Yesterday, I went to go work at my husband’s shop. Well, not work for them, but just to use their space to get some school work done. This is the large warehouse where I filmed the Christmas presents DIY video. I had a couple projects to work on for my interior design classes, and I wanted a bit more space and better surfaces to work on than what is available at home.
It got me thinking about workspaces. What do I want in a new workspace? I definitely have thoughts and opinions about what I don’t want, based on previous offices. Ironically, it seems the higher I went up in my career, the worse the workspace got.
When I first got started as a development assistant at a nonprofit, I had my own cubicle. It wasn’t fancy by any means, but it was nice having walls and a lot of desk space. It helped me concentrate on the tasks at hand. But as I continued on in my career, I found myself more and more in open office spaces.
Open offices seem to be very trendy, especially in the tech world. Companies tout bullshit, like: they are trying to foster an open culture. But really they’re just trying to save space and money. These workspaces make it very hard to concentrate, and at my last job, I found myself often booking conference rooms or finding a quiet corner just to have some peace and quiet.
I really loved working at the shop yesterday. I was comfortable and got a lot done. The day really flew by! Part of it was probably the type of work I was doing. I was working mostly with my hands and not so much on a computer. But I think it is also the environment. First, I had large workspaces where I could spread out my supplies. Secondly, I was surrounded by creative projects — sets here, props there. I could feel the energy of creativity and imagination.
Obviously, my future workplace will depend a lot on the type of work I choose to do. But I think I will want it to be something different from the traditional office workspace. Much like I hope to have variety in the type of tasks I do, I hope there is a variety in the workspaces I use. Maybe I work at a standing drafting table for some of my tasks, then I move over to a larger craft table for other assignments, and then maybe I’ll move over to a traditional desk for some quick computer work. And it would also be nice to change up locations every now and then.
All I know is that I don’t want to be just stuck sitting at a desk all day.
