Maximum Office Joy
Wednesday, 7. April 2010
I do a lot of things to block out the fact that I’ve become everything I thought I wouldn’t in terms of my professional life. Never in my life did I think I’d be a person who sat behind a desk from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. While I don’t miss the Sunday afternoon hours of working in college athletics, I do miss the roaming around I did for most of my work day.
Let’s be honest, I miss the bullshitting with people while standing at football practice pretending to work. I miss the free grub in the Autzen Stadium press box on a frigid Saturday morning after a long night of drinking (nothing says Saturday morning college football like Hole In The Wall). I miss wandering all over the Cas Center looking for Jonathan Stewart because he’s found the best hiding place to avoid interviews. It annoyed the crap out of me at the time, but now I realize that I was constantly in motion. Rarely was I behind my desk.
That was over 3 years ago. Now I sit behind a desk. The good news: I have my weekends completely free. I don’t stand in freezing rain pretending to care about whether or not Nate Costa took reps with the first team. The bad news: Fuck. I sit. A lot.
Office jobs are funny. It’s all of the stereotypical stuff one might think. Our color printer broke the other day and it was like a 6.0 Earthquake had struck. I am not trying to be disrespectful in light of the recent quakes – I am telling you that people lose their shit when office supplies go haywire.
Pandemonium, I tell you.
So, there’s the stress of: “You stapled this wrong”, “The printer is broken”, “How do you scan this?” (Yes, important people really are that stupid), “WHY CAN’T YOU DO 17 THINGS AT ONCE?”
And then there’s the joy of your Office Max order arriving.
I swear to God I get so excited when my new Post-Its arrive.
It’s disgusting. And I hate myself for loving ballpoint pens so much.
Angie Says:
I don’t think your affinity for office supplies has anything to do with sitting behind a desk. I think I just love having a new notepad or brand new pens, etc. I definitely take a slight enjoyment in restocking from the supply room and having to go thru the catalog to special order something. Also…didn’t you love back-to-school supply shopping?
I just re-read what I wrote…I need more in my life. :/
Allison Says:
Ang! I just totally remembered the supply room at Oregon. Instant gratification without having to wait for Office Max. I used to grab like 20 pens from there.
BTW, I am watching Little Miss Perfect and eating a Taquito so don’t talk to me about needing more.
LiteralDan Says:
You and my wife both, buddy. Did you get to read her guest post last year about her love of school/office supplies and the stores that sell them?
Office life is certainly a unique one– I wonder what ancient people would say about the meaningless things people say and do while sitting in a chair all day (wheeling between cubicles to get to the copy machine).
Erin Says:
I understand this completely. I had a job once that put me in charge of ordering office supplies, and folks had to come to me with requests. Dude, I was heady with power. I also couldn’t believe how excited grown-ass adults could get over pretzels and twizzlers. These items were always in our supply room and regardless of how much “real” work I might have to do, it became clear to me that I must never let the office run out of those two snacks.
PDXprincess Says:
Yeah…I can hardly wait to get settled back into my cube (6 more weeks…ugh)! Not really…I wish I could figure a way to stay home and still get a decent paycheck. I do sort of miss the office supply closet. I doesn’t compare to the good old days of school supply shopping though…all those colored folders and highlighters (I still LOVE highlighters…which I special order since they don’t stock my faves in the supply closet). How OCD am I?
Vic Says:
I’ve been fired from every 8-5 office job I’ve had. Something about normal hours makes me a very bad employee…showing up late, long lunches, anyone want a beer…
AZ Colleen Says:
I feel your pain. I babysit a bunch of rocket scientists (they really are)and this actually happened just yesterday… “Colleen, the printer isn’t working.” I walk over take a look – “Do you see here on the display where it says “Load Paper”? You might want to give that a try.”. Sometimes I wonder if the number of degrees earned is directly proportional to the amount of common sense lost.
AJ Says:
How am I almost a week behind reading your post? Ugh. Things are too busy here!
I swore I wouldn’t live in Detroit and I would work in the Auto industry.
I do both.
Pooh.
And, raiding the mailroom for office supplies is like Christmas for me:)
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