I serve only master, and that master is the Truth
How Ogged Makes Friends and Influences People.
I and the other new hire at my company share the largest office. Does the fact that neither of us has our own office make use lower-status than the people who have been here longer and have smaller offices with less window?
Huh. Cause I'm pretty happy with this setup, happier than I think I would be by myself in a small room.
Our new corporate standard is that only people at X level and above get offices and everyone else gets a cube. One of our buildings has cube-sized offices that are shared, two people to an office. They're going to knock down all of the internal walls in the building and replace the cube-sized offices with actual cubicles to adhere to the corporate standard.
Cubes are the worst. If I and my office mate had cubes I would kick up a fuss.
We just moved to a new location, and I somehow fucked up the selection of my office. I could have had an office with an absurdly good view and no sun, but picked (without seeing it ) an office with a pretty good view and glaring summer sun. I am pettily hoping that the guy that is currently in the good office leaves. Even then it will take some scrambling to get a good office.
This nonsense has been weighing on my mind recently, too. One of the reasons I like my job is that I can show up to it in jeans and a t-shirt. But even though that's explicitly fine with everyone here, I suspect it hurts my chances for advancement in subtle ways.
Always dress to impress Tom. That look might cut it out in Silicon Valley, but not on K Street, even though you're doing the same job.
Perceived status matters because--well status obviously matters, and I'm not sure what "unperceived status" would be. That said, the office may reflect perceived status, but it doesn't (I'm betting) affect perceived status.
No doubt the home office is a better alternative to all of this.....
This was funny as heck:
[Because I serve only one master, and that master is the Truth]
If my job allowed me jeans & t-shirts and doing so might subtly exclude me from the power-gaming I'd wear jeans and t-shirts and walk around with a toothpick between my teeth every damned day. I would see this as a strategic advantage, not a tactical failure.
The last time I had an office with a door and everything was 1995 and I left to go back to college just as they were announcing that they were going to implement something very similar to Becks' 7.
Ogged knows that, even if the man who introduced the doctrine that he deserves an office is a friend, he has a greater duty, and that is to the truth.
I was not aware that gay men used toothpicks. Is this something new? The cowboy hat of the aughts?
Why isn't this the "fucking oppressors" post? Free Ogged! Give that man an office!
it doesn't (I'm betting) affect perceived status.
You couldn't be more wrong, Tim. The question of whose office you meet in, by itself, affects perceived status. The question of what your office looks like, when people come to meet you in it, affects perceived status.
Your coworker needs to take a page from the I/P conflict and establish facts on the ground.
Is B. in the house? I just found out that Garrison Keillor is going to be in my hometown to dedicate the Lake Wobegon trail, which starts here, and I'm sure she'd love to be there.
I was not aware that gay men used toothpicks. Is this something new?
Maybe it's just gay dudes from the South.
16: No, not really, that's what small dicks are for. I mention it solely because I think having a toothpick gripped in one's teeth is somewhat crude (not a major faux pas, just mildly tacky on the level of mismatched socks).
When I worked at Enron as a technical temp in 1999, I was unexpectedly asked to choose my own cube. I chose a freestanding desk instead, because it faced directly out the window, with a gorgeous view of downtown Houston from the 45th floor. I was totally stoked until I realized: 1) that it got to 85 degrees or so at my seat in mid-afternoon in the summer; 2) I was actually getting a mild sunburn every day, even through the thick tinted glass; and 3) I was, in fact, working a late shift, from 11am-8pm, which meant that the last two hours of my workday, for much of the year, instead of gazing over downtown Houston, I was sentenced to staring endlessly at my own damn reflection: that same thick tinted glass that I was getting sunburned through during the day turned into the world's most annoying mirror at night.
I remember when the head of my first husband's project got a new chair and my ex got the old one. He was thrilled at this tangible proof that he had jumped more senior colleagues on the pecking order.
18: Depends, I suppose, on the kind of work you do, the ability of supervisors (and supervisors' supervisors) to evaluate it, etc. I think that, overall, people are pretty good about worrying about the things that matter when we know enough for there to be things that matter.
people are pretty good about worrying about the things that matter
You live in a nice country, Tim. What's it called?
I've been told that I hate America, but evidently I wouldn't know.
I think you can't hate something without knowing it, no?
you can't hate something without knowing it
The exception to this rule is Turkish delight.
Does "it" refer to the hating, or the something?
The cummerbund-wearing man is implying that Tim's suggestion is foreign to his experience.
Ah, yes. I was thinking compulsively of "the brain knows trolleys", which inhibited any actual cognition.
"it" referenced the something, and it should have been "can" not "can't."
I don't understand 32 or 33, which probably means I didn't understand 31.
35 -- I expect you need to go further back to get at the root of your not understanding.
(That is to say, further back even than 31.)
What I meant was,
1. Tim generally, though not in this thread, tells me I hate America.
2. But given our immediately prior exchange, it appears I have never been to America. So I wouldn't know.
The cummerbund-wearing man
You're never going to let this go, are you.
37: Is there a less oblique clue available.
40: 36-7 should not be taken as an injunction to search for clues, but to introspect.
(sorry 'bout the awkward construction there.)
w-lfs-n thinks it's scandalously ridiculous that at some point in the past I recommended wearing a cummerbund with a dinner jacket.
What he wears with a dinner jacket, I don't know.
I would wear a morning coat with a dinner jacket. Then you're prepared for anything. Except lunch.
I would wear a morning coat with a dinner jacket. Then you're prepared for anything. Except lunch.
Ben wears nothing but a cummerbund. He meant to write, "the dinner jacket-wearing man".
46: I dunno, just riffing.
The Dinner Jacket-Wearing Man sounds like someone out of Pilgrim's Progress. Or The Phantom Tollbooth.
Or the X-Files, to class things up around here.
When The Dinner Jacket-Wearing Man comes home from work, he becomes The Smoking Jacket-Wearing Man.
I was searching for "slol" plus "hate America" when I came across this, from Becks: "NBA is teh suck." I don't think I'd seen that before. Maybe I did and have blocked it out. I feel sick.
Those of you with hot, sunny offices should totally grow bouganvillea.
Ooh thanks for the reminder, 55 -- I had not given my office plant its weekly watering and it was getting a little dry.
You've met one Waring-Mann, you're met them all.
57 should be google-proofed.
Are we going to set a record for google-proofings today?
58: No, it shouldn't. This has come up umpteen times, and it's fine to write things like "Belle Waring hasn't posted at Crooked Timber for over a month."
Those aren't proper en dashes, are they, slol? For shame.
Jacket-Wearing v. Jacket–Wearing
You be the judge.
My girlfriend just moved from an office to a cube and is very excited about it. The office was shared with a revolving cast of up to three people, none of whom had anything to do with her or her job. It was also on a floor of the building that was almost all government employees, which meant that things like drinking water (besides the bathroom sink) had to be paid for individually - seriously, use of the water cooler if you weren't a member of the "water club" was a significant no-no. In contrast, the cube is her own cube, and she's surrounded by other people in the same company, and since it's not government, has basic office amenities.
It is nice to think that the library of Babel would contain, in addition to every Unfogged thread, all possible google-proofings of every Unfogged thread.
On second thought, no I think that's wrong. I don't think Borges allowed slashes among his set of characters to be permuted. Well, surely you could google-proof with periods or commas, non?
(The addition of hypertext markup to the library's books would increase it's volume vastly.)
Jacket-Wearing v. Jacket-Wearing
But the phrase isn't "Jacket-Wearing". If it were the hyphen would be correct. It's "Dinner Jacket–Wearing", and the presence of a space means that one ought use an en dash.
Jacket–Waring.
I've always used hyphens for that; en dash is better, I see. Live and learn.
And my claim, dear slol-scrabbler, wasn't that one oughtn't wear a cummerbund with a dinner jacket, but that even at the symphony, a cummerbund (we can take this as synecdochic for the ensemble entire) will not look normal.
So the width of the morning jacket pants stripes: en or em?
Are cummerbunds hooked & eyed like bras? I had a dickie–style one with my old high school band uniform which buttoned on the ends to the inside of the jacket.
Are candy cummerbunds available, for those of us that prefer to remove such garments with our teeth?
73: I saw an object of art here which was simply one book length number, the result of a calculation of how many words or letters (I can't recall which) there would be in the Library of Babel.
How close a parallel is there between the cummerbund and the garter?
77 -- neat. In the whole library or in one book?
"I suspect it hurts my chances for advancement in subtle ways."
When I was a young, blue-jeans clad office worker, I thought older guys wore ties to be suck-ups and cover up for their burnout and lack of ability.
With a lot more experience now, I realize that my youthful cynicism was dead-on. So now I wear a tie.
How close a parallel is there between the cummerbund and the garter?
If you stand still it can be pretty good.
75: The one I wore as part of a costume was. By the way, I should note that if you want a plaid cummerbund you'll probably have to make it yourself.
82: I had no trouble purchasing a plaid cummerbund for playing Brad Majors back in the early 90s. Have they really become difficult-to-find?
Speaking from Lake Wobegon, I can assure you that cummerbunds are not normal. Plaid flannel shirts are normal. Period.
Chicago has some pretty exotic used clothes, but I could find only gray cummerbunds, which made perfectly servicable templates.
Plaid garters: easy to find.
86: I'm pretty sure I had to buy mine new.
54 - You think that made you sick, Tim? Here's an actual recent email exchange between my Vegas buddy and me:
Friend: Basketball is boring because the Spurs always win. It's like watching the Tour de France with Lance Armstrong. You know he's going to win. Either the NBA needs to produce a team that can beat the Spurs and make it interesting, or the Spurs need to start sucking. That's the only way it's going to be interesting.
Me: Whatever. The only way the NBA can become interesting is if it stops being about sports. Snooze.
89 is painful.
I know you don't care, but for your friend how can a team which lost in overtime in game 7 last season, and won in overtime in game 7 the previous season, be so good as to render the entire sport boring? That seems like as close to the ideal level of competition as you could hope for.
89: How can you live with Yglesias and think that? Surely you're at least exposed to the NBA. But, then, if you were, you'd love it. It's inexplicable. Or just evil.
May the Thunders from Down Under pull you on stage, Becks.
I think that if I lived with Yggy I would feel even more disdain for the NBA than I already do. But that's just speculative.
92 gets it right. My unerring nose for the dilettante would be constantly sneezing.
I'd wear jeans and t-shirts and walk around with a toothpick between my teeth every damned day
It's like you're the gay version of my husband.
Are cummerbunds hooked & eyed like bras?
Of course not; that would make them difficult to adjust, and since they're clothing for men, they have to be comfortable even though they're formal wear. They have a little double D-ring/ribbon dealymabob in the back.
Also, speaking of the Office, anyone who hasn't yet seen the original UK version needs to go out and rent it immediately.
B., I just invited you to my home town here for when Garrison Keillor comes by to dedicate the Lake Wobegon Trail. It's an experience I know you'd regret missing.
20: When is this? I need to get my ass to Minnesota soon. I hear it is missed.
Folks, don't fail to miss our next broadcast!
Also, speaking of the Office, anyone who hasn't yet seen the original UK version needs to go out and rent it immediately.
I was never able to watch the U.S. version as I'd started with the original. U.S. version just doesn't hold up.
99: Ah. That's after PK starts school again, so, unlikely. Alas.
No, it shouldn't. This has come up umpteen times, and it's fine to write things like "Belle Waring hasn't posted at Crooked Timber for over a month."
fuck, I should really post something at CT, shouldn't I.
