Behind that cloth wall lies a resource or three
In my office, we are cubed. Cubiclized. Sorted into padded rectangles for easy inventory. Fixed addresses. And we are ruled by a higher power.
The installer. The lads in dungarees that arrive with a cube van (how appropriate), each time that the decor is modified. I’m not party to the parlee, but I imagine that there are dozens of high level conference calls and meeting in committee rooms, with the pertinent catalogs and colour swatches used to plan for our corporate success. But when the truck arrives, the installer is king.
Tunnel vision. The assembly is always completed in the least possible time (paid by the hour, with a tough foreman). And after the dust has settled, we always learn that infrastructure is now invisible. Wall plugs, telephone plugs, network drops (which now cover the telephone sector); all behind and beneath materials that are not meant to be moved until demolition day.
High on my list of toys I’d like to own – a hydraulic jack. Small. Adequate to jack up the inside corner of a cubicle to pass an extension cord. Next on the list – a hole maker. One that could pass through the high tech cloth of an enclosure to find the hidden wall plugs. My Leatherman can handle the task, but the boss class frowns at the sight of frayed edges.
This morning, after pointing out that we might not be able to access “resources”, I was instructed to continue my setup. Then, to undo my setup. Then, to move the expensive materials from the cubicles, in case the installers might return. After all that, I heard that there is no chance of a fix until next year. So goes the saga.
