Posts in category: Office

Someone has been stealing my desk paraphernalia. It started off with just a pen here, a pad of sticky notes there. Now I’ve discovered that someone has made off with my custom keyboard, along with my in-tray – like, the tray itself, which was a really nice one that I treated myself to at an expensive office supplies store in Paris. It’s on!

 Who could it be? It’s not like this office doesn’t have enough generic equipment to go round. Granted, it can be a little hard to find it at times, the arrangement of the storeroom system being less than ideal. Would an improved office storage solution keep this from happening, though? Probably not.

 Still, it’s true that this place wouldn’t feature on a list of the best office fitouts Melbourne has to offer. Aside from the stationary storage issue, there’s not a whole lot of sense to the layout of the workstations – as in, it’s kind of hard to tell where one starts and the next one begins; there’s not a lot of consistency or flow throughout the space as a whole.

 Could the thief really have mixed up my stuff with communal things? Seems far-fetched. Still, this place could stand to have a bit more definition in how the space is used. When it comes to office design ideas, Melbourne businesses aren’t exactly lagging behind, but I think there’s still a ways to go in terms of designing for functionality and clarity, as opposed to mere novelty.

 At the end of the day, I’m pretty sure that whoever is nicking my stuff knows that it’s not there for the taking. But something about the way that things are arranged might be enabling them to pass it off as a necessary evil, or even convince themselves that it’s actually a fine thing to do. This doesn’t really help me pin down the villain… or does it?

Perhaps if I pay attention to how people are using the workspace, I’ll be able to gather some clues and crack this case. For now, it’s off to the communal supply cupboard for me.

This whole Olympic anthem competition might still be going on, but I personally think that I can do better. It’s always struck me as odd that individual cities don’t have anthems. Like…do people just not take the time to write them? There are loads of songs about New York, a few about London, and I think there was a band in the 70s that made one about Moscow, but that’s pretty much it. The one about spending a night in Bangkok doesn’t count, because it’s talking about chess.

But really, just think about all the wonderful things that could be said about Melbourne in song. Its many great rivers, the shopping centres, and the big shiny buildings in the centre. I can’t confirm it, but the office interior design professionals in Melbourne have to be some of the best in world, I think, probably. We convened on the subject at the cafe, which we do every Thursday night in order to listen to the voices and songs of the universe, and we spent a few hours specifically sending positive vibes towards all the people who work in offices. Those many, strange, unknowable people for whom the terms ‘open plan’ and ‘water cooler conversation’ means so much more than they ever will for us. We cannot understand their ways, but I know that office design exists, because my friend Jemima works in one and she said that office fitouts changed her flippin’ life. They had to move offices for a little bit while theirs was being finished, but after that, it was all downhill for their company. They quartered the finances, and they sold the things and gained the many Dow Jones index points, probably.

My anthem needs to encompass ALL of these things. Music, coffee, rivers, and large office buildings with the best office fitouts available. Melbourne is an amazing place. Even the universe is vouching for it.

-Deirdre