So the water issue resolved itself. After my last post, I refused to even acknowledge the irrelevant discussion about the storage of the water. It's non-productive. And about 12 hours or so after that, I got an email from the staff member who was complaining, indicating that he just realized the water bottles were SEALED, therefore he could live with them being stored under the sink. DOH! Of course they are sealed. Seriously? I didn't even respond. The whole thing was childish to begin with.
It's funny to watch this particular staff member. For as long as I've known him and worked with him at Company X (forever) - he's begged and pleaded to work from home. And yet, he complained about where the water bottles would be stored in the new office. He also commented that he had just had his photography mounted and framed for his office and NOW? He cannot hang things on the walls in the new space. I'm beginning to think he might just like to hear himself complain. I suggested he hang them on this one wall in the new space if it meant that much to him - an area for all to enjoy - a gallery of sorts. He liked that idea and did just that! He's quite proud of them and thanked me for the opportunity to display them. See? It's even BETTER than having them in a dim, old, crappy, isolated office. Here, everyone who comes through the door can see and admire them. Let's think of the positives people - NOT the negatives!
One of my colleagues read my last post and sent me a private message - some unsolicited advice. Which I appreciated - because I respect her and admire her perspective on things. She suggested that I need to have the tone of hope and positiveness in my voice - otherwise if the naysayers hear frustration, I'm giving them the upper hand. (I totally just summarized what she said and hope that is really the message she was giving me - ha!) She's absolutely right! And that's JUST the kick in the butt I needed to keep plodding forward.
I'm sure I'll have another post today as I have a meeting with My Dwight. And that always proves itself to be interesting. When I zipped through the old space yesterday, he still had mounds and mounds of shit that he needs to sort through. He's a hoarder. Bottom line. Hoarder. Of shit. Electronics shit. He was nowhere to be found so I just kept adding more stuff I found to his pile of shit to sort through. I also emptied several bookcases and drawers and threw the contents away or set them out to be donated. These people have had 6 weeks or more to go through and decide what they want and what is junk. At this stage, we have 3 days to get ourselves completely out of the old space so I'm making the decisions for them - it's ALL junk. I loved how the spaces that were once occupied by former employees and which have sat vacant for 2 years were untouched by anyone. Did they think those former employees were going to come back in and clean out their areas? The sense of entitlement and lack of accountability we have built and established with these people over the years is just staring me straight in the eye right now. It's quite a large dose of reality!
After leaving the old space, I zipped into the new space to do a quick run through. I was pleased to find the boss emptying a hideous file cabinet and to hear him tell me it looked ugly and he was getting rid of it. (I had told him that LAST week, but it needed to be his idea). I was NOT pleased to find a mound of trash sitting on the floor. I asked who the boxes belonged to. No one spoke. So I again asked and when I got no answer, I said, "Well my instructions were that each of you dispose of your own moving boxes and to NOT pile trash around - so obviously this stuff doesn't belong to anyone here." Yes. I was pissed. I should have left them laying there and given instruction to get it cleaned up. But, falling into old routines seemed easier at the moment and they all "looked busy" - so I just cleaned it up myself. Someone did get up and assist me. It was tough - hauling that cardboard out the back door to the recycling dumpster 20 ft. away. And I looked over at My Dwight and there he was, front and center, "working". And I looked at the gal who never opens her email and had to take the remaining cubicle that wasn't claimed. Her. With her 3 computers and 4 monitors on her desk. She looked VERY busy. And it dawned on me at that moment - it's safe. That's their safe spot. Their security blankie. Sitting at their cubicle - with tons of equipment - "working". On what we do not know, per se. But I've been at Company X for 12 years now and never EVER, through ANY of it - been so damned busy that I can't look up from my desk. Or read my email. Or communicate with others on my team. It's a crutch. A cocoon.
Now.... to rid them of that cocoon and allow them to be butterflies - - - that's our task and our biggest hurdle.
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