Which way to the office?

Today I started my new role. This has meant a change of office. I went to my, now old, office to box up some stuff to take across and locked up behind me. I will be back in that office from time to time so have only brought across what I feel are the essentials for now.

I’m going to be sharing an office again, something I’ve not done for several years. Having said that, both my fellow officee and I will be working from home at various points, so in reality will probably see very little of each other.

The weird thing is that the desk I’m now occupying was clearly someone else’s and they vacated it in a hurry. I suspect as a result of the first lockdown when those who could work from home, were encouraged to do so.

It feels a bit odd though to be moving someone else’s coffee cup and pen pot etc out of the way, so I can clean it down, and make space for my stuff. Somehow it feels invasive.

I’m now in an inner office situated at the back of a larger open plan office. The open plan office used to be occupied by IT staff, most of whom now work from home. Its a bit like the Marie Celeste.

I’ve booted up the PC and its taking an age to load my desktop view. Then of course it wants to do a gazillion updates because it hasn’t been used in 6 months. There’s one of those ergonomic mouse gizmos which feels very odd. That’s going to have to go. The screens (yes, there are two) are too close, the desk is smaller, there’s a headset plugged into the phone. The phone doesn’t ring out loud even though I’ve tested the ring tone. I’ve had to rethink my lunchtime walk start and stop.

One of the good things about it is that I’m much farther away from the shops and canteen and would have to go outside and into a building about 3 minutes walk away, so that should stop me from snacking.

It’s going to take a bit of getting used to.