Did I tell you guys that I've started work at the new office? Our spanking new place is at the top floor of a newly-built block in Nakameguro. I've suggested to the boss to add "The Penthouse" to our corporate address. Our space is a little smaller compared to the lower floors because we have a balcony surrounding it, and we have tall ceilings wrapping 2 sides of the block so it's a pretty good view. Plus plenty of sunlight during the day.
I love the new place, coz everything is brand new and we're the first people to begin working there. The first week was great because I've been working at home almost the whole of November and it was good being out, mingling with people and just having a different view while working. We get to see furniture coming in, wirings being rerouted, homely things filling up the kitchen and toilet, and many visitors dropping by.
But come 2nd week, I was beginning to feel like it was slowly turning bad. The commute took about 40 minutes, not including walking time. I have to lug my laptop to the office, and it feels like I'm on a daily backpacking trip since I have to sometimes stand all the way to the office and back during rush hours. All these made me rather tired halfway through the day, and I wished I was working at home again.
With all the changes and investment, my boss was beginning to act "weird" too. Maybe he was stressed, but he had some expectations over us and we were beginning to feel rather uncomfortable. It felt like he was watching us and wasn't happy at certain things we did. Before things got worse, we decided to talk to him about it. Thank God I have a really understanding boss, who didn't get the wrong impression that we were complaining, but rather admitted what was happening.
I was really quite hungry, but since he decided to have that talk after office hours, I decided to stay back a little too. It was all in all a good talk, we managed to clear things up and I even got his approval to sometimes work from home too. He understood that for certain tasks like writing, it was quite impossible to have concentration in the office. I assured him that I would only do it when necessary, as the office was there for the reason for better collaboration amongst everyone here.
And today, we had our opening-cum-Christmas party at the office. Friends & former staff joined us as we toasted to the end of a busy year and to a more exciting 2008. I was supposed to join some friends for a Christmas Jazz Concert at the Chuo Seishou Church, but the party started late, and I thought I should actually spend some time with some of these people.
So I remained back at the party and had quite a good time getting to know some of the people whom I've only chatted with or met only once. Plus practiced my deteriorating Japanese too! I initially wanted to get some gifts, but I didn't know how many were coming and I was only close to certain people. I guessed maybe spending time would have been more meaningful. Especially at a time like this.
No comments:
Post a Comment