Hi!

As many of you know, I am now working for a company in Ashwaubenon that is a big company compared to my past career experiences. This is the first job where I am in a cubicle in a *team* atmosphere. There are about 100 people in my building that are grouped into several departments. My particular team is 15 members.

It is interesting how this *Cubicle Life* is so much different than working for smaller companies. The mentality of the staff, in general, is very new and strange to me. The focus of people ranges from 125% motivated to "if I am really quiet, they may forget I am here!". The range of personalities and type of people is damn interesting!

Basic motion:
Most days, it seems like everyone in the building is moving in slow motion. Nobody walks briskly and for the most part they look like zombies moving from point A to point B. Expressionless and somewhat dead behind the eyes. I walk around pretty quick, most of the time, and I get dirty looks for nearly running over people who suddenly POP out of their cubicle or are coming at me around a corner. In our area, there are printers and fax machines every 25 feet - kind of cool, actually! It is funny that nobody really goes very far - the farthest you will see them walk to is the breakroom (opposite corner of the bldg from my desk).

Smoking:
I am really surprised how many people smoke who work there. My team, alone, is about 80% smokers. Bldg wide, for example, at 8am you can find 8-10 people standing outside the breakroom having a puff. I truly think that most of these people smoke JUST so they can take 10 min breaks a few times each day. There are a few that work there that are social / drinking smokers that don't even bother smoking during the day. Again, interesting to see the routines of people in this setting!

Phones:
Most phones are designed for headsets only - no handsets. A percentage have purchased their own cordless units (I am one). It is strange seeing all these people in their cubicles with *tethers* to phones - reminds me of Sci-Fi movies, really! For me, the phones become rather annoying because there is no central *receptionist*, therefore we are constantly getting calls for other reps and have to transfer transfer transfer - 1/2 in our office, 1/2 to the Rochester, NY office. "They" know when you phone is not active, so you have to stay ON whenever possible. The tracking of incoming and outgoing calls is very interesting! Recently, they implemented a system that they can record your calls - but you don't know it. On top of that, now they can also see what is on your computer screen while you are on that call. Talk about the *eye in the sky* !

Group Activities:
This gets very annoying for me. Someone is always organizing some little celebration for some stupid reason. One day each month, for instance, they have a *food day* and that is the birthday celebrations for the month. Yeah, I never participate. Recently, a co-worker sent around an e-mail that had a spreadsheet showing everyone's birthday grouped by month. My name was on the list with the wrong date. I kindly replied, "The date is wrong, but could you just remove me from the list, please". Oh boy....big time office drama! She replies with something like, "I was instructed to organize this list from our Manager....blah blah." Damn. So, I forwarded the msg to the Mgr (cc the chick, of course) with, "I hate to be difficult, but am requesting to be excluded from the birthday list. As a previous victim of indentity theft, my DOB is personal and private to me. Thank you for your understanding." It is true, actually! Yeah, no list for Robb.

There are so many other points I could go on about Cubicle Life. I will save them for later updates to go with single-incidents that amuse me (or frustrate me!).

Cheers!

Robb
jalapeno.mail@gmail.com