December 12, 2006
why I like this office
I will tell you the one thing I particularly like about the office where I am currently working: It's less than two weeks to Christmas, and you would never know by looking around the office. I have never before worked in an office that is so refreshingly holiday-free. The only seasonal decorations are in the lobby of the multi-business building, and my company isn't responsible for those.
Think about it. No "requests" to participate in a "voluntary" Secret Santa, or a gift exchange where the suggested price per gift is what I'd spend on a family member. No continual pleas to support this charity or that (although that doesn't bother me very much, actually ... I like the occasional reminder). No signups to bring this and that and the other for multiple potluck lunches. No invitations from well-meaning managers to their holiday parties that you can't turn down even though you can think of several other things you'd rather be doing. No Christmas music piped into the building where you can't turn it down, as if you don't have to deal with that enough in stores this month. No one in this office has the type of personality that inspires them to wear bright sweaters or sweatshirts with reindeer or candy canes on the front. No swanky all-company party where everyone gets drunk and the tech comm department gets even more sexually incestuous, causing problems with collaborative projects for the next year. I like Christmas, but I like to celebrate it in my own way ... and it doesn't include hanging out with my project manager or listening to Perry Como during a status meeting.
This office does have a Christmas lunch, to which I was just invited, but it's at one of my favorite restaurants and it's during the day when I'd be at work anyway, so that's fine with me. The only other sign that it might be a holiday season is that one of our vendors brought some gaily wrapped boxes of freshly baked cookies over to the office today, and I have no problem with that whatsover. Not that I have a problem per se with all the above-mentioned office holiday preparations, mind you. I simply don't like being forced to spend non-work time and money on pseudo-social activities at any time of year -- I'd rather spend it on my own personal fun. It's a lovely change of pace to work in an office where that sort of activity is kept to a bare minimum.