What Kind of Building Do You Work/Study In?

[VetLegion]

This is a rant basically, initiated by my reading about new offices of an Silicon Valley IT company earlier today.

Last two buildings I worked in were terrible "modern" office buildings of the type that has windows which can't be opened, walls made of something that isn't soundproof, corridors intersected with doors that can be opened only with magnetic cards (a useless hassle)...

These office buildings are so generic and inhuman as to make one wonder if it is so on
purpose.

Plus, I work next to a big power plant and a coffee factory. It stinks, literally!

I'm going to find a new job by New Year. Is anyone looking for a techie?

Anyway... where do you work? Is it a pleasant space or an instrument of tyranny designed to squash individualism?

[KrazyHorse]

I'm in a physics department, so it's a soulless building with very few windows (of which I'm lucky enough to have one), wasted and unattractive common areas, excessive air conditioning (because the comfort of the computers is more important than that of the human beings) and loads of whiteboards without functioning markers available.

[Jon Miller]

It is cubicals with no windows (despite the fact that there could be windows behind me. It is the new building at the lab.



I liked my old crappy physics building better, somewhat just because it had windows.

JM

[Kuciwalker]

I'm in a physics department, so it's a soulless building with very few windows (of which I'm lucky enough to have one), wasted and unattractive common areas, excessive air conditioning (because the comfort of the computers is more important than that of the human beings) and loads of whiteboards without functioning markers available.

That described our computer science building to a T, until this year, when we moved into the new Gates Center. Now there are barely any rooms without windows, etc.

[loinburger]

My previous job was mostly cubicle farms. Then we spent a ridiculous amount of time haggling over new office space, which resulted in my moving to an office with no door for marginally more privacy and considerably less space. (For awhile I shared a conference room that me and a (quiet) co-worker had converted into an office, but then The Powers That Be found out what we were doing and sent us back to the cubicle farm.) The way the building was designed some of the hallways had windows but none of the work areas had windows. (My door-less office had a window that faced out to a corridor that had a window, so I sort of had a window, except I quickly got sick of every tom dick and harry walking down the corridor looking into my office so I plastered over the window.)

Presently I'm working in a 2-story house, with my two bosses and the two part-timers on the lower floor and me on the upper floor. I've got two sets of windows, one of which occasionally glares out my computer screen (the blinds are imperfect).

[Grandpa Troll]

I have an office to do mix design generation and most of my technical letter writing and project proposals and quotations.

It is an ICF and is pretty neat

However, I spend most of my in my F-150 Crew Cab, I have parts of 6 counties I am in charge of.

I do love road work although it is a lot of responsibility and daily is a lesson in balancing, which is what most managers contend with i am sure.

Gramps

[Asher]

A modern, soulless office building. Tons of windows, lots of cubes with low walls and window portions on the top half of the walls. Lots of card accesses.

It's nice.

[Japher]

I work in an office park, the buildings in the area I am in are all single story with nice trees and grass areas. Our suite has 7 offices, of which 4 are occupied and 1 is a library and 1 other is for an "as needed" contractor. We also have a printing room, two restrooms, a filing room, and a boardroom that all do their jobs nicely. I have four floor to ceiling windows that looks out onto a parking lot, which would be horrible if it weren't for saab girl (hot chick who drives a saab).

It's very comfortable and 5 miles from home, so I come home for lunch.

Really, I can't complain. 'cept, I'm an engineer. I would prefer the office more if my plant was right next door. However, since I am in design now I don't have a plant and what I design can be anywhere. That, to me, is rather sad. I like the industrial nature of my job, and the hum of a well run plant. I generally make drugs though, so the facilities aren't so NIMBY as other type of facilities, like the ethanol plant I just finished with.

[Skanky Burns]

I work in the office of a plant (dozer, tractor, etc) workshop. On one hand, the building is cold in winter, hot in summer, built using asbestos and stinks of grease and oil. On the other hand, I have a big desk and a window looking onto trees.

[MrFun]

I work in the kind of building that's made from carbon-based material.

[-Jrabbit]

I work wherever I want. Wi-fi laptop, cell phone, done. The only time I'm tethered is for printing and scanning.

In the last few years of my corporate life, I had a nice office in a modern building -- decent size (about 8 by 10 feet), floor-to-ceiling windows with photosensing shade system, actual locking door and walls that went to the ceiling. It was a pretty sweet space, a 7-story building by a "brand name" architect. It had a big atrium and glass roof -- thus allowing real plants. Even the cube dwellers had pretty good spaces. But I don't miss it.

[SlowwHand]

I work outdoors. I oversee holding pens for mostly Okies and Coonasses. The Mexicans are immediately shipped south to a facility.
Once a week, we fly helicopters to the respective states of residence and throw them out. They're a lot like those turkeys on WKRP. They don't fly.

[:) Smiley]

There've been studies out there that high quality buildings, especially those with windows that open and good natural light, make workers more productive, boost sales in stores, help patients get better faster in hospitals, and kids learn gooder in skool.

Yet the place I work (an architecture firm!) is in a crummy 80's soulless office block. We moved there a couple years ago, the previous location was in a converted warehouse with lots of big windows and high ceilings. Since then the office has stagnated and folks seem to be a bit crankier than before and set new records for absenteeism. Meanwhile the firm's other branch moved to very nice space and they've since doubled in size even through the recession...

[Jon Miller]

I know that I would be willing to sacrifice several thuosand a year to have a better office/building/etc.

JM

[:) Smiley]

actually, if you had a better building, you probably could be paid more since you'd be more productive. We're talking double-digit productivity gains.