Back Door Stew
12 February 2007My office recently moved us into some new digs which are pretty nice. Big offices and cubes, break room with free drinks, large courtyard with a waterfall. Overall I can’t complain. There are, however, a few things that are irritating. The first of which is that one of our labs is outside our secured area and only accessible with an actual key rather than a badge wave with a key sequence. Not a huge deal, but an inconvenience.
The second issue is that sound carries like the Grand Canyon. Tech Support is sitting about 3 cubes away and I can hear their every word. The other day I was amused to hear one of our reps saying “You’re listening to me but you’re not hearing me.” Amen - I spent 4 years on the phone and it can be impossible to get people to stop spewing their venomous ignorance long enough to listen to advice on solving their problem.
The third and most troubling issue is the bathroom situation. I know we don’t talk about these things in polite company but, as my husband says, I have no filters. When you walk into the place you’re hit with a blast of air which is measurably hotter than the surrounding offices. While it could be said that the extra heat might be appreciated while partially naked, I personally don’t feel that way. The other issue is that people do bad things in the bathroom and this one is not properly ventilated. The assault upon entrance is similar to how one might imagine the smell of slowly simmering sewage. My guess is that the former problem contributes greatly to the latter. Regardless, I’m cutting down on my daily water intake until I can go in there without holding my breath for fear of catching some airborne plague.
To his credit the facilities manager was very responsive to my gently worded PC email about the situation by indicating they will investigate right away. We’ll see. In the meantime I may be investigating a designer line of face masks.
on February 14th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
Most likely the persistent stench isn’t a product of poor ventilation (though I’m sure that factor is doing you no favors). The traps in the floor drains probably weren’t installed correctly, or the water level in ‘em is too low for some reason. This allows that wonderful “sewer gas” smell to waft back up into the bathroom.
The fact, too, that the room always seems overpressured when you open the door is a dead giveaway.
on February 14th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
I will be arming myself with a bottle of water next time I go in there and pouring it down the drains. Good call.