Goodbye Office. Hello World.

Yesterday was my last day in my private office. I packed up my things and took my painting of Darth Vader off the wall. My floor in the office building is getting remodeled, so I needed to vacate before the demolition crew comes through. I’m moving into a new workspace that does not have offices at all. There’s a lot to be excited for in that new space, but that’s a subject for a future blog article. Today, I look back, reflect, and honestly mourn a little.

When I started my first tech job, I didn’t have a cubicle. I worked in a shared lab area with a tech bench for repairing computers. I mostly worked “out in the field” which meant other peoples’ cubicles and offices. I don’t even think I had my own computer. I’m pretty sure I shared whatever machines were in the lab.

My first cubicle

My second job was at a help desk. There, I had my own computer, but I shared a cubicle. That was alright because I got along really well with my cube-mate, and it felt like major improvement over my previous arrangement.

After that, I was promoted to a desktop support analyst. There, I got my own corner of a cubicle bullpen. Square-footage-wise, I was moving up in the world. I had my own space but could easily swing my chair around to talk to my co-workers.

The next hop on my career brought me into a Network Operations Center. This was mission control for our data center, and I was often the subject of tours. It was a fish-bowl experience with onlookers staring at me from the other side of the glass. From a square-footage and privacy standpoint, this was a step backwards, but I enjoyed working in a high-tech facility.

One promotion after that, when I became a Systems Engineer, I got my first real private cubicle. Cubicle life was the norm for me for a while after that, and I was perfectly happy with it.

Once I became a manager, I got promoted to this thing called a manager cube. It’s not an office. It’s not a standard cube. It’s a big enough cube to have chair on the other side of your desk, so you can entertain a few guests and have not-so-private meetings with short attendee lists. I really didn’t care for my manager cube, even though they were a bit of status symbol. I eventually gave it up and went back to standard cube.

My first office

Seven years ago, I got promoted to the director level, which meant I got a real office, with real walls, and a door that opened and closed. I’m not going to lie. I really, really liked getting an office. Sure, there is status, but it was also very practical. Before I had an office, I struggled to find places to have private conversations.

There were conference rooms, but they were rarely available at a moment’s notice when I needed them. I had badge access to the comm closets and data centers and would often bring people in there to have private conversations. Few people had access, so they were all mine. Of course, I had a some people walk in on me to jack a cord into a patch panel, but that was fine.

Having an office instantly made all of those problems go away. Additionally, I found that it made me much more approachable because people could visit me, close the door, and tell me what they really thought. That didn’t happen when I sat out in the open. I wrote an entire article about that experience. Check it out here.

Winding up back where I began

So, here I am, jumping off the office space ladder. I suppose the next rung would have been a corner office on a higher floor of the building with a better view. I guess I’ll just have to imagine what that would have been like.

Looking forward, I am embracing a new paradigm of a shared modern workspace. I plan on being a lot more mobile and less fixed to any single space that I would call my own, kind of like my first job, 20 years ago.

There is a grand vision and plan for this evolution, and I know that I’m not going though it alone. Many companies are going through a similar transition. I’ll share my thoughts on that in an upcoming article. For now, goodbye office. I’ll miss you, but if all goes well, not too much.

Read this article on my blog site: https://zachonleadership.com/goodbye-office-hello-world/