Office move

Meleah, who was recently sick, got back to work yesterday, only to find herself drowning in a sea of paper and e-mails. She says "... I am *waving* and sending ‘kisses’ to all my people that are hanging out here (having fun in bloggville) while I am suffocated, inundated, and struggling to accept way too much change in my life at once."

Many, many hugs to Meleah. She is dealing with a lot of stuff right now. She's a strong cookie, so I have confidence that she'll be alright, but it still sucks. Even the strongest need some love.

Oh, how I wish I could say I was having fun, however. I was in one of my moods yesterday, fighting back tears on my way home. Our team moved buildings last Friday, part of a workplace transformation effort to cut down costs. I worked from home Friday, so yesterday I was unpacking and getting settled. I went from having an office to a cubicle smaller than any I had ever been in. I have spent most of my 10-year career at Big Computer inside a cubicle, but it was still hard to go from windowless, decent-size office to tiniest workspace ever. I had trouble getting all my stuff to fit in the cramped space. I got lost finding the new parking garage. I am all alone because my boss is traveling, my coworker is out due to surgery and the rest of the bigger group is sitting in another section.

I am now adrift in a sea of hundreds of cubicles, with people I do not know, or know barely, who have been there before me. I did find someone I knew from before, someone I had worked with on a project, and she looked at me and asked me if I was pregnant. She is very sweet and I know she meant well, but gee, no, I guess I am still fat from my last pregnancy. I am never wearing that outfit again.

In short, I was feeling quite like the drone yesterday, and I did not like it. I guess I do not handle change that well. The reaction took me by surprise, as I have worked most of my time here in cubicles, but when I was in the Latin America group it felt quite different. Perhaps with time I will feel at home here, but right now I feel like a misfit, cramped in my little box.