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.