On the Impact of Physical Space

The adjustment of ones environment has a substantial impact on your feelings about your job. With the way the Oceanography world changes so rapidly, I've been in a dozen or so different work environments over my career - often with the same company, but moving from one department to a more interesting job in another. But also in several other companies. I have been in ancient, 1950's style offices in government offices, to dated 1970's orange and brown offices and I've worked through a multi-million dollar refit of my office space around me, and contributed to the changes. Beyond the decor, the people that populate the space I think are even more important.

I would break down my sense of space thusly, saying the overall experience of my environment is composed of 15% decor, 60% people, 10% HVAC, 5% location, 10% access to outdoor views.

Yeah, that seems about right. I tried to juggle the numbers a bit, but seem to have coalesced at that point. Wrapped up into the people number though are a few things. Important factors of people in a workplace environment (for me) are:
- work-related noise - I like a little bit, but someone who has conf-calls in the open office space or talks loudly is annoying
- non-work related noise. Personal/flirting conversations three desks down are very annoying.
- Smells: people who wear cologne, or that chick slathering on the cocoa-butter sunscreen 10 times a day was hell. Are people really that dumb?
- Annoying ticks - that's been the worst of it lately (before this desk shuffling). The guy with the glue-stick that he opens and clicks shut every 10 seconds was like water torture. The guy hacking up a lung every minute was insane. I can still hear him, but he's a good 10-15m away now, which is helpful, but not totally out of my life.
- All around obnoxious people - Mr. patronizing is pretty tough to listen to. He's about 8cubes away now. He speaks to people like he's a sunday-school teacher, and they are all slightly retarded, slightly deaf, six year olds. So it's loud, over enunciated, and condescending.

But I don't want to give the impression that having people around is all bad. Of all my workplaces for 25years, this one just happens to have the worst combo of abrasive behaviours. There are positives to having people around. Learning about and meeting other people is typically a joy. Work related chatter adds a feeling of activity and excitement. Even personal chatter is a positive thing within reason. People chat about their lives, interesting things they've seen. It lasts a few seconds or even several minutes and is not booming across the office. That's all good stuff.

So with the latest move of deck chairs on the titanic, I have some new neighbours, we'll see if their habits are worse or better than those who were around. I suspect they will have their challenges, but given the worst in class behaviours of those others I was near for the last year, I can't imagine I'd be on the extreme of the probability curve twice in a row.

-Researchinator turns his attention back to work, invigorated by change.