Everyone knows that for a company to be really productive and successful it must have a diverse group of people who can do a bunch of different jobs. For example, the company I work for is in sales, so we have sales people, but we also have IT, accounting, marketing, production, HR, and a bunch of other people that I don't know what they do.
The thing is, my company is divided into two very distinct groups: sales and everything else. When you enter, if you turn right you see all the sales people (including me at my lovely L-shaped grey desk) chatting with clients on the phone or typing away. It's noisy and loud. But if you enter our suite and turn left, you find yourself in a silent area, where people look like they are working but it is so quiet it is hard to tell.
The only time I actually see these people who dwell beyond my border is in the ladies room. See, we only have one for the whole company and it is located near reception, right in the middle of the two wings.
And I don't mind running into people I know the the bathroom. Hell, I am a girl, I have been known to carry on full fledged conversations while one or more of my co-workers are peeing the the stalls next to me. But whenever I swing that door open and see an unfamiliar face, my normally brash behavior turns nervous and I feel weird about peeing where they can hear me.
Or I feel embarrassed when I exit a stall to find several of these "Others" staring at me in the mirror, the same questions playing out across their face as mine: Who is this person? Do they work here? Did someone wander in off the street just to use our facilities?
To remedy this, I think my company needs to hold just more than two whole-company events each year. Two days out of 265 is not enough to get to know a person well so that you feel comfortable sharing a bathroom with them. Wouldn't you agree?
The Office Scribe
The thing is, my company is divided into two very distinct groups: sales and everything else. When you enter, if you turn right you see all the sales people (including me at my lovely L-shaped grey desk) chatting with clients on the phone or typing away. It's noisy and loud. But if you enter our suite and turn left, you find yourself in a silent area, where people look like they are working but it is so quiet it is hard to tell.
The only time I actually see these people who dwell beyond my border is in the ladies room. See, we only have one for the whole company and it is located near reception, right in the middle of the two wings.
And I don't mind running into people I know the the bathroom. Hell, I am a girl, I have been known to carry on full fledged conversations while one or more of my co-workers are peeing the the stalls next to me. But whenever I swing that door open and see an unfamiliar face, my normally brash behavior turns nervous and I feel weird about peeing where they can hear me.
Or I feel embarrassed when I exit a stall to find several of these "Others" staring at me in the mirror, the same questions playing out across their face as mine: Who is this person? Do they work here? Did someone wander in off the street just to use our facilities?
To remedy this, I think my company needs to hold just more than two whole-company events each year. Two days out of 265 is not enough to get to know a person well so that you feel comfortable sharing a bathroom with them. Wouldn't you agree?
The Office Scribe
Posts
2 comments:
i think it might be psooible in 265days but not in 365 days :)
You should try walking into a bathroom and find an unknown high ranking Army officer stepping out of a stall and staring straight at you. Its not awkward at all...
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