Office essentials

[fareau]

Originally Posted by Piobaire

Okay, I'm about to give you one of Piob's pieces of advice to run your life by.

Never have more in your office or cubicle than what you can fit into one box. In the first year of my first white collar job I saw a few people let go. Absolutely nothing worse than having to make multiple trips to empty out your office after you've just been termed. I've never allowed myself to accumulate more than a single box full of stuff since.

Also, no one respects the idiot with everything from a gum ball machine to a collage of cut out magazine pictures on his wall. That guy is going to wish he'd followed Piob's advice within his first year of hire.

+1000. And try to minimize the amount of highly sentimental or personal items, in the event that you are not even allowed to clear your office yourself (some places will tell you that they will box your items for you and leave them at some front entrance for you to collect, just to make sure you don't engage in last minute shenanigans before you leave). I have no personal experience of this, but have heard some disconcerting stories from others!!

 

[MasterOfReality]

I have nothing personal in my office.

Currently have:

1. Five shelf bookcase with my collection of reference/text books, conference proceedings, technical papers, client project folders etc etc

2. Laptop, dual 19" lcds and work **** spread all over my desk

3. A board with reference papers that get looked at regularly.

4. Usual collection of drawers, cupboards, calender, stationary.....

Had a lot of growth in business lately and we put on a just-out-of-grad stage geotech engineer. He got stuck in my office so I put up a whiteboard for him where I can write down all his tasks. That cheers me up

 

[Reggs]

Travel toothbrush+paste
Stain removing supplies
Commonly used medications
Non-perishable food
Breath mints
Compressed air
Bleach wipes. Desk tops have a high bacteria count
Earbuds

 

[BDC2823]

Originally Posted by Piobaire

Okay, I'm about to give you one of Piob's pieces of advice to run your life by.

Never have more in your office or cubicle than what you can fit into one box. In the first year of my first white collar job I saw a few people let go. Absolutely nothing worse than having to make multiple trips to empty out your office after you've just been termed. I've never allowed myself to accumulate more than a single box full of stuff since.

Also, no one respects the idiot with everything from a gum ball machine to a collage of cut out magazine pictures on his wall. That guy is going to wish he'd followed Piob's advice within his first year of hire.

+1 and learned the hard way.

Had a 60 gallon aquarium with stand in my office that I had to get out. However, I did so at night after work hours as I had a key to the office. Waited 2 weeks before I decided to head on over and take it home. It was also a couple months before they called me asking for me to return the office key at my convenience. Ended up returning it a week or so later when I met up with a friend/former co-worker for dinner.

Also, should have told my boss to **** off when he insisted that I buy framed pictures/artwork to put on the walls of my office since it was too barren for his tastes. Now I have these just laying around having spent a few hundred dollars of my own money on them as he insisted I decorate my office with my own money. On a positive note, life has been a lot more stressful without that boss around.

 

[binge]

Aside from my laptop, which I hump to and fro, I keep precisely one thing and one thing only on my desk: my whiskey tumbler.

 

[Hombre Secreto]

I'd keep my office bare. I would't want people profiling me with the items I kept around. I'd probably just have a picture of a family with a dog to throw them off with questions about my private life.

 

[SkinnyGoomba]

Bring this in on your first day, they'll know you mean business.

 

[sumoha]

have one of these:

 

[Verno Inferno]

I guess I'm different. I've got a calendar with family photos on it. A photo of of me and my wife. A coffee mug from my lawschool. A bunch of law books I wanted out of my house. A clock. A giant thing of whey protein. Healthy snacks. A gym bag with gym stuff. Two reprints of old turn of the century magician posters. Oh and some original art my pal got me from China. And novelty TPS Report Cover Sheets for leaving notes for folks. During baseball season, a couple of St. Louis Cardinals items emerge.

Screw 'em. If they can me, they are going to have to help me make a couple trips to the car. I'm not making my office cold and barren of comforts just out of fear of how annoying it will be to pack this **** up. My company knows I'm here, that I'm planting roots here and that I want to grow here. And I'm behaving like it---not like I'm looking for other jobs and could bolt at any moment. When they do a "talent assessment" of my team and have to ask themselves which one of us seems like they will still be around in 5 years... it's not going to be the dude who just has a pen holder and bitches about his commute to the office.

That's my lame theory anyway. But mainly I can't stand sitting in an office with none of the comforts or personal objects of my home office. You bring them in, you make it easier for people to get to know you and like you.

Office essentials:

Jack Black Industrial Stength Hand Healer. It's cold and dry in here and my hands will feel like sand paper if I don't treat them.

A mini fan or space heater depending on what stupid setting they have the ac/heat set to.

The **** Drawer: plasticware, various medicines like advil and cold remedies, horsehair brush for shoe-buffing, foot powder for when I'm stylishly sockless, stock of emergency caffeine (Starbucks Via packets and tea bags), healthy snacks, protein bars, etc.

 

[otc]

Originally Posted by Verno Inferno

Office essentials:

Jack Black Industrial Stength Hand Healer. It's cold and dry in here and my hands will feel like sand paper if I don't treat them.

A mini fan or space heater depending on what stupid setting they have the ac/heat set to.

The **** Drawer: plasticware, various medicines like advil and cold remedies, horsehair brush for shoe-buffing, foot powder for when I'm stylishly sockless, stock of emergency caffeine (Starbucks Via packets and tea bags), healthy snacks, protein bars, etc.

You guys need better offices.
My office has most of this stuff available...
Fan/Heater
Lotion
Caffeine (k-cups, flavia, tea bags...for when the real pots of coffee are not brewed)
Medicine (though the first aid kits get raided run low)

What's next? You have to bring your own monitor and stapler?

 

[Usul]

Originally Posted by SkinnyGoomba

Bring this in on your first day, they'll know you mean business.

What is this? The pain box?

 

[SkinnyGoomba]

Originally Posted by Usul

What is this? The pain box?

It's a humidor....

 

[MasterOfReality]

Was talking to a collegue who contracts out to a major mining company.

They have a 'clean desk' policy for their mining/geotechnical engineering department.

At the end of the day, the only items allowed on your desk are a laptop, monitors, phone and optional picture. Anything else that is left on there is thrown into a garbage bag and taken downstairs by office inspectors after work hours. Its up to the worker to retrieve anything that gets thrown out.

If you have a cork board, you are only allowed to have four documents pinned to it, and they all must be company statements/policies.

That would drive me ******* nuts - I have several technical papers pinned on my boards which I use on a frequent basis, not not mention charts and other stuff that I leave on my desk.

 

[Pantisocrat]

I own many pieces from the common pineneedle pattern. They are great desk pieces from a glamorous period.

 

[Milpool]

Originally Posted by MasterOfReality

Was talking to a collegue who contracts out to a major mining company.

They have a 'clean desk' policy for their mining/geotechnical engineering department.

At the end of the day, the only items allowed on your desk are a laptop, monitors, phone and optional picture. Anything else that is left on there is thrown into a garbage bag and taken downstairs by office inspectors after work hours. Its up to the worker to retrieve anything that gets thrown out.

If you have a cork board, you are only allowed to have four documents pinned to it, and they all must be company statements/policies.

That would drive me ******* nuts - I have several technical papers pinned on my boards which I use on a frequent basis, not not mention charts and other stuff that I leave on my desk.

Holy ****. I won't be working for any company with such a ridiculous policy. That is insanity with any kind of subject matter expert workers. I have reference materials everywhere, and they are in a disarray that fits my thinking patterns. If I had to clean up everything on my desk at the end of every day, it would cut my productivity by about 15438%.