We rearranged the furniture in the office today. My boss is convinced it will increase productivity. I disagree. I’m a stubborn old man, but I disagree.

Our office was given to use for a year free by the company investor who owns the building. It feels like an office that was leftover because no one wanted it. It’s awkwardly laid out and we don’t have furniture that fits the space (also gifted by an investor). When we moved into the space a year ago, we found a layout that worked because there wasn’t much else we could do. Now we are adding more staff, so that layout doesn’t work. But neither do any other layouts. We might have found one today, but it doesn’t accommodate any more people than it did before.

I get attached to a space. I get everything organized where it fits for me and in doing so, it makes me more efficient. I don’t have to think where something is or where it should go. I just know. Rearranging things really messes with that.

I did my best to remove myself from the conversation on the layout because having too many voices in something just drags it on and on. I also decided to accept whatever desk location that was given to me. I’m fine with what I got. In some ways it is better, I don’t need to share a desk and I have a set of drawers now, and in other ways it’s worse, I have a much smaller space and I don’t get to sit in the window. Despite my assurances, everyone seemed overly concerned with how my space was set up. I have an added luxury of changing space before the new hire starts next week.

The worst part, the part that really has me riled up, is that I have a few days of work I need to do but couldn’t work on because the last hour of the day was monopolized by this. I’m sure it was still going on after I left the office too. The week has been stressful enough, but this just made it worse.