But there is another great tragedy happening in the modern office, and it has to do with windows. Floor-to-ceiling windows. Internal-facing floor-to-ceiling windows.
What, you may ask, is the tragedy of that? Isn't it nice to not be completely shut off from everything? And you're right. It is. It's really nice to not feel like I'm in solitary confinement. The tragedy, my friends, is that dry erase markers exist, and those windows provide a huge canvas, but I'm expected to act like an adult! And not just an adult. A professional adult!!!!!
It wouldn't be so bad, except on the floor where I work, there is a room called the fish bowl. Take a guess why. You're probably really close: The entire west side of the room (which is in the middle of the floor, not on any outer walls) is ALL WINDOW. And on Friday, I realized it would be totally amazing to write messages on the windows to the people in the fishbowl (which they would probably love, because then everyone wouldn't be able to start at them all the time. I mean, cubicles are bad, for sure, but a fish bowl?!). And now I just really, really, REALLY want to create a fishbowl window mural.**
However, that sort of behavior is, I hear, extremely frowned upon. So, instead, I will have to resort to finding hilarious pictures, printing them, and taping them on the window. (Much easier clean up, I agree. Custodial will thank me).
But the dream of dry-erasing the windows at work lives on.***
*Yes. A shared cubicle. Because some fool somewhere looked at the cubicle and said, "No, no. Three 'walls' is still too much. Let's take it down to 2." That person has a lot to answer for.
**well, maybe not me, because I can't draw worth a darn. My major artistic achievement is the stick dinosaur. Pro tip--don't give it stegosaurus plates.
***Full disclosure. When I left my last job, I did write a message on my mentor's office window. The last update, which was probably 3 years ago, was that it was still there. I left that job over 7 years ago. Yes. I do feel really cool.
