CHANGE IT UP

Last week at work we moved floors from our sweet office high in the sky that overlooks Central Park to our 1980’s throw back that looks into…well, other office buildings.  Packing was a challenge (considering I’ve only been there 3 months – do I really need to keep this, this, can someone please tell me what this is?), and I’ve found that plenty of grown men and women do NOT like change.  Teams are all mixed up, the kitchen is small, where’s the water??, why is the bathroom so far?, oh and the place is like a maze.  I’m not even kidding, I laugh at myself a good 5 times a day because I’m still getting lost.  Though, I have to say, the actual move went fairly seamlessly.  My company works with a great moving crew who worked through the nights to set each and every office up exactly as it was left upstairs.  Tech and Facilities were onhand to help with the smallest of tasks to make sure everyone was comfortable.  But still… 

You need to stay positive.  Here’s how I see it.  Embracing change can be tough.  When I was a kid I hated change, but now I consider it a way to learn and try new things.  We’re generally scared of the unexpected but we have to embrace it as an adventure, especially if we don’t have a say in the matter, otherwise we’re miserable until the “adventure” is over.

The packing was a challenge.  No one likes to pack or clean out old cabinets, closets, etc.  Think of your house.  But sometimes it has to get done.  We had years of history in our file cabinets.  And you know everyone has their own way of doing things.  I don’t know the person who was there before me, but some of that stuff did NOT need to be there.  I mean, there was just nonsense in those drawers!  It was a good excuse to purge because on a normal day I’m too busy to “clean the file cabinets”…seriously?  Legal gave us guidelines to follow and I went from there, it was just a matter of starting.  I kept what I needed, archived the old stuff, and got rid of what I didn’t.  Because we have less space in our new offices, we needed to clean out the old stuff anyway.

In this adventure of a move, my team is mixed in with teams from another floor.  It’s cool because, while we “know” these guys, we’ve never interacted with them daily – so now we have new friends.  Some people are squished into offices of 3 and 4.  OK, kind of crappy but I heard one guy say, “our office is kind of like a dorm room!” which is a little cool if you think about it.  Of course they’ll get their work done, but maybe they’ll have a little more fun for these few months.  What’s so bad about that?  The floor is a total maze; every corner looks like the next and some halls lead to dead ends.  I went looking for someone Friday, got totally lost, but ended up first finding 3 bowls of candy (score!), then finding a group of friends that I hadn’t seen on the floor yet (even better).  So each turn is an adventure.  There’s a certain buzz about the floor that I didn’t feel upstairs; everyone’s secretly giddy with this new adventure.  So while some will continue to complain, I’m sure, I think most are happy for a little shake up.  And my “elevator incident” as I’m calling it? - I got locked in the freight elevator hallway the other morning (the doors weren’t locked the first half of the week!) – is a funny story that I’m proud to tell everyone.  Whatevs.

In situations of change you need to think big picture and all this silly interim stuff will be well worth it.  In my case, my coworkers have to remember that in 6-9 months we'll be back where we belong, but it will be better than ever; clean and fresh, sparkly and new.  With comfy chairs, let's not forget the comfy chairs.  So while it's easy to get sucked in to the little details of life and crave your creature comforts, sometimes it's more fun to let go a little and enjoy the ride.  You never know what will happen when you do.