Tuesday, April 03, 2007

right behind you

Has anyone else ever worked in a shared office space? I'm not sure I like it so much. I share my office with three other people, and I always feel like somebody is looking over my shoulder and judging me and my work behaviours. Very rational, I know. But I absolutely work better when nobody else is in the office, or maybe when there's only one other person in the room and they're obviously absorbed in what they're doing and unlikely to strike up a conversation with me.

I'm probably not alone in feeling like this, but I still feel a little bit paranoid/crazy. Any hints/tips/commiserating available out there?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I share an office with three others, which I don't mind. But my back is towards the door, so whenever anyone walks by through the corridor behind me, I always turn around to see if I'm being watched . . .

annemarie said...

step one: don't do anything you shouldn't when they're looking.

step two: work hard.

step three: get a promotion and have your own office.

Diedre said...

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! You're funny, Annemarie. I work in a little missionary, not-for-profit kind of place. Not even the Executive Director gas his own office. But thanks for the laugh.

Karl said...

Oh goodness I have that problem all the time at TUMC! Jonathan and Maureen have the office behind me and I'm always so careful to not do anything weird that I get significantly less work done when they're in. Thankfully, that is only on Wednesday.

Oooh! And once, I was going into my office after church when I thought everyone had left and said "all riiiiight!" in my falsetto/Michael Jackson voice only to find Michele and Deb in there, chuckling. Oh dear.

Diedre said...

Hee hee! Ah, Michele and Deb totally would have got that. It might have been more awkward with a little old lady there...

Kurtis Findlay said...

Stop blogging and get to work!

Just kidding!

I'll make a deal with you, Diedre: I won't look over your shoulder if you don't look over mine. Sound good? Now we can slack off together!

Diedre said...

It's okay, Kurtis, I see you blogging at work! Although you have the convenient excuse of having a work blog, so it's hard to tell which blog you might be posting on while you're "at work".