Category — people

I’m not generally a big fan of shopping. With the exception of things that come in shiny or iridescent containers, I can’t be suckered into buying things I don’t need.

Of course, this sensible attitude goes right out the window when it comes to books, or art/office supplies.

So, the other day as I am walking around North Vancouver, I see a big group of smokers standing in the middle of the sidewalk. Normally this irritates me – I despise having to walk through clouds of smoke coming out of people’s mouths. I always want to yell at them, “Thanks for making my hair smell like the inside of your mouth, you cretin!”

But, this time, they were standing a few feet away from the entrance of an art store. So I thought, “I’ll just pop in here and have a look and when I leave, they will have left.” I was just escaping the cigarette smoke you understand. I couldn’t possibly be expected to just go around them, right? Right?

So anyhow, weak excuse in hand, I walk in.  Art stores are the perfect place to make your credit card company love you. All those pens, pencils, fancy paper, water colour paints, paint brushes and ink. I know right then and there that I am not leaving until I have purchased something. It doesn’t have to be much – a gum eraser, a mechanical pencil with neon pink leads, a small notebook – I’m not fussy, but I will be bringing something home with me.

I say hello to the woman sitting behind the counter and I hope to have the following exchange:

Me: Hello.
Her: Hi there. How are you?
Me: Good, thanks. You?
Her: Oh, can’t complain. If you need any help, let me know.
Me: OK, thanks.

This is my ideal shopping experience. Say hello, maybe tell me what’s on sale, and then leave me alone. I’ll ask for assistance if I need it – I’m good like that.

Sadly, this was not the experience I had. That part where she was supposed to say, “Oh, can’t complain. etc.”? It went more like this:

Her: Oh just feeling kind of crappy – one of those days, you know? My boyfriend’s daughter is thirteen and I’ve known her for, like, …well, she was born in…I can’t remember now, but I’ve known her, like, forever. Anyway, he wants her to play soccer, but she doesn’t want to and he can’t really afford it anyway, but he keeps pushing, you know? And I told him if you keep pushing her, you’re going to lose her. I mean, she’s really tiny, like not even five feet and her Dad is huge – like, nearly six feet tall and at least 225 pounds, so he can be really intimidating and she just talks back and says no, but he keeps bullying her anyway. So, I told him off, I was rude to him actually and I’m never like that, and he told me he didn’t want to hear my opinion, so I made him get out of my car…”

Even worse than listening to her personal life and that of her 225 pound boyfriend and his short-but-feisty 13 year old daughter, was how oblivious she was to my discomfort at hearing all this. I wandered away, not looking at her – she followed. I made totally non-committal noises in response to anything that sounded even vaguely like a question – she kept talking.  Finally another customer asked for her help, and I fled with a “seeyoulaterbyebyenow” and I hadn’t purchased a thing.

If this was a chain store, I could just go to a different location, or complain to a manager, or even just  hope that one day she’d be let go for scaring customers off, but this is an independent store – the sort of place I generally feel strongly about supporting – and the chances of her being fired are pretty much nil; she’s the owner’s daughter and, I believe, part-owner herself.

I wish I could say this time was the first time I’d had an uncomfortable experience shopping there, but it wasn’t. I’ve listened to rants on many things there: people who shop at the big art chain store, how much they despise the chain store and the most of the suppliers and all the jerks with art supply warehouses on the Internet who undercut their prices. I’ve also weathered unasked for opinions on politics, weather, local news and religion.

I’ve also been given what I call the “jammy-handed child” treatment: “Please don’t touch that paper. It’s expensive. We don’t want your finger prints on it.” Really? Sorry, but I buy paper based on how smooth it is – textured paper and pencil crayon look bloody awful together – if I’m going to ensure I’m making the right purchase, then I need to touch the paper. Period. You’d think I came in cradling a bucket of KFC under one arm while licking my fingers and making a beeline for the expensive paper so I could use it to wipe my mouth on.

At any rate, this latest display of un-professionalism has cemented my decision to not go back. I probably should have said something like, “I’m really not comfortable hearing this much about your personal life, but I hope it all works out for everyone involved.” But, even that seemed rude somehow and I couldn’t bring myself to do more than wait for a good opportunity to run.

Bottom line? I’m willing to pay more elsewhere – even a chain store – to have the sort of shopping experience I want.

Remember Tom Cruise in Magnolia?  Remember this part:

Today’s sticky note is my take on the text version of that video on Fast Seduction 101 (probably NSFW).

One of the tasks I set for myself at the most recent Emotus Operandi meeting was to visualize and write about my ideal office/work space.

So I sat down this morning and started looking at pictures from the online Restoration Hardware catalogue. I had some lovely fantasies of me sitting down in my Madeleine Side Chair to work at my beautiful Portuguese Desk, a cozy Scrollwork Tibetan Rug beneath my feet and a cup of fragrant green tea within easy reach. Once in awhile, as I was immersed in the creation of my incredibly brilliant first novel, I would look out the generously sized windows towards the sea and maybe get up to throw another log on the fire – after stepping over my irish wolfhound dogs, Heathcliff and Boris.

How’s that for ideal?

Then I realized the chances of me ever having such an office were pretty slim and I’d never get any work done in there anyway. I’d be too distracted by all the first edition books in my Grand French Casement Oak Cabinets and probably fritter the day away playing with my dogs on the seashore.

I took a good look at the work space I have at home and realized that aside from the fact that it’s pretty much in my living room, it’s actually not a bad space for a home office. The less than ideal aspects about my current space were all the office supplies cluttering up the lovely 1930′s dining table I use as my desk.

I figured if I couldn’t have my office by the sea, I could have a good work space here at home. So I cleaned the table off – and ruthlessly threw everything that was superfluous onto a huge pile that I will donate to a school-supplies drive come September.

So, now I’m sitting at my newly cleaned up desk and having another realization: I still haven’t fulfilled the object of the exercise. I’ve made my home office more or less ideal – but I’ve done nothing to envision what my office/work life might be like if I were get a more regular job outside of my home office.

If I’m being honest, I suppose I don’t care so much about the office space as I do about the work I’m doing and the people I’m doing it with, but I’ll give it a shot anyway:

The work should be interesting and meaningful.

Ideally, I want to work on something that means something to me personally – something I’d use, buy or want for myself. I’ve worked on projects and at places that were never more than a means to a paycheque. Lots of people do this and it’s considered normal. I don’t want that kind of normal. I want to want more than just the paycheque.

I would also prefer work that doesn’t cause me to go home feeling stressed out and annoyed with the universe – I don’t want to become my work, I want my work to simply be a natural extension of something I like anyway (and then I want to be paid a reasonable salary for doing it).

My work environment should be reasonably pleasant.

When I say “work environment” I mean the people in the work place. Ideally, I would work at a smallish company with (or for) like-minded people and we will create a work environment that is nice to be in. When I’m at work, I want to actually do work. I want to create and produce things. I want to know that my colleagues and I are working together toward a common goal, but I also want a relaxed atmosphere that is friendly. My dream job has an ROWE policy anyway, so the rest should follow. I also want the people I work for to be available and have an open door policy.

I’ve had many managers, and they were nearly always busy with paperwork or in meetings so it was rare that I could use them as a resource for the work I was doing. Of course, they always made time (eventually) for performance reviews and when they discovered I’d been struggling along and improvising a little they’d inevitably ask, “Why didn’t you come to me about this? That’s what I get paid for.”

The work space should be set up for the results I’m supposed to produce.

Most places don’t give their employees a say in how their work space is set up. I suppose all I would ask is that I have some measure of privacy, one of those metal locker things for my coat and personal belongings, and equipment that works, with the software I need set up and ready to go.

I can’t count how many times I’ve started at an office with an empty desk, or a PC that doesn’t work, a broken chair and two cheap pens that leak in a dusty holder. Please, if you want good things from me, treat me like I matter. Have this stuff set up and tested, don’t give me the chair no one else will sit in, and clean the desk.

If there could also be some sort of cleaning schedule in place for the kitchen – that would be awesome. Communal fridges/microwaves/sinks are generally disgusting and I hate having to clean random goo off the counter before I can use it.

Looking over what I’ve just written here, I don’t think my ideals are very demanding or unrealistic. Ultimately, I want to be happy in my work. I want to know that I am doing something useful with and for people with whom I have a good and honest working relationship. I will give a lot to the place that can provide these things.

Now that I have a picture in my head of my ideal office, I just need to start looking for a place that fits these criteria!