Excess Office Space

Knock, knock.

Who’s there?

No one.

No one who?

…

No one who?

…

That was pretty much my day today. I got in the car this morning and with the exception of a few idiots not caring that they were going ten miles under the speed limit, it was a smooth and unusually fast commute to the office… what usually takes me 45-50 minutes took me 30-35 minutes. Once I got to the office I checked the front door, which was locked, and immediately went to the back door, unlocked it, and walked into the dark and quiet room.

Soon after entering I staggered into my morning routine and started to slowly get the day going. A few hours and several long overdue projects passed and I found myself still the only one in the office. It was pretty safe to say at that point that everyone had decided to work from home today which was find with me, I had the entire office to myself. No noise, no distractions, and no waiting for the coffee maker. But there was also no conversation.

Thankfully they have these things called phones now. While today was a day to catch up with work it was also a day to catch up on conversation. All the calls that have been pushed back time and again and all the messages I forgot to answer finally were resolved today in-between tasks. While I am far from up to date with my communications, it is a heck of a lot better than it was 24 hours ago.

Around lunch time there was also a brief few moments when I did have a couple of visitors which was a nice break in the day. I didn’t expect to see my boss show up and I really wasn’t expecting to meet her mother who was stopping by to finally see the office. We had an excellent conversation for about 30 minutes during which time we talked a lot about my Masonic affiliation and who in their family was a Mason. It’s interesting what conversation can be sparked by the simple display of a pin on my shirt pocket.

 

After the visit the afternoon went quickly. Before I knew it, it was time for my wife to start texting me and for the final push to get a few last things done for the day. So my quiet day ended in a similarly exciting manner as it began and my short holiday work week concluded with a few less things on my to do list and a lot of items added to the list of things that should be done to start the year.