CUBE LIFE: Office Etiquette

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

Cheap landlord supplying 1 ply toilet paper and installing those super reluctant to spin (so you don't waste TP) dispensers that means you have to pull and unroll TP like you're defusing something. Pull too fast and it shreds.

I've worked with guys that have brought their own TP to work.

[Otto-matic]

We had to put up please flush the toilet signs in our building.... how is it possible for adults?

[blueski]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

How about the drippers? We also have guys that either have serious dripping issues or feel that urinating on the floor is some way to get back at management.

They need to get that checked by a doctor.

[taco.vidal]

On a recent business trip I was working out of an office where the mens bathroom was off of the main part of the office, next to cubicles and offices. Usually bathrooms are down a hallway or out in corridor by elevators.
You could hear grenades going off through the door and walls. And the odd time when someone opened the door to go in or out and the timing was just right, you could here explosions all through the office. What a ridiculous layout for office! I feel sorry for the poor employees nearest the bathroom.

[Huntingwhale]

Originally Posted by Otto-matic

We had to put up please flush the toilet signs in our building.... how is it possible for adults?

If the last building I was in, we had an issue where someone was flushing newspapers down the toilet. It happened on a weekly basis. Not a word of a lie, this was most likely an adult male who had a degree of some sort, kids and family at home, a mortgage, and had RRSPs. He probably wore a suit, golfed with senior staff, and met with clients on a regular basis. Again, a fully grown adult male was flushing newspapers down the toilet. The President of the company had to send out emails about it multiple times. This went on for years.

As for cubicles:
Our office moved to a cubicle style workplace last year. Senior staff gets offices along the perimeter of the office, but us minions are forced to work in cubes. Man does it suck. I'm lucky because I have a window with a nice view and often my neighbors are either at school or only work part-time so I'm alone lots of the time. I'm also angled so no one can walk up behind me. It's connected in a way so that there are only 4 of us in a unit. Sadly, some of the cubes have 6 people connected. Basically, cubicles are horrible.

We get constant emails about not talking, not being loud, not eating this or that, cubicle etiquette, etc. I get that you don't want to be disruptive to your neighbors, and most of us comply. But it also GMG how management put us in this position because its ''company policy'' to have open floor concept because supposedly it makes it easier for us to communicate. Bullcrap. Our cubicles are decently sized and could have easily been made into mini-type offices. They wouldn't be as spacious as the last building we were in, but it would have made a world of difference. Now we have these stupid telephone rooms to make calls. Yet if I'm on the phone with say my bank, I don't have a computer in front of me to look things up.

Additionally, there is always an awkward silence in the air. If someone's phone rings more then twice, you can feel people getting annoyed. If someone comes to talk to you, they do it in this weird half-whispering/half toned voice. My job involves a ton of on-screen digitizing so I'm constantly clicking my mouse over and over again. Some knob complained about it to his manager, as if he had the power to somehow change how I do my work.

Cubicles can #### right off.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

Cheap landlord supplying 1 ply toilet paper and installing those super reluctant to spin (so you don't waste TP) dispensers that means you have to pull and unroll TP like you're defusing something. Pull too fast and it shreds.

Haha airports are the worst for that. The sheet is so thin, it can barely keep itself together when not rolled up.

[Looch City]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

If the last building I was in, we had an issue where someone was flushing newspapers down the toilet. It happened on a weekly basis. Not a word of a lie, this was most likely an adult male who had a degree of some sort, kids and family at home, a mortgage, and had RRSPs. He probably wore a suit, golfed with senior staff, and met with clients on a regular basis. Again, a fully grown adult male was flushing newspapers down the toilet. The President of the company had to send out emails about it multiple times. This went on for years.

Are you sure it wasn't the 'special' type of newspaper and he was just destroying the evidence?

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

First day of the fall when I get to whine about the building being so cold that I can barely type. Yay!

I just moved into a new office and my heat is controlled by a thermostat in the office next door. The guy in there cranks it down to 15 degrees all the time.

He lives on a farm and has Icelandic genes that allow him to take frozen lake baths but I personally need good circulation in order for my fingers to type.

I've talked to him about it and even adjusted it myself on occasion but he keeps moving it all the way down every day.

[Huntingwhale]

Originally Posted by Iggy City

Are you sure it wasn't the 'special' type of newspaper and he was just destroying the evidence?

The maintenance guy would come to unclog the toilet and would fish out a full copy of the Calgary Sun everytime.

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

How about the drippers? We also have guys that either have serious dripping issues or feel that urinating on the floor is some way to get back at management.

Those are just guys who are tired of getting splash back from the urinal all over their pants. Thus, they back up from the urinal when they piss.

[habernac]

People who can''t be bothered to walk to the cube of the person they need to talk to. They'll just stand in yours and talk over the partition. Walk your lazy ass over there and stop bothering me.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

I just moved into a new office and my heat is controlled by a thermostat in the office next door. The guy in there cranks it down to 15 degrees all the time.

He lives on a farm and has Icelandic genes that allow him to take frozen lake baths but I personally need good circulation in order for my fingers to type.

I've talked to him about it and even adjusted it myself on occasion but he keeps moving it all the way down every day.

Them personal space heaters are great. I don't use one, but I see them all the time in offices I visit with wimpy sissy boys such as yourself. And for retirement aged receptionists.

Jokes aside, why not just get one and plug it in?

[Otto-matic]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Them personal space heaters are great. I don't use one, but I see them all the time in offices I visit with wimpy sissy boys such as yourself. And for retirement aged receptionists.

Jokes aside, why not just get one and plug it in?

My office is the same,

It gets unbearable even with a space heater going that and then you get people complaining about the noise.

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Them personal space heaters are great. I don't use one, but I see them all the time in offices I visit with wimpy sissy boys such as yourself. And for retirement aged receptionists.

Jokes aside, why not just get one and plug it in?

For my building, we are discouraged from plugging those in because it always trips the breaker, resulting in people's computers turning off. I've had a few instances where someone tripped it and I lost a bunch of spreadsheets I was working on. Not fun.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by Otto-matic

My office is the same,

It gets unbearable even with a space heater going that and then you get people complaining about the noise.

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

For my building, we are discouraged from plugging those in because it always trips the breaker, resulting in people's computers turning off. I've had a few instances where someone tripped it and I lost a bunch of spreadsheets I was working on. Not fun.

Looks like every day is ugly christmas sweater party in your offices from now on then.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Them personal space heaters are great. I don't use one, but I see them all the time in offices I visit with wimpy sissy boys such as yourself. And for retirement aged receptionists.

Jokes aside, why not just get one and plug it in?

- Get enough of them going and they'll blow the breaker.
- Insurance hates them due to the fire risk of older units. Brookfield banned them in our last building.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

If the last building I was in, we had an issue where someone was flushing newspapers down the toilet. It happened on a weekly basis. Not a word of a lie, this was most likely an adult male who had a degree of some sort, kids and family at home, a mortgage, and had RRSPs. He probably wore a suit, golfed with senior staff, and met with clients on a regular basis. Again, a fully grown adult male was flushing newspapers down the toilet. The President of the company had to send out emails about it multiple times. This went on for years.

That's the thing that gets me. When I was younger I worked at sweat shops, gas plants, small outfits, and I've actually seen more disturbing bathroom behaviour in office buildings where the people using them are well educated, suit and tie professionals.

[speede5]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

- Get enough of them going and they'll blow the breaker.
- Insurance hates them due to the fire risk of older units. Brookfield banned them in our last building.

We are allowed to use the oil filled units only, and the company supplies them.

Health and safety complaint justified the use of personal space heaters.
Fire inspection dictated that only oil filled were acceptable.
To ensure compliance company provides them and each one is approved for use in each location, preventing cct overloads.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

That's the thing that gets me. When I was younger I worked at sweat shops, gas plants, small outfits, and I've actually seen more disturbing bathroom behaviour in office buildings where the people using them are well educated, suit and tie professionals.

This is why I don't distinguish. An accountant isn't automatically a better person than a foreman.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

This is why I don't distinguish. An accountant isn't automatically a better person than a foreman.

Yes I am.