Secretarial pool for managers

I moved desks yesterday.

Actually, I was evicted from my old desk because someone else was drafted in to help out with a project in crisis. So I was asked to move to another floor entirely.

As most of you will probably know, desk moves have their pros and cons. I my case, they were mostly cons. My old desk was on the same floor as the key members of my team. My tech lead was right beside me and the lead analyst directly opposite.

Remember those old secretarial pools they used to have in the days before desktop computers? Well I am now in the secretarial pool for managers.

You see, the 9th floor is made up almost entirely of managers. There are one or two senior analysts around, but mostly it's just project and programme managers. Quite why anyone would decide to seat so many managers away from their teams is completely beyond me. Anyway, hopefully this is just temporary.

The usual up side of a desk move involves a process I call upgrading. The idea is to have the best workstation in the building - and it can take years.

Even in today’s corporate world of uniformity, there are often small differences between workstations. When a new batch of office chairs comes in because loads of new people are starting, they are very quickly swapped for old ones by the sharpest of incumbents. When one of those incumbents is asked to move desks because one of the newbies needs to sit where he is, he takes his new chair with him. See how it works? These people are upgrading. Accumulating office 'wealth'. When someone leaves the organisation, there is a swift reaction from the old hands. They immediately compare the 'wealth' of the leaver with their own, and very quickly they pounce on the optical mouse that the other guy left behind, or swap their own 1.6Ghz CPU for a 2Ghz one. That grimy keyboard with the sticky 'G' key (the result of a coffee spillage last year) is swapped for the newer, cleaner one. You get the picture.

So when I packed up my books, files and papers, loaded them onto my fancy new chair and wheeled it up to the 9th floor, I was disappointed to see a slower processor, dirtier keyboard and older mouse with no wheel!

The only up side I can see is that I have a better view out of the window. Of the building across the street.

And it's quieter. That's good.