WTF was I Thinking?

Happier Days in the office before Covid-19

I went to my office today.  That explains the title of this blog post doesn't it?  And the answer is, I wasn't. That was part of the problem.

I work out of an office suite in NJ.  The corporation has many offices throughout the world, including 2 in NYC which just opened this week.  "My" suite is just one of 6 on the 3rd floor of an office building.  The suite can probably hold two dozen people the way it is currently laid out with offices and cubicles.  Even before Covid-19, most days there would be less than a 10 people in the office.  There is plenty of open space and the cubicles themselves are generous.

When the country went into lockdown mode several things happened. The corporation's facilities management team went in and cleared everything off of desks, supposedly put items in boxes that were stored in the cubicles and scrubbed everything down.  And not just once; many times.  Sanitizers were installed.  On top of that they took what we used as an inventory (or junk) room and transformed it into a new office for another company within the corporation.  To do that, they had to take all of the junk out of storage and put it someplace else.  So there is cleaning and moving and reconfiguring all going on at the same time. But no one is working in the office, so it's a good time to do it all.

My office opened last Monday.  Going in was voluntary.  I was on vacation, so I didn't go.  But I did think about it.  I thought about the things that I wanted to pick up.  Things that weren't important that I could do.  So I thought I would do it today.  Drive in around 9, do some unimportant things in between scheduled phone calls and then come home around 3.  That was the whole of my plan.  And that's not much of a plan.  Which is wherein the problem lies.

I get up this morning, do my daily walk and get ready for work like I used to. Perhaps this was mistake #1.  I shouldn't have been getting ready like I used to; I should be preparing for something new.  Nonetheless, I packed up my gear and headed out the door a little before nine.

Mistake #2:  Not double checking my driving route.  I knew they were doing construction on my entrance ramp to Route 3.  I didn't check to see if it was open.  It wasn't.  So I had to get onto Route 46 and get off at the next exit to head back south to get on a different ramp to Route 3.

Once I was on the highway, all was good.  Traffic was light and I was cruising along...at least until my low tire pressure light went on.  Now I DID need to make a plan.  And that plan was to take my car in to my local mechanic when I was finished at the office.

Continued on (at a slower speed) and got off at my exit.  Traffic was light around town.  The office building sort of across the street from mine which is much bigger had a few cars in its parking lot.  I pull into my lot and get a spot right in front of the door.  It's after nine and I get the primmest spot there is to get.  I had planned parking towards the back and entering through a different door, taking the stairs and going to my office but I didn't want to be the lone car in an area where there were no cars.  It was already a little strange with there being only a dozen or so cars in the entire HUGE lot.

I put on my mask, gathered up my things and headed inside.  I could have walked down a long (deserted) hall to get to the back steps, but instead I took the elevator.  Once on my floor I saw no one.  The office right across from the elevator (the biggest on the floor) was completely dark.  The office suites next to mine was dark too.  I bypassed the side door and went to the office front door (where I found a pile of mail).  I swiped my ID card (brand new; they have ramped up our security and ID badges were mailed to everyone) and got in with no problem.  (Sigh of relief...this was the one thing I thought I might have problems with, which goes to tell you how wrong I was about EVERYTHING.)  I pick up the mail and leave it on the top of a filing cabinet along with piles of other mail.  I walk to my desk/cubicle with the lights out.  (This is not unusual.  In the past the office was often dark on Fridays when only 3 or 4 of us actually came in and no one felt the need to turn on the lights.)

I put down my stuff and noticed how bare my area was.  Everyone was off my cubicle walls and my files had been removed from their holders (although the actual metal holders and an electric pencil sharpener actually stayed.)  I pulled out my laptop, put it in the dock (one of the few things that did remain along with my monitor and keyboard) and started it up.  It started, but nothing else did.  No monitor.  No keyboard.  On the laptop itself I type in my password and the computer does not find a network.  It says that the dock is not working; it has no power. I crawl under my desk.  There is no power strip.  There is no cord going from the dock to the floor.

I should have had a plan.  I didn't.

Instead I went to turn on the lights, including the lights in the kitchen where I found a motherlode of Bounty Paper towels.  Then I went back to my desk to see if I could find anything in the box that was on the floor in my cubicle.  Clearly I had a lot of crap on my desk and cubicle walls.  But I didn't see anything that looked like it would help me with my computer.  Now what?

I do the rational, mature thing...I call a co-worker who is NOT the office manager, but most people assume that she is because she knows everything and unofficially runs the place.  She was originally going to come in, but has had some health issues and decided to put it off.  I tell her I am the only one in the office and that I am going to go through the piles of mail and then head home because I don't know what to do.

She stays on the phone with me while I sort through piles of junk and do a lot of whining.  95% of what we have received from mid-March till now is junk.  Furthermore a lot of it is junk that is addressed to people who no longer work for the corporation (and haven't for a long time; like my predecessor who left in early 2016). I bitch and moan that I can't find company inventory. (It's not where I was told it would be.)  And I tell her that there is no point in her coming in period.  There's no point of anyone coming in until we have a better plan.

She has to hang up because of another call.  I take my mail.  I take my former bosses mail and put it in a bag to take home so that I can review what he's got over the phone and send whatever he wants to him.  Any other mail that is actually addressed to people who work in this office suite and leave it on their desk.  (Was that the right thing to do?)  I gather up a few things that I wanted from my cubicle and while digging for a bag to carry them in, I may have found my missing power strip and possibly the missing cord in a drawer.  By this point, I was too frazzled to go crawling around and trying to figure it out.

I took my bags (and I'll admit an unopened gallon of milk that was set to expire in 3 days that was just going to sit there until it turned green), made sure my mask was on, got on the elevator and went home.

It wasn't wrong to go to the office.  It was wrong to go without a plan.  I had a call later in the day with our tech guy who would have come in if he knew I was going to be there to help me out.  I got a call from our HR rep who said she had been in 3 days last week, and when no one came after the first day she figured she didn't need to come in daily and told me her plans for the next week so if I wanted to come in again, I could do so when she planned to be there as well.

I don't need to go to the office now.  There will be a time when I will need to go.  But I will make a plan.  I need to plan.  And if you are in a similar situation:  plan.  

Stay safe.  Stay well.  Have a plan.