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Commentary

By Liz Quirin

The Office as Microcosm of Life

The office: Times have changed for many people who work with and among others in the past two years, but offices remain important ingredients in the ebb and flow of commerce. I moved my “office” to Denver last week, expecting to go to a conference that was cancelled at the last minute. So, laptop in hand, I went anyway, and stayed with my “just got a job” daughter, thank you God. I set up my “away” office in a coffee house not far from her apartment, and apparently, I was just the most recent member of that office staff.

Everybody had laptops; everybody was busy with something, and even when the tables hosted more than one person, nobody spoke because he and she were engrossed in what was happening on the screen of the laptop. Being nosy (it’s my job, isn’t it?) I glanced at screens to my right and to my left. They weren’t madly writing articles or creating artistic, albeit electronic, masterpieces. They were surfing the net, in my old time lingo, “just messing around,” but they were doing it so seriously, so artfully, I thought they were actually working.

Is that what happens in other offices, people creating “busy” work and passing it through the chain so that someone or everyone looks busy and productive? Probably not, but it occurs all too often and to the detriment of everyone in the chain of command. It seems to occur either because someone at the top of the chain wants to look industrious to others or someone doesn’t have enough to do on his or her own and creates useless tasks or paperwork for people who don’t need anything else to do.

Now, with more than six million people out of work, maybe some of the “busy” work will cease and be replaced with real work. What if it doesn’t? None of us wants to try to explain that we don’t need or want any more work than we have, if in fact we are producing something. If somebody wants 50, 100, or 500 copies of some memo, can we tell the person we’re really busy and could they just do it themselves? Wouldn’t that be fun, just once? My advice: Do that in your head, smile and put it on the pile; no sense in becoming one more statistic without a job or an office.
The television series “The Office,” holds special significance for many people, including my nephew, who says he knows people just like the ones portrayed on the show. I’m embarrassed by the characters and can’t watch it, maybe refusing to believe people behave that way in real life. Maybe I should take another look.

Our offices become microcosms of our lives; we spend more time at the office than at home. That’s why offices must be places where creativity blooms and is encouraged, where kindness and courtesy naturally flow from one to another, and people actually communicate with words, not electronic messages. If your office isn’t functioning the way it should, find a way to initiate changes that would benefit everyone, including you.