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Sunday, October 16, 2011

Pimp my cube.

White walls annoy the shit out of me. They are just so...

Boring.

In high school I hid them with pictures of the latest celebrity crushes, starting with Johnathan Brandis. By the time I was in my early twenties, I had covered my walls completely with Nick Carter that the boring white could not been seen at all.

Now that I am an adult I mask my annoyance of white walls at home  with paint and a lot of family pictures.

But what about at work?

When I came into my SE office back in 2008 I got my first 'cube'. Previously my 'office' has consisted of reception like areas. I was ecstatic to find that for once I had walls surrounding me, to hide me to give me the privacy that I crave. The introvert in me screamed yes! But what I wasn't thrilled with was the walls. The boring, plain drive me insane walls.

I decided right then and there that this would have to change. I took my time of course, looking around at other people's cubes. Most of which had their own personalities, half where decked out in college garb, the other half with miscellaneous products. Signs, pictures, calendars. Sports stuff. You name it.  For awhile there I thought of my own cube, an empty canvas, what would I want it to say about me?  Especially since for the most part my coworkers were either. Middle Age, overweight males. Or fresh faced, straight out of college, males.

Either way they were male, and I am pretty sure not to thrilled if they were to look at my collection of Disney snow globes all day. Thankfully, Disney wasn't the only thing I loved. And so to fit in a bit more I decked my cube out with red.

Caps red that is. Not to the point of being obnoxious-not that I thought anyway- a Caps free flag I got at a game, a couple of magnets and my bobbleheads. I threw in a couple of family pictures and snuck in two of my Disney ornaments.  One with the saying believe the other dream. Its a reminder to myself to  never give up.

Along with my collection I have corporate jargon. Group phone numbers and important memos.  And yes there is still plenty of white to be seen. I have not pushed it that far.

Never did I think my cube was over the top, obnoxious, or over kill. Believe me I have seen a couple of those. The guy in the next cube over has his entire cube from top to bottom filled with photos of his family. Nothing else can be seen.

But this past Friday as I sat there concentrating on my latest report my boss came to the kid in the cube behind me and began talking.  And though I am not one to ease drop when my name is mentioned I press my ear out a little more and try to figure out what they are discussing. Its on a move to another area. It seems as though once again we are moving cubes. They offer the kid behind me a window seat, since he has been here for over a year now and figure he deserves it-meanwhile I have been with the company for over 7-and he says if they move it over there, he won't have to look at my crap all the time.

Wait a minute....My crap??

Suddenly I start to look around. To re-evaluate and think about my 'crap' as they called it.  I mean I don't think its that bad, really?? And I don't see what the problem is with any of it. And yet the way they discussed it sounded like it was the worst they had ever seen. And how much did he actually see? The little window may give him a shot of the top of my bobble-heads but if it was seriously that big of a deal, all he had to do was ask me to move them.  Although really its not like they are that horrible. I could make him stare at snow globes, or that stuffed goose that the other coworker has, the one that she changes outfits on every holiday.  Yes he could be staring at that all day. I know several that do.

I at least I tried to make sure it was something that men would actually not care about, how many other women around the office decorated their cubes with hockey related stuff? And in a lot of ways I had a reason to post all this stuff, my husband created half of it? So in a way I was supporting him as well.

I tried to take this from the source, the kid has nothing up not even a photo of anyone.  He is in his mid twenties, barely out of college. Not married, and as far as I know doesn't have any prospects. So in that case, yes I would be a little obnoxious.

But over the top? Seriously??

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