Despite the fact that I have only been working in Sweden for roughly seven weeks, I am already experiencing the demons of office construction. It’s for a good reason, this office construction. Our offices take up half a floor but we are out of space so the other half of the floor is being remodeled and opened up into our space so that we can use that, too. The software company I work for is expanding and adding employees and as things stand, it’s hard to find an available conference room or quiet place to have a telephone conversation.
The thing is, I just came from an office that was remodeling. The law firm I worked for in San Francisco just eight weeks ago was also remodeling. My group moved from the 27th floor to the 32nd floor. Just after we moved, they began construction on the floor above us. When they were done with that, they began on the floor below us.
Uff då!
So now, having traveled all this way, I find I am in the same situation. But it’s interesting to compare methodologies. For example, I am transfixed by the Swedish construction custom of carting construction debris out of buildings using these giant…um…IKEA bags. It’s so smart. So tidy. (They’re not really IKEA bags, of course, but you can see why I said that.)
These construction debris bags don't really come from IKEA, but they kind of look like they do!
Most of the construction is luckily in the new side of the office–the side we haven’t moved into yet.. But they had to make new doorways into the new space over the holiday—think very large holes, think loud noise. I worked over the holidays but most people didn’t so I just barricaded myself in a conference room (normally these are occupied by people having meetings but…no meetings over the holidays).
One early afternoon, all of the workmen suddenly disappeared. It looked like they just dropped all their tools suddenly and stalked off on strike or something. I have no idea what happened because they did not return before I left. One worker simply dropped his vacuum cleaner right in the middle of the currently-in-use hallway, the hose threatening to trip anyone trying to make their way through. I never did find out what that was about.
Various scenes of construction at the office...
The new space will be ready soon and Management has made no public decisions on how the new space will be used. I think they might be worried that everyone will have their own opinion on who should move where. I, myself, find it challenging to work in a room with lots of people on the phone, people standing and talking to each other, but I don’t believe that style of working is going to change with the new space. But I am getting used to it and, in a way, I find it easier to block out Swedish-speaking voices because I have to concentrate so hard to understand what they’re saying. So…if I don’t concentrate, then it just flows by me.
Some employee-owned teenagers came and put together many, many new IKEA desks...here's a bowl of the left-over hex wrenches and a handful of instruction booklets...
Pingback: Carletta Idriss