Mind Your Head

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 05 July 2006 11:42:52

The office I work in is like a greenhouse: glass windows all the way round, minimal ventilation and you mustn't throw stones in it. Water and cool air are required during sunny spells to ensure us delicate flowers (and the tough boys too) do not wilt.

Obtaining water is usually OK. Down one flight of stairs is the office kitchen - after you've fought your way past the sink stacked with dirty dishes, empty dishwater, food splattered microwave, overfull fridge, dripping water heater, fair-trade tea and coffee, and empty squash bottles you come to the most important feature in the room: the water cooler. It is a wonderful invention: Ice cold water on demand. And always broken. At least the sink taps work. Usually. Last week the men who are taking away my old friend (see yesterday) damaged the water main in the street outside. The office was without water for most of the day. Great.

Obtaining cool air is also a problem at the moment. Most windows in our fifth floor office are locked shut. To stop us jumping. The management placates us by buying desk fans for anyone who puts their hand up at the right time. The right time being when they are placing the occasional order for fans. The fans are very efficient. At moving the warm air about. And this week I discovered they can do something else too: Cut hair. There are a few fans mounted on the pillars in our open plan space. Usually they are directed towards the room in general. But this week someone angled one of the fans down. Not quite sure why we want to cool the floor, but it was obviously deliberate because they thoughtfully put a sign up on the pillar too. The sign says MIND YOUR HEAD. If you forget to duck (and knocked the mesh guard off) the fan blades could give you a very nice hair cut.

I love my office.