Location, Location, Location

Where you work can obviously have a huge effect on how much you enjoy your job. Personally, anybody that knows me knows that I want to get back to NYC at some point. But I could be in worse places than Jersey, and I'm actually not even talking about the city or the state where you work. One of the biggest factors that can effect your day to day work life isn't where you work, but where you sit at work.

My best seat situation at work was when I first started at the NYC mega-firm after law school. I was on the 24th floor, right by the door. This meant that I could slide right from the elevator into my office, and only really had to worry about the random chance meeting in the hallway with a co-worker if I was running late. But that was extremely unlikely because the rest of my group was all on the 25th floor. I never saw ANY of them unless I was going upstairs to see someone about a project.

I also wasn't very busy when I first started my job, so once we got our blackberries and I could answer e-mail from home, I pretty much did whatever I could to not have to get into work on time. I only lived about 3 blocks from the office, so instead of making sure I got there at 9:30, I'd get ready for work and sit on the couch watching TV and checking my e-mail and voicemail every couple of minutes. Once something important came in on e-mail or I got a voicemail, I'd hustle up to the office and just say I had stepped away from my desk or whatever. I was able to see plenty of Saved by the Bell re-runs and quality morning talk show garbage this way. I was only freaked out once when I was watching something awful and then heard a voicemail from the overall very senior partner in my group. Had to run to the office because I thought I screwed up or something, turns out that the purpose of his call was to see if I was interested in changing practice groups because they didn't have a lot of work for me. Considering I heard his message at home at 10:15 because I had zero incentive to go in any earlier, I'd say he had a good handle on the situation.

In my new job, my seating has been a bit of a mixed bag. My first spot was a bigger cubicle than most other people because it was available. Multiple people made comments about my big cube, and I'm pretty sure there's one girl at work who didn't like me because of it (like it was my choice, but whatever). I didn't want this place though, because of where it was located. I was stuck with my back to one of the main hallways that people (especially the main bosses of the office) were always walking through, meaning there were countless times each day that I could have been caught on facebook, checking my fantasy baseball team, sending personal e-mails or doing one of the countless other things I do other than actual work on any given day.

From pretty early on, people in my group were saying I needed to move because I was separate from everyone else. In reality, I was literally about 10 feet from the people in my group, but because I wasn't in the little row of cubes where they all sat, it was liked I was in another building. That changed this past Thursday though, when I switched to a new spot. Even if the cubicle is smaller, I'm closer to the rest of my group, and most importantly, I'm out of a high traffic hallway and in a location where my boss may walk by a couple times per day but that's it. Now I'll be able to become a fan of people, places and/or things, write reviews and e-mail about Lost in peace. And, on occasion, do my job.