I just spent the last weekend golfing with a bunch of my closest friends (and enemies… do you know who you are?). It wasn’t sunny all weekend, it wasn’t rainy all weekend, but it was awesome all weekend. I got into the office this morning after my long weekend vacation and realized there are some things I really don’t like about being inside for work. For instance, I would rather be outside in the rain then spend my day staring at the beige walls in my office. Sidenote: if you want to send me pictures to put on my office wall that would be great. Right now all I have is a map/calendar from my last job and a picture of a forest from above.
OFFICE PET PEEVE #1: THE BATHROOM
I go into the washroom this morning and I hear an odd clicking noise. It’s not something you usually hear in a washroom and I couldn’t quite place it until I saw a figure nail shoot out underneath one of the toilet stall walls. Who cuts their finger nails at work and leaves the clippings all over the floor? At least throw those things in the garbage, or flush them down the toilet. I will never look at our public washroom the same way again. Also, the men’s bathroom smells a lot like the large mammal house at the Calgary Zoo and not enough soap comes out of the automatic soap dispensers. I know some people don’t like it, but I would rather the open air bathroom experience.
OFFICE PET PEEVE #2: THE SMELLS AND THE NOISE
Working downtown is an assault on my senses. Last week they were putting a new restaurant just below us and the entire day was filled with saws sawing, hammers hammering and signs being put in place to… blink annoyingly bright neon into the sky. I’m sure the new Sultan Express is going to be a great fast casual dining experience for all who want to try out what a “real shawarma, not pre-cooked beef on a stick” actually tastes like, but the noise and the smells are not appealing at 7am. I need to breath some fresh air and eat a well prepared sandwich.
OFFICE PET PEEVE #3: THE DRESS CODE
Our dress code is pretty lax here, but I still have to wear dress pants, dress shoes and a collared shirt to work everyday. Sometimes I just want to throw on jeans and a t-shirt and stroll into work looking like trash because I only slept 3 hours after playing a basketball game that went from 10-midnight the night before. Not really an option when working downtown (unless you’re busking I guess). If I was doing forestry work outside I could show up to work dirtier than the ground I was walking on and bust my butt early in the day so I could relax a little bit in the afternoon. If I was working with a partner, I may even have been able to sneak a few more hours sleep on the way to wherever we were headed for the day. You can work as a hard and as long as you need to in order to get the job done, and you get to do it with fresh air that doesn’t smell like a city bus just pumped exhaust into your lungs. I guess the benefit of working downtown is there are LOTS of good looking people walking around. Those people are slightly better looking than the bears (or people that looked like bears) that you work with outdoors.
In summary I wish I was working outside right now and not in the office. If it were raining/snowing/sleeting right now, I would feel the same way. If you’re looking for a job in the great outdoors and care about how the environment is managed, check out the Forest Science program at the U of A.
