The Office 3: The Facilities
Posted on | September 23, 2007 at 8:50 am | 1 Comment
For the most part, I’m pretty pleased with the new office building where I work every day. It’s nicer than the old converted warehouse we were in before. And I like that there are other companies in the building, as it makes me feel less isolated in my worklife. The facilities staff keeps it clean. The decor isn’t offensive. The other tenants aren’t too noisy or intrusive, and we’re behind a security door anyway. In one of the other offices, there’s a weekly yoga class on Wednesday’s during lunch that anyone can attend ($10) and which I need to start going to. There’s a locker room and shower that I haven’t had to use, but which the people who bike to work, or bike/run during lunch, use frequently. There are UPS, FedEx, etc dropboxes, which are nice, and there’s a newspaper box with copies of Westword, which I go get every Thursday. The elevators are not the zippiest around, but at least they seem to work. They have to be used a lot, since for some obscure security reason, the non-1st floor stairway doors are locked from the inside at all times (i.e. you can always enter the stairwell from any floor, but you can only exit on the first floor). This doesn’t seem like much of a security measure to me, since one can still use the elevators and they mostly don’t require badge activation.
Work Area
We are using cubicles from our old building, so not much has changed with the actual immediate work environment. They are sizable and utilitarian enough, but nothing special. We are packed pretty tightly, so there’s not much privacy. The cubicle walls are six feet high or so. I did have more privacy at the old office, but that was mostly because I had a very good cubicle location (against a back wall) there. The worst thing for me is that I’m very near the printer, which is very noisy. Well, the co-workers can be pretty noisy too, especially when they’re talking about college football or arguing about some project matter. (Actually, I’m sometimes the loudest on that last one.)
Breakroom
We have our own small breakroom with a fridge, microwave, coffee machine, etc which is a short walk from my cubicle. However, there’s no vending machines in our office or on our floor, so we either have to go to another floor to get pop & snacks (which is a bit of a walk), bring our own, or drink some of the free pop in the fridge that my company (somewhat sparingly) provides. I do a combination of all three to get my pop fix in. I’m not sure if having no nearby vending machine is better or worse than having a vending machine from another dimension, like at the old building.
Phones
I don’t like our phone system much, compared to the old one. They are very simple and there’s no “conference” or “transfer” function (though 3-way calling kind of works). Outgoing calls are blocked for caller id, and you can’t use any “*” (star) functions, so when I call someone from work it always shows up as “unknown name”. Which definitely limits functionality where call reject/blocking is concerned. There’s no incoming caller id, but we didn’t have that at the old office either. At least there is a blinking light to indicate voice mail messages.
Building Location
One cool thing is that the location of the building is within walking distance of many, many restaurants, and within short driving distance of many, many more, including some very good ones. That’s the nice thing about working in the heart of Denver. However, there’s no real retail shopping near. The old office was near some shopping centers and big box stores and stuff, so I could frequently run some quick shopping errands during lunch. That was especially nice during the holiday gift-buying season. The new one isn’t close to any of that, so I have to do any shopping at night or on weekends.
But there’s one area where I really have a problem with the facilities…
Next: The Conclusion (at last)! Watersports!
Pet Peeve Of The Day: Television commercials where the sound is louder than the shows.
Latre.
Comments
One Response to “The Office 3: The Facilities”
September 23rd, 2007 @ 7:15 pm
Free Tibet!