Farewell Cube

 

From June of 2016 to March 12, 2020, a week didn't go by that I didn't have this view (or some variation of it.)  It's not that I didn't take time off (I did), but since I was hired as a Sales Operations Analyst (and I'm still not 100% sure what that means), I haven't take a full week off. 

One of the things I loved about the office was the view.  Yes, I hated the commute.  (Route 3 has never been fun and I've worked in two offices that have meant this highway was part of my daily grind.)  But I loved my little part of the office suite.  I had a big window that gave me a partial view of NYC (which is what you can kind of see off in the distance) and view of the marshland/wetlands which meant birds of all types flew by. 

(That was definitely cool.)  The window was not well insulated which meant when the sun was out, no matter what season it was, I would get HOT.  (It got hotter than the photo shows here.  Even in the dead of winter it could it hit over 90 degrees.

 In the summer, if it was cloudy or rainy...brr...I'd have to put on a sweater!

Still, like office spaces do, it became a second home.  I had photos taped to the doors of the overhead bins.  

I had lots of "stuff" scattered around my space.  Nothing that was necessarily important, but made the space my own.  So there was also some of my son's artwork, a digital photo frame (that didn't work all that well), some beanie babies that belonged to my brother, a Merida doll/figurine (from Disney's Brave), and mugs.  You know just general stuff.  Stuff that said this space belongs to me.

I had seasonal decorations that hung outside my cube.  Most of it came from the Dollar Tree or the thrift shop at my church.  The last day that I worked in this office space (March 12, 2020), there were foam shamrocks pinned to the outside of my cube along with a felt leprechaun (both from the local dollar store).  When  I returned (July:  https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2020/07/wtf-was-i-thinking.html), they were gone.  And the space I called my second home was desolate.

A sad, but temporary state of affairs; or so I thought. Earlier this month, my friends/coworkers and I received an email that our lease was not going to be renewed.  We needed to clean out our personal belongings and work from home until other arrangements could be made.  (The rumor mill is that we may move into office space 25 miles west of this location where the corporation has space to share with us.  For me this would work out ok, as I would be driving west in the morning and east in the evening so the dreaded sun glare would no longer be an issue.  And definitely do not want to work at the corporate office in NYC, especially as of now public transportation in my neck of the woods is no longer easily accessible.)  We had to the end of this month to do so.

Now as much as I enjoy working from home (and I DO...let's face it you can't beat the commute), I loved my office space.  I enjoyed seeing my coworkers and talking with them.  I miss them.  I miss being in this office, in THIS space.  

I went back to the office on the 6th.  A co-worker who sat behind me said he was going in too.  Which made it easier than being alone in the office. (Actually the HR manager was there too, but she was on calls behind closed doors for most of our time there.)  So it was just the three of us in this dark office suite, in a building with maybe 20 or so cars parked outside of it.

I had brought 3 containers and packed them up.  All of that "stuff" that I had accumulated over 4+ years.  There was even more "stuff" that I didn't take.  Old binders from sales meetings, mail samples that I had kept over 4 years!  In the end, instead of trashing everything; I simply wrote on the drawer that what was inside was garbage or could be taken by anyone else who needed it.  (How many paperclips and rubber bands do I need?  The answer is:  none.)

We also packed up some things in my former bosses office.  He was always a remote employee, but had an office.  We called him and told him what was left.  We packed up a few things of his, labeled a few items for storage and we were done.  The whole process took less than 2 hours.

That could have been the end of it, but another co-worker had to go in and pick up some of her stuff.  (She has been with the company much longer than I have.)  I offered to go back and help her as well as clean out an additional closet that had holiday decorations in it which I had forgotten about.

So I returned again on the 16th.  Realizing that his was my final trek to the area I took a few photos (in the rain):  

I trekked upstairs one last time.  The office was even emptier and sadder than it had been 10 days prior.  And I realized that this really was it.  This was the last time I'd see this space.

Four + years and it's all over.  

Now I've moved out of offices before, but this time was different.  There were no real goodbyes and there's nowhere to move to, other than back home.  Not unlike 2020:  it was odd and sad.

The end.