle that was close
to a pillar. One day, she walked in with a 3M Command Hook,
stuck the hook on that pillar, and hung up her coat. Numerous
people applauded, silently.
She hung it on the side of the pillar that faced away from the
rest of the office, so it went unnoticed by the CEO.
Finally, after many complaints, they decided that they would
clear out one supply closet and make it into a coat closet.
This meant that the vast majority of the employees had to travel
to another floor of the building to hang their coats. It was
ridiculous.
But, yeah, the no "clutter" thing (no trash cans, no coat racks,
no cubicle walls to hang family photos, etc.) is a big trend
right now.
#Post#: 25981--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cubes Open Office land - what breaches of etiquette have you
seen?
By: bopper Date: February 14, 2019, 2:59 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
We got moved to an open office...but we had coat closets,
Telephone rooms, mini meeting rooms, conference rooms, etc.
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