Scorehead wrote:
Joe Orr Road Rod wrote:
Scorehead wrote:
And whats with the low end screw together particle board Sauder desk? Also, that isn't an office. Its a small dive apartment with low end berber carpeting.
I don't run my company with Veblen goods. We work econo. I don't have an office, though I certainly could. I belong right on the floor with my guys. Maybe your office looks like the palace at Versailles. If so, I feel bad for your company's investors.
I'm just messing with you. My office is in my house, so yea, it is nice. I figure that I spend a lot of time in my office & I want to be in a place that is nice & comfortable. When I worked at corporate headquarters, I wanted my employees to like their work environment & surroundings & to be comfortable. Employees deserve as much.
I miss corporate like I miss a sharp stick in the eye.
Yeah, I know. I'm not thin-skinned anyway. And the truth is our office isn't much more than a dive apartment without walls. I told my friend it used to be Baltimore Colts headquarters and he still doesn't believe me. I asked him why the fuck he thinks it says "COLTS" in big blue letters on the side of the building. The NFL wasn't always the juggernaut it is today.
Anyway, I think a lot of it has to do with corporate culture. I've never been a guy who defines himself through his job. It's just something I do to make money so I can do what I want. I understand keeping a workforce happy, but I think being treated fairly is really what the employee wants.
My wife is the change management leader on a reconfiguring project at a company of about 700 employees. You should hear all the headaches. The company is trying to establish standards for types of offices and cubes, but there are "special people" who want exceptions. My wife is telling them, you can make whatever rules you want, but it's likely that if you make the one whiner happy, you're going to piss off five or ten others who aren't so vocal and will just silently mope about it. And you have division managers coming from two different schools of thought. The first being that workspace is functional and everyone should just have the set-up he or she requires to effectively perform their jobs. The second being that larger cubes and offices are rewards for a job well done or longevity. Obviously, I'm from the first school and I'm willing to walk the walk. I don't need a big office, so I don't have one.
At the last start-up I was a partner in, we wanted to have a certain look to our offices because clients would be visiting us. Thus, I purchased expensive office furniture and chairs that all matched. As I laid out the offices for the build out, I exercised my own sensibilities regarding what each person needed. For example, the marketing director would be taking many meetings in his office so he got a larger space with side chairs. I put the CEO in the center and gave him an executive desk to reinforce his position. I was the only guy who shared an office, which is how I met my current business partner. I wanted to have him in with me so I could supervise him as he supervised the phone room.
The smallest office went to the sales manager. In fact, the CEO and I had a long discussion about whether we should give him an office at all. We eventually decided he should have a place at headquarters to do paperwork, so we had a small office built out for him with just a small desk and a couple side chairs in case he needed to meet with his salesmen at the office. But we agreed that his office was actually in his car, in the street, in your home where he would be selling our product and driving the company forward. But when this goof saw the small office he cried like a fucking baby. I had to take him out to lunch to explain the whole thing to him but he still wasn't happy. I want to work with men, not fucking babies. Get in the car and sell some windows, you fucking crybaby.