Anonymous Assistant: Open Plan
Lawyers tend to take a fairly conservative line when it comes to most things. Change has to be deliberated and negotiated; concessions made, bargains sought. So when law firms move offices en-masse, there’s all sorts of potential for discussion…
…especially if Open Plan comes onto the agenda (from Anonymous Assistant)…
Following some intensive lobbying from the “Relocation Committee”, we are allowed to visit our new premises.
“It’s like being on a school trip!” Melinda trills, swinging her hands happily as she totters along the road.
“It’s not like any school trips I ever went on,” Danielle huffs.
Nor me.
Clive, Simon, Danielle, Melinda, Tarquin and I are trailing along Bishopsgate in order of enthusiasm. Clive is marching , purposefully, ahead, like an eager history teacher; behind him Simon and Tarquin are competing to be favourite; Melinda is next, skipping along in a daydream; then Danielle, grumbling about her shoes hurting her; and, finally me, dawdling at the back and pretending I am not associated with any of them.
”Here we are,” Clive comes to a halt outside a glitzy granite-clad building. “Our new home!”
“Home” is the right word: the place we are destined to spend two thirds of our living hours……..
“Oh,” Melinda, puts her hand on her hips and gazes up at the pink/grey facade. “It’s not very attractive, is it?”
“Depends what you class as attractive,” Clive muses.
“It’s a fine example of mid-Thatcher-era architecture,” Simon informs her. “Glass and chrome echoing the resurgence in Art Deco design during that period and demonstrating the resurgence in power of the City’s financial institutions. You may note the geometric shapes and Egyptian detailing.”
“It looks like my local nightclub,” she sniffs.
February 2, 2010
We moved offices in the not too distant past. You can tell this is fiction by the fact that the employees were actually consulted. Normally it is external consultants that are consulted at exorbitant cost not the people who work there!
February 2, 2010
This is hilarious. We had a “moving” committee at our place and we are a medium sized City firm. It got to make exciting decisions like the colour to paint the walls. Sadly we ended up with orange, yellow and cerise pink!
February 3, 2010
Yeah, we had one too. I blame them for negotiating all the “fabulous in-house” facilities – meaning we never have to leave the office…
February 3, 2010
Our fantastic new coffee machines pump out such putrid brown yuk, a trip to Starbucks is still necessary.
@ vix – orange yellow and pink; I feel for you. Who did the interior decor, Graham Norton?
February 4, 2010
Cbeebies I think!
It’s supposed to cheer us up but I prefer being miserable…..