Conference 7.286::digital

	I like to call Musical Offices "defragging the building". After
	a while, people in groups are spread out all over the place,
	like a file on a disk. Then some grand defragging manager comes
	along and moved everyone so they all have contiguous offices.
	ie: Just like a defragger on a disk.

	There's a Dilbert cartoon in here someplace..

							mike

Did you ever have to rearrange your Rolodex when staff changes made it 
frustrating to use?

Have you ever had to update your pocket address book because you ran out of 
space in the front few pages and "Brown" had to be written after "Zybinski"?

Musical offices is simply a means of keeping work groups intact when 
building leases run out and more folks have to be squeezed into existing 
spaces or when new groups expand to handle work loads.

If your group currently sits at 25 people but you have vacant offices in 
your 33 cube "space", you get moved to a 25 cube space so that a group 
with a population closer to the available space can take over your space.

In 22 years I've been part of a few of these "consolidations" and it's a lot 
better having all of us in the same area instead of in two or three buildings.
I've also been subjected to relocations so that other groups could be 
consolidated but a little investigation (look at who is in your area now) 
has justified the inconvenience.

..........and I have more "manuals" than most BTW.   ....and I usually 
move them myself because it takes less time.

Of course, you can pack up everything and wait for the movers to move it for 
you and be inconvenienced.  That's your call.

    
    	Management likes to use every square foot of space assigned to
    	them, since occupancy rates are calculated that way.  The more
    	square footage taken up by a group, the more the "rent" they'll
    	have to budget.
    

    RE .1
    
    Defragging manager.......I'm already looking in VTX JOBS_US for
    postings.  There has got to be one working at CXO3.  
    
    GREAT stuff.  Thanks for the laugh :-)

    Could it be?  VP, Defrag?
    
    Couldn't resist.
    
    Bill

    	It could be worse - we're moving from 24 cubes (plus a couple of
    appropriated empties for "near-line" equipment) in MKO2 to 22 *significantly
    smaller* cubes in MK01.  When we outlined our power requirements for
    the cubes, facilities tried to tell us "you don't need all that
    equipment in your cubes."  I wonder who made them such experts in
    determining what equipment I need to get my work done.
    
    					--Doug

    
    Count yourself lucky if you have your own cube.  I share one with
    another person; in this space (which is a smaller-than-average size
    due to the fact that we also share it with the telephone cabinet),
    are two terminals, two PCs, two people and all their gear.  The phones
    are right next to each other so that when my cubie-mate picks up her
    phone she is literally talking in my ear, and vice-versa.  It took 6
    weeks after the move to get the phonemail working, and my cubie-mate's
    phone didn't work at all for two weeks.
    
    Needless to say, I work at home whenever I can.
    

    Just take Mike's analogy one-step further...
    
    First we try de-fragging, then when things are neat and they still
    don't fit, we go to compression.  Be interesting to see if the
    cubicle-compressors can exceed the compression ratio of the disk-file 
    compressors.....
    
    /Chris.
    
    P.S.	No kidding, shortly before I left DECpark Reading, I saw
    		the cube-compressors in action, actually *SAWING OFF* the
    		ends of some of the existing desks so that more of them
    		would fit in a fixed area.

    
    RE -.1
    
    C-c works real well.  I'm 6 inches shorter since I started sharing, and
    my furniture is smaller, too....
    

I'd always thought they moved us every year to clear
up the fire hazzards in our cubes. Plus now I don't
need to use carbon dating on the bottom documents in
the piles on my desk. :*) liesl

    You'll learn about compression when you share a mouse-pad with your
    cube-mate. My client and I have one mouse-pad between us (figuratively
    *and* literally); he works right-handed, I left-handed (my keyboard
    extends over the right end of our work table).
    
    ;^)

	To those of you that sent me mail and told me to send mail to
	Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, well, now you can bow
	down at my feet. I have scrambled up the rungs of Dogberts
	Ruling Class another few notches..

	Read'm and weep kids...

From:	US2RMC::"ScottAdams@aol.com" 11-MAY-1995 03:01:17.10
To:	axel::foley
CC:	
Subj:	Re: Another Dilbert cartoon in the making??

Thanks for the fodder.  I appreciate it!  


Scott Adams

http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/dilbert

% ====== Internet headers and postmarks (see DECWRL::GATEWAY.DOC) ======
% Received: from mail1.digital.com by us2rmc.zko.dec.com (5.65/rmc-22feb94) id AA11999; Thu, 11 May 95 03:01:52 -040
% Received: from mail06.mail.aol.com by mail1.digital.com; (5.65 EXP 4/12/95 for V3.2/1.0/WV) id AA16831; Thu, 11 May 1995 00:02:02 -070
% Received: by mail06.mail.aol.com (1.37.109.11/16.2) id AA083365519; Thu, 11 May 1995 02:58:39 -040
% Date: Thu, 11 May 1995 02:58:39 -0400
% From: ScottAdams@aol.com
% Message-Id: <950511025838_114764682@aol.com>
% To: axel::foley
% Subject: Re: Another Dilbert cartoon in the making??




	Yea, so what if it's probably a form letter. I still got the
	reply. :)

						mike
				basking in that SVGA glow right now..

    > C-c works real well.  I'm 6 inches shorter since I started sharing, and
    > my furniture is smaller, too....
    
    I heard Facilities is ordering a stock of elixir that comes in small
    bottles with a label tied round the neck, having the words "DRINK ME".
    Reportedly, it has "a sort of mixed flavour of cherry-tart, custard,
    pine-apple, roast turkey, toffy, and hot buttered toast."

    3863.12...I stand in awe.  Please let us know what the idea was, so
    that when we read it we can say "Hey!  There's Digital!  And *I* have
    personally noted with the guy that sent Scott the concept!".
    
    We can get free beer that way.
    
    								Tex

        Nice one,  Mike - I treasure my correspondance with Cecil Adams
        of Straight Dope fame (under Cece's real name, of course!) ;*)
        
        Andy
        

RE: .14,.15

	See .1 :) I basically forwarded him the text of .1.

				
			Entering a new level of geekdom,

						mike
					

    
    	Totally cool, Mike...
    
    
    	Next up will be a move to supergeekdom when the PC Channel wants
    you on live....
    
    
    		the Greyhawk

    I've often thought that, by putting a layer of plywood across the top
    of the cubes, we sould go to double-decker operations;^)
    
    \dave

    
    I suggested that, instead of sharing horizontally, they let me go
    vertical.  I would have had to stoop, but at least there would be
    some floor space.  They didn't buy it.  That would have put me so
    close to the light that I would have actually been able to SEE
    something (they way it is now, I read hard-copy by the light of my
    cubie-mate's pc...)
    
    re. a few back...
    Mouse pad?  You have a mouse pad?  I use my forehead...
    

> I heard Facilities is ordering a stock of elixir that comes in small
> bottles with a label tied round the neck, having the words "DRINK ME".
> Reportedly, it has "a sort of mixed flavour of cherry-tart, custard,
> pine-apple, roast turkey, toffy, and hot buttered toast."

  The employees' reply to Facilities should be obvious.

                                   Atlant

    Re: .18 is this double decker idea kind of like "Stacker" on a PC?  or
    is that more like .8's compression???  And does that make us bytes or
    1's and 0's???
    Suzanne
    

For reasons totally beyond my understanding, management didn't take me
seriously a couple of years ago when I proposed charging for parking at the
office (no one *forces* you to drive to work, do they?) and charging
admission to get into the building (your job is a privilege, not a right).

But I see now that the ideas just weren't fully enough developed, so how
about this: don't charge to get into the building, but do auction the
available office space and other logistic resources.  Someone who wants a
spacious corner office with lots of windows, a big desk, lots of shelf
space, lockable cabinets, and two telephones can now have it (and can keep
it unless someone else bids higher some day), and anyone who doesn't need
all that can simply pay less.

I suppose it would be fair to guarantee a certain base level of office
space, say 3 square meters -- 30 square feet -- for a certain low price,
and that would get you a chair, a small desk and a telephone, subject to
being moved elsewhere at any time.

"The Contract for Digital."

___Pete

    Pete,
    
    I think there's real potential for you as a VP.  How about some other
    "employee services": packing and unpacking, filling out expense
    vouchers, answering your phone in the approved manner.  We could do all
    these for the employee for a modest fee.  :-)
    
    Mark  

    My department has instituted a labrythine method for filing status
    reports.  I've been considering contracting it out to someone else then
    expensing it.  If I had the in-house services you suggested, I'd
    definitely use them.
    
    I'd also use them to fill out the status reports in the first place,
    attend any meeting with one or more management types in it, and answer
    any mail I receive from someone using All-in-1.
    
    Now that the market analysis is done, please let me know when these
    services will be available in my area.
    
    								Tex

Tex, where have you been? A status report is easy. First you
must (sigh) create one from srcatch but from there on it's cake.
Each month you copy the file to a new name and send it in.
The truely ambitious may want to change a word or two, most
commonly these will be dates. Most managers just roll them
up into a pile that they then forward to their manager until
at some point the distribution equals the length of the reports.
Then the entire mess is mailed back to your organization with
everybody copied on the distribution. liesl

    re 3863.25
    
    I'm a little embarrassed I missed this whole concept. :^[  Thanks for
    the update, I'll be implementing immediately.
    
    							Tex

    Imagine my suprise to hear that there are still people in this company
    authorized to have their own _________ (fill in with cube, desk, phone,
    or any of the other typical "old work environment" components I have
    not had now for 6+ months). :^)
    
    As a SI person that likes to have room to spread out when working - you
    know / tables, white boards, walls, a door, a speaker phone, space
    for your team members - I find my new work environment (TM) to be 
    really good for dropping by the office once and a while, but not 
    for any of the project work I do when writing client reports, etc.
    
    But at least I do not need to move from cube to cube any longer; I can
    just pull my trolley up to any empty "pod" by the handle.  Of course, I
    still can't figure out what to do with my manuals, client files,
    project documents, and etc. And we just lost two 4-seat pods to another
    office this month ...
    
    CHW
    
    PS: Yes ... the trolley does have a handle, and even a bumper!