One of the frustrating things about working in a corporate environment is … that my thumbtacks won’t work on my cubicle walls. Argh. While I appreciate the privacy and sound-deadening properties afforded by the generously towering fabric covered walls my employer provides, how am I supposed to hang a calendar from a wall that does not allow for thumbtack penetration? Where do I hang my successories, witty sayings, comics, databases, flowcharts, GANTT charts, UML diagrams, and my children’s artwork?
In other situations, the thumbtack’s utility is more than apparent. Its ability to penetrate plasterboard make it the obvious choice for affixing reminders next to the refrigerator, putting up a calendar above a child’s desk, or slapping a shopping list next to the the door to the garage so that maybe, just maybe, your oblivious spouse (I confess … I have been guilty of this on more than one occasion) will notice and take the hint that they need to stop at Costco for some pizza, wine and diapers before coming home from work.
At home, the thumbtack’s raison d’être is clear: stick stuff to the wall.
But at work? With walls bent on thwarting me at every turn, the pointed purpose of the lowly thumbtack is … pointless. Thumbtacks enter my cube, see the bare wasteland of its walls and the graveyard of bent tacks that came before, and their overwhelming ennui causes them to want to call the nearest Suicide Hotline.
If only there were a hotline that catered to the special needs of office accessories …
Still, I try. Currently I have affixed my calendar, witty sayings, comics, databases, flowcharts, GANTT charts, UMLs, and my children’s artwork onto my cubicle walls with sticky tack. It doesn’t really work well on fabric, it makes for difficult cleanup, but what would you rather have, a blank gray wall …
Or this:
I feel fortunate to have never had to work in a cubicle.
It’s not so bad … I walk around, I talk to people, I cause trouble. Like the time I bugged someone by having a remote controlled helicopter hover over his cube. That whole situation escalated until five of us got reprimanded for “Cubicle ‘Copter Fighting”.
Ah, good times. 🙂
When I worked in corporate America I used magnets on my metal drawers and we had these awesome clips that you could use for your cube! I may have to send you some lol! This article is well written by the way!
Now that would be frustrating.
I agree. You can’t just leave the wall plain!
I had to work in a gray cubicle. It didn’t matter how I tried to decorate it — it felt like the 5th level of hell. I think if they have to make cubicles, they should come with a roof and a door. 🙂
The fifth circle is where the wrathful struggle with each other to keep their head above the murky waters in the river Styx while the sullen burble in frustration just beneath the surface.
Well, I suppose knowing the lay of the land in Hell will be one of the advantages I’ll have for having majored in Italian Literature. 🙂
Seriously, though, I see my cubicle more as a weigh station in Purgatory, because I get to escape periodically to get lunch or go home.
Meetings, on the other hand, now those are Hell. I imagine all attendees frozen in a circle in the lake of Dis up to their necks, each attendee gnawing in anguish on the head of one of his neighbors.