For whatever reason, I've found that professional writing and editing has almost without fail landed me in working environments where there are A LOT of women. This holds true for my current job where, in the half of the building I'm seated, I'm the only guy amidst 10 female co-workers.
The thing is, I don't quite understand the reasons behind decorating your office or cubicle space. During my last job, spanning over seven years, the only thing decorating any of my offices were the numerous conference badges and laniards from the assorted IT conventions I'd attended around the country. When I left that job behind, I also left behind the badges, hanging unceremoniously on the wall by a single thumb pin.
Here, however, my female co-workers really seem to get into decorating their cubicles. And I'm not talking simply photos of friends and loved ones, either. These cubicles remind me more of dorm rooms. Seriously, they've even put up a dry erase marker board in one of the cubicle hallways where they write French and Spanish words and phrases for the day. In contrast, my cubicle looks like something where a troll that subsists on stacks of paper would live. I have no decorations. None. Nada. Zero. Zilch. Zippo.
And the thing is, I'm starting to get razzed about it. My co-workers are now insisting I should at least have a picture of my wife up, or something. One even offerred to bring in some art for me to hang on my fabric cubicle walls. Seriously, why would I want to do that? What possible reason would I have to hang a Van Gogh reprint in my cubicle?
Now, maybe if I had an opulent office with a mahogany desk, with busts of Athena and Zeus on either side of a solid oak office door, I'd feel more compelled to bring in some decorations and momentos. But a cubicle?
Although, it might be fun to maybe hang shrunken heads and a string of Viet Cong ears on my cubicle walls, just to see what people say.
Posted by Ryan at September 5, 2008 12:41 PM | TrackBackOr a pic of the dirty mushroom, lol, that would keep them away.
Posted by: Donna at September 7, 2008 04:34 AMzoxtZS indeed.
Get yourself a tear off calendar and put each torn off day up on your cubicle walls. Eventually you will have the most decorate cube and the others will hate you (even more).
Posted by: Erik at September 7, 2008 10:51 PMi'm not into decor either. we have barely ever even decorated our loft, and we've lived there for over 2 years. i find people who spend a lot of time "arranging" things and putting up matching knickknacks and making sure the print on their wallpaper matches the print on the sofa seem like they're doing all that to try to cover up something, or to give them something to do while they don't think about something else (escapism). i feel like people who spend a lot of time decorating their cubicles spend a lot of time wishing they weren't in their cubicles and avoiding work. people who spend a lot of time working and getting shit done don't decorate their cubicles.
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