I’m going to veer off my usual topics to write about something that has been annoying me to no end lately. So my boss, I call him Pop-In because he is a fan of randomly popping his head into my cubicle to ask for status reports or just to talk about anything under the sun whenever the whim hits him, has this nasty habit of invading my cubicle space. Yesterday he did this and it was beyond awkward considering after I finished telling him about the status of my current assignment, he kind of just stood there bobbing his head and saying, “yep” for another 5 minutes. This uncomfortable encounter is usually limited to every 3 to 4 days, which makes it bearable. However, this morning he popped in again!! This time he began to ask me how my night went. WTH…I’m not discussing my personal life with my boss on any level. Imagine if I told him what I really did: met a stranger at the bar, went home with him only to find out he was a SVP at a Fortune 500…ok, so that didn't really happen to me but hey!...a girl can dream.
Regardless, it made me think why people don’t think before they invade someone’s space. Yes, I work out of a cubicle, but just b/c I’m out in the open does not give everyone the right to make me have a conversation with them whenever the mood hits them. When he doesn’t feel like being bothered, he just shuts his door. This is so unfair and I think people should observe the following code of cubicle ethics in the office:
1. Always send an email prior to just stopping by for status updates. This gives the person enough time to contrive some story of their progress, even if they were just on people.com or facebook for the past hour. Putting people on the spot is just not cool at all
2. If I have my headphones on and what you have to say is not important, just go in your office and revert back to rule #1.
3. If I’m on the phone, even if it is a personal call, do not stand there and just wait for me to get off.
4. It is rude to place a subordinate’s cubicle directly in front of their boss. Constant minimizing of windows that aren't work related gets really annoying and lets be honest, everyone slacks off 50% of the day.
5. Just because you have to walk by someone’s cube to get to a common area, do not look into their space every time you walk by. It makes the person feel like you’re keeping tabs on her. Keep your eyes forward!
Geez, I really hate to have written this but I just felt like it needed to be put out there. Some days it really makes me want to dig a hole in the floor and escape. (Since my boss is across from me I can't walk out and leave without him seeing me) I might just decide to buy one of those “Do Not Disturb” signs to hang on the outside of my cubicle to prevent all of this.
9 comments:
Haha! You should totally hang that sign. I would love to see his reaction.
I like the picture - I can totally picture you with a shovel, digging your way to the outside world.
DITTO to all of those! I have a few of my own:
No crowding around other peoples cubes and talking...socialize around your own cube, you're annoying!
No taking personal calls
because I don't want to hear how your dog ran away and shat on your neighbor's lawn.
Use earphones to listen to music...no listening out loud!
And no eating food when I'm not...because it makes me jealous.
Go out and buy yourself one of those computer screen blockers. The 50 dollars is well worth it. noone can see what you are doing on your computer except for you unless they are standing directly behind you, which in the cubicle world doesnt happen.
Amen!
When I first started working I never took personal calls...now that I'm about to finish up my internship I take them all the time. I know I annoy the ppl around me too but I just don't care. Plus I had to hear the same dumb story from this guy every day for a week about his kid and summer camp...if he didn't care about annoying me, he will be forced to listen to me flirt on the phone with boys. Well as of late...a boy haha!
Ha, try sharing a big open office with your boss, getting caught blogging and getting fussed at, not for blogging but because (a) "It's not about ME! Write something about me. Why isn't it about ME?!?" or (b) "That's not funny. You told me that two days ago. Write something funny."
Both those things have actually happened to me. I may not get Dooced, but I get bitched at for not being funny/topical.
OMG...he makes you share an office! Okay, so you officially have the worst situation. Does he read ur blog regularly? If my boss did I'm sure I would see a pink slip on my desk tomorrow morning.
He doesn't really make me share his office, that was just how it worked out with the layout of our latest location. At our building before this one, I had a big office all to myself with a door and four big windows. I liked that. As far as reading my blog regularly, he seems to forget about it for l-o-n-g periods and then read a bunch of entries at once.
Ahh, I see. Well you have to be very careful about what you write :-) I gotta catch up on ur blog though.
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