Hell in the Dilbert Cubicle - survival tips?

But what if EVERYONE then wanted one, pueo? Just think of the implications!

MsOlga, I've temped in offices that limited personal items. One place's rules included no plants (except for bosses), no more than two photos in view, no lotion/tissues/other personal items in view.

My current situation has no limits except like ehBeth's office, nothing can be over the top of the cube wall. I think that's more of an esthetic thing than a circulation thing.

mac

Must be charming, humane places to be! It must be very tempting to think of ways of subverting the rules. Like two GIGANTIC photographs ....

I was just temping, so I had very limited personal items anyway, thank goodness.

I can't say I love my cubicle, but it's the first time I've had any privacy in an office environment. I've always been out in open, where any passing idiot can and will interrupt you. Having a cube to call my own is like heaven in comparison. At least they knock before they interrupt.

Yes, I can see that some privacy would be appreciated.

Well, if next door can have a smegging tiara on her monitor, I can have whatever I want. Thing is - I will be moved frequently..

Short people got no reason
Short people got no reason
Short people got no reason to live....

Git out the shotgun Homer, it's wabbit huntin' season again!

so beth, did she get a panda?

No panda, but I found out today I'm moving to a different cubicle - by the window. I'm movin' on up. I'm going to have a view of my favourite building in Toronto!

When I was a kid, and we came to Toronto to visit, it was a real matter of pride to be able to 'read' the weather beacon.

Hey, window! With a view! Movin' on up indeed.

Minneapolis had one of those, I forgot about it completely until reading that. It would change colors to indicate snow, rain, clear day, etc.

good for you beth!

toronto looks cold, maybe it's just the picture.

Yay for beth!

don't forget the panda

We pretty much can put whatever we want to decorate. Of course it cannot cross the border of anything remotely considered sexual harassment, discrimination or anything else considered politically incorrect. Boston has one too, on top our old John Hancock building, the one difference is the snow color in summer is when the Red Sox are rained out.

Well - update. If any kind soul cares!

Oh - my cubicle is now piled high with paper.

Nearly four months in, and I am wilted and desiccated by the fray.

I know not the ways of bureaucracies, especially nasty and exhausted ones, trying to manage what cannot be managed, without the resourcing to make even a stab at it.

However, after having been awfully overpaid and under-used (partly cos I got no support with navigating the labyrinth) I have helped to achieve some things finally!!!!!

One is to convince THEM that a particularly horribly abused family of kids can't be managed in the ordinary system and need a hugely expensive individual solution.

Individual solution is turning, as we speak, into reality. Mind you - 'twill be a hard row to hoe.

Second is to help develop and keep alive the idea of using departmental psychologists to work with the damn kids, not just assess them.

This one went up to THEM today - haven't heard whether it was successful or not. However, the psychologists are an isolated, voiceless lot - and, if the place decides to have more of them, and make half their task therapy, that is actually an awfully sensible thing to do, from numerous angles.

Whole thing got stuck in a morass of odd organisational dynamics - but someone helped us out of it - and off the thing raced, like a wee hare with greyhounds after it!!

And - I decided to create my own job, after nobody else did - so I am gonna be teaching in attachment and trauma - with a colleague - and on risk and protective factors and such, and secondary traumatisation on me own.

Has been a very strange and gob-smacking experience - full of frustrations, when I could see huge holes down which things were gonna fall, because basic people things, and systemic restraints were not being attended to.

This place has a "keep on hitting and pushing, cos if you hit people hard enough, they will do as you want - always do what you've always done - blame and responsibility go down, while information never goes anywhere - it is better to hear things from a senior person who knows almost nothing about a situation, than from the person dealing with it, because that would mean bringing a peasant into the palace - telling the truth to the person at the top is a "career-limiting move" - (I kept saying I would do it, cos I HAVE no career in this place - but that didn't seem very attractive either - my cries of "Me! Me! I will bell the cat!" went unheard except for mild sneers and rolled eyes)"


Teehee - I think involving everyone is best, even if they be wittle - that attention to people's feelings and systemic restraints is good - that power carries responsibility - that information is not gold to be hoarded - that nothing is so serious that you shouldn't laugh at it - that people "up there" need to know the truth.

Clearly a natural minion!

But - hey - I learned to be threatening, ever so politely - that banging heads against brick walls is fun when you stop - always to check how many other people are already doing what you just got asked to do - that a woman can smile and smile and be a villain - that if a problem LOOKS as though YOU own it, nobody else will ever see it as partly theirs, when they are already stretched to their limits - that sometimes a public tantrum is the only way to get help - that clever and responsible people with no resources will go round and round in endless circles trying to solve, or ignore, a problem that cannot be solved without the resources rather than stop and say "It cannot be done" - or "The emperor has no clothes" (because that is a "career-limiting move) - that threatening to smack the Minister's bottom is not seen as being funny by people with something to lose - that nobdy notices if you aren't there unless they need you for a crisis - that I will NEVER be a bureaucrat, but I have become too soft to deal with clients all the time again - sadly, my tired body is no longer worth anything on the street - so I will just have to get tough - that my normal work place REALLY missed me, and could not find a sufficiently skilled replacement - which is cute for the ego, but means I am SOOOOOOOOOOO gonna be paid out when I get back - I understand the way this place works pretty well, now, which will be a boon, cos I have to work with it from the outside again, all the time - that outgo always swallows income (I knew that, but I was hopeful) - I was right NEVER to give them my mobile phone number - and other stuff, I am sure.

But - none of it is worth what the poor suckers were paying me - man I feel SOOOOOOOOOO guilty.

or socks with widdle button eyes and cute littley noses!!









Oh man!! This is GOLD!!! I'll be spending the weekend de-constructing for an all-out assault next week!


<ummm, was I just typing aloud?>

Wet....

Serenity trumps chaos every time. Hold your dominion.