I’d pretty much given up on my workplace. It was drab, no one talked to anyone else and there was a really odd smell on the stairwell that no one ever looked into despite multiple requests to both management and janitorial services. I’m not convinced that management ever really cared about us, and I’m also not convinced that janitorial services ever existed at all. The office design was lacking in so many areas I couldn’t even begin to list them all.
At one point it got so bad that I walked right into the manager’s office and demanded that I be allowed to see the people who do the cleaning, so that I can give them a piece of my mind! I was given directions to an office underground, got lost in the labyrinth of filing rooms and came back several hours later totally dishevelled and demoralised.
Like most others in my team, I was hooked on a reality show about people who do office fitouts. Melbourne couples were competing to renovate offices across the city for big prizes. Anyway, it’s super hot, everyone’s talking about it but I keep missing the show because I’m working late.
I left the office on a Friday afternoon in my usual cross between a dejected slump and elation at the week being over. Saturday passed without much of an incident, Sunday came along and I started to feel the usual dread. Sunday night came, I laid down to sleep and tried to work out what it would take to catch some kind of bug between now and the morning.
Then we got to the office…and everything had change. This was office renovations on steroids, so much so that I was completely convinced I’d walked into the wrong building. I would’ve walked right out in utter confusion if it hadn’t been for the fact that my colleagues were there, and also a massive banner welcoming us to our new workplace. The place was a pure white, artwork hung on the walls, all the desks, cubicles and chairs were new and the place just felt like it was somewhere you wanted to be. It was only later that I learned about the Melbourne office design company who’d made it all happen. And you know what? Every bad thought I’ve had about the place has been washed away. Ask me again later, perhaps…but this feels like a new start.