Ah, darkness.


The last two rounds of layoffs, plus a subsequent round of cubicle
moves, has left my cubicle surrounded on two sides by empty ones, on the
third side by a cubicle-hall and cubicle-wall, and on the fourth side
by an outside window.


Until about five minutes ago, there was a fluorescent light fixture
directly above my head. Now, there is a fluorescent dark fixture
there. Much better. I don’t dislike light; I just dislike fluorescent
light.


Now I just need to get myself a little incandescent lamp for my desk so
that I can get light there without turning on the under-desk
fluorescents and I’m all set. Ikea’s got a cute little $10 one, I
think. Besides, most days I get lots of natural light from the side.


Unfortunately, there’s still a bit of fluorescent light coming over the
cubicle wall from the next group of cubicles but there’s nothing I can
really do about that, unless I were to extend the cubicle wall upwards
with a sheet or a tent of
doom
or something. I actually have a whole spare cubicle wall
right here, but I don’t think you can build upwards with them.


Edit: Or a Jolly Roger. There’s a long history of flags here,
although they’ve all come down in the last little while. A Jolly Roger
might work just fine, though, or some similarly dark flag.


I considered using a big whiteboard as a lid, but that would make
it feel cramped, and it is currently a huge cubicle because the end of
one cubicle-hallway has become part of my cubicle, and because the
hallway between the cubicle and the window (from which I removed the
spare cubicle wall) is practically unused.


Also: Getting the plastic sheet back in the light fixture is so much
harder than getting it out.


I’m now late to meet Candice for coffee after work/school,
but she will understand when I tell her that I was redesigning my
cubicle.


5 responses to “Ah, darkness.”

  1. Talk to the powers that be – I’m available to resume my old desk and I’ll bring back my Aussie flag too :)

    How about a nice piece of stained glass to filter the flouro? :)

  2. I fought tooth and nail for darkness in my field of vision at ADP. You may remember my rants on #Perl, in fact. I finally won after threatening them with the ADA…the light was giving me crazy headaches, I said I could go and get diagnosed as ‘light-sensitive’ and then FORCE them legally to put me back in an office.

    A real office.

    See, the threat came about when they assigned me the printer closet as an office. I had bad times with them at ADP, but I’d sure like that job security back….

    Congrats on a workspace you like better. This post reminds me so much of ADP it hurts. Right down to the black cloth over the top of the cube. My petition for that was flatly denied, of course, but GMTA…