I'm getting my own office at work. This has been an ongoing dream of mine for quite a few years. For very good reason. My until-now current situation has been like this: there's me and another legal secretary in one room, in the back of the building. It's the smallest room in the building, added on to this 1890s century-home-converted-to-office-building. This room isn't much bigger than a smallish bedroom in an average house, yet in it is: 2 L-shaped desks for me and the other secretary; a huge machine that is our copier / printer / fax / scanner; a second smaller printer; a largish wooden shelving unit thing in the middle of the floor (on which sits my computer monitor and several large metal boxes of file cards); and three 4-drawer filing cabinets. Due to the fact that our file cabinets can no longer hold all our files, there's also usually files stacked all over the floor. Moving around in this room is an exercise in flexibility worthy of Cirque du Soleil.
In fact, here are some pictures I took awhile back. My (former) desk is the one on the left, with the blue coat on the chair.
From the doorway into the room:
Another view:
These pictures don't even really do it justice ... it doesn't give the 'feel' of what it's actually like to have to sit and work in this EMF-infested nightmare all day. If all that wasn't bad enough, we have a wonderful office assistant named Allen who never even got his own desk, and works in the far corner of this room, using the top of the filing cabinets, and sometimes the floor, as his desk (with a portable, cordless phone).
Because the main office equipment is in this room, the 4th person in the office, the front desk person, is back there 25% of the day using the copier / fax / scanner (and generally talking the whole time). And then the attorney (when he's in the office) is often in this room dictating to one of the secretaries, or giving general instructions on one thing or another.
Which means all day long I'm trying to work with at least two other people in the room, talking to each other or on their own phones, or all the phones ringing (which they do incessantly, and there are three of them in this one room), and other people coming into the room talking to those of us who work there. The noise level in this room is maddening. There have been many times when five people have been in this tiny-ass room, all talking at once ... and this is the room I'm supposed to do detailed, complex legal work in!
It's enough to drive anyone insane. No wonder I've been skirting that abyss for so long. The conditions in this room contribute in large part to the angst I routinely experience, like that mentioned in my last post. Large part.
Meanwhile, we have two other rooms in the front of the building that are largely empty and rarely used. I've told my boss on numerous occasions that it's ludicrous that he has 80% of the working guts of the office (the computers, equipment, and staff) crammed into the tiniest room in the building. I've been begging him to let me work in one of the unused rooms up front - to get out of that tiny claustrophobic madhouse would help enormously in mitigating the rest of the craziness I have to endure at that place. I mean, people can only take so much ... .
Believe me - this has nothing to do with 'prestige.' This has nothing to do with "oooh, I have my own office." I've really never cared about that kind of crap. I really just wanted a saner, more productive work environment. I actually just wanted to be able to do my job without the incessant, crazy constant interruptions and distractions, All. Day. Long.
So ... it's finally happening. Through a series of events I won't go into the details of, I am finally getting the front room as my own office! I won't officially move in till Monday morning, but my new computer's in there, and today I got to work in there for awhile while the boss and I were going over a backlog of work. And it was amazing!!!!
It's been hard for me to even say "my own office" ... I keep referring to it as 'my room' ... as if I'm presuming too much by calling it my 'office.' But it is, it is, and now that I'm finally wrapping my head around the fact, I can't contain my exuberance! After actually getting to work in there today, in the glorious, wondrous quiet ... the incredible, indescribeable silence ... no ringing phones all over the office (just mine, and it's ringer is turned down to an incredibly muted volume) ... no 4 or 5 people all talking at once, to each other or on their various phones ... just heavenly peace, where I can focus and concentrate and actually do my work without constant distractions ... all I can do is sigh.
And after the initial wonder settled in, I realized something important. This is MY OFFICE. I don't have to say "my room" as if I'm a teenager at home. It's my office, and I damned well deserve it!! I've been working at this place for 12 years. I've been a legal secretary for 17 years. I am incredibly good at my job, and I do a lot of very complex work on these cases. I'm far more than just a "typist." My work involves most of what a paralegal does - the only difference is that I learned it all on the job, and never bothered to go get the 'official certification.'
There's no reason for me to feel all 'unentitled' about this, as if I've somehow managed to trick them into something and they're going to catch on and boot me out of the place after a few days. I deserve this, and I'm going to freaking wallow in it!!! I have my own office.
Here are some pictures I actually took last February (when I was pushing for this one other time, but wasn't able to get it to work - then). The files all over the table were my boss's work files, as he used to use this room to 'store his work.' Those files are all moved to a permanent new location now - that's taken care of. For the time being I'm using that large glass-topped table as my desk, because I haven't yet picked out an actual desk. When I do, the glass-topped table will be moved to the room across the hall. But look at this place! Compared to that other room ... well, I'm sure you can understand my excitement. (picture that table as it looks now, empty of all but my new laptop computer - I chose laptop over desktop because I love laptops - and it was the right decision, it's a joy to work with, and is much more flexible).
And if the wonderful, quiet, room all to myself wasn't good enough ... those two large windows on the left look out onto a huge front porch which is about the size of half my house, and across the street from that is the Women's Garden on the grounds of City Hall. That's going to be my new view out my office windows! (as opposed to my former view, which was the parking lot; granted, I was happy to have a window - A window - so this is just pure heaven).
I am very confident that this move alone is going to wipe out half (if not more) of the angst I was experiencing here which was causing me to detest this place as badly as I did. I may actually like my work again - it was never the 'legal work' I didn't like, I did after all choose this job direction voluntarily (the only vocation I ever did choose voluntarily and consciously) - it has just been the working conditions and certain people who were making it unbearable. Now I get (a) better working conditions, (b) huge distance and buffer from the problem person, and (c) the ability to do my job well again - with focus and lack of disruptions to get it done right. I'm actually psyched about how much more I will be able to do now in managing this caseload, the new responsibilities I can take on because I will have the time, space, and mental focus to actually handle it.
Just hadda share. This doesn't mean I'm going to completely give up looking for something that I may find more rewarding. It can't hurt to explore! But at least I won't be in a panic about finding it anymore.
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