Hanging in there
Apr. 21st, 2012 08:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
geovikiAs always, my LJ friends are full of warm words and support, so thanks, guys, for that. You're the best!
Good news: I got to go back to work on Friday! Who would have imagined that I'd be typing those words a short 2 years after I retired? Still, I definitely have discovered that I should have been doing this kind of work all along - my brain is somehow perfect for organizing major corporate cleanouts and moves. When I proposed coming back to my old workplace and spending 10 hours a week cleaning out these rats-nests of abandoned stuff, I thought I could work at leasure. Then, 3 months ago, a decree came down from on high that the financial support for our rent to GSA would suffer a major cut; therefore we'd need to shrink our space by thousands of square feet by August. I estimate that about 40% of our staff will ahve to move offices by that date - roughly 80 people. The amount of stuff that's being discarded, moved, recycled, or abandoned in the hallways in the dark of night is astonishing, really. And it's giving me a great opportunity to flex my organizing skilz. Here's a sampling of what I'm dealing with - my job is to get rid of everything, leaving nothing but the carpet and walls. And sometimes not even the walls!
A small part of room #1
Part of room #2
Room #3. Behind the cabinet is a heap of rock samples thrown on the floor as well. I mean, who actually leaves rooms looking like this?
Good news: I got to go back to work on Friday! Who would have imagined that I'd be typing those words a short 2 years after I retired? Still, I definitely have discovered that I should have been doing this kind of work all along - my brain is somehow perfect for organizing major corporate cleanouts and moves. When I proposed coming back to my old workplace and spending 10 hours a week cleaning out these rats-nests of abandoned stuff, I thought I could work at leasure. Then, 3 months ago, a decree came down from on high that the financial support for our rent to GSA would suffer a major cut; therefore we'd need to shrink our space by thousands of square feet by August. I estimate that about 40% of our staff will ahve to move offices by that date - roughly 80 people. The amount of stuff that's being discarded, moved, recycled, or abandoned in the hallways in the dark of night is astonishing, really. And it's giving me a great opportunity to flex my organizing skilz. Here's a sampling of what I'm dealing with - my job is to get rid of everything, leaving nothing but the carpet and walls. And sometimes not even the walls!
A small part of room #1
Part of room #2
Room #3. Behind the cabinet is a heap of rock samples thrown on the floor as well. I mean, who actually leaves rooms looking like this?
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Date: 2012-04-21 02:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-21 02:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-21 02:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-21 02:47 pm (UTC)You look like you've got your work cut out for you. Hope all is good. And really, I hope to see you this summer!
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Date: 2012-04-21 08:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-21 09:11 pm (UTC)glad you're enjoying your job and back at it <3
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Date: 2012-04-21 09:38 pm (UTC)It reminds me of when I worked at English Heritage and our team of 10 (architectural conservation specialists) moved offices from opposite Selfridges to Saville Row.
I took it as an opportunity to (a) sort out the team's book/periodical library (b) the samples library (bits of rock, stone plaster and what have you) and (c) make sure my boss agreed paid overtime so I could spend 2 months coming in early on Saturdays and working about 8-10 hours a day to physically sort out the 1000's of paper files we had. The files were a hideous mess because our brianiac team were terrible at filing and also woudln't check whether an item was already on file so the amount of duplication (triplication, quadruplication & more!) of paperwork was unbelieveable.
I spent some wonderfully relaxing Saturday's bringing order to it all. This was pre-digital storage. If I was there now I'd be bagging overtime to make sure all that shit was digitally scanned and stored annd indexed properly!
Must've made a good impression though because my boss from back then (12 years ago) has just left me a recommendation on LinkedIn! *G*
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Date: 2012-04-22 12:45 am (UTC)apparently the people you work with? it's pretty impressive i must say! glad at least that issue in your life has been straightened out. hurrah for positive steps forward \o/
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Date: 2012-04-24 12:09 am (UTC)Civil servants in every jurisdiction I've ever worked in! And engineers. The absolute worst I've had to deal with were engineers.
At least the maps/drawings are in the map cabinets. But then, they're probably over-filled, so you'll find stray ones in the back behind the cabinets. Have fun throwing things out!