Haiku tunnel

He writes haiku about emails without making you think he's being anachronistic: "In that otherworld/ Where we met when we emailed/ There is no other."—Telegraph, on poet Robert Crawford

Prada designs clean-lined clothing and offices

From Page Six:

CRAZY RULES BEDEVIL PRADA
March 30, 2008 -- Employees in Prada's New York office must feel like they're in boot camp. A missive was sent to workers at the 51st Street headquarters the other day with a list of rules. An insider told Page Six the instructions came directly from Prada head Miuccia Prada, who is "hard-core" and "runs a tight ship." The e-mail declares: "Desk and work surfaces should be clean and uncluttered. Pictures, calendars, etc. should not be taped to cubicle/office walls. Pets may not be brought to the corporate office or the store. For corporate employees, all coats should be hung in the appropriate coatroom and not kept in offices or hung over cubicle walls. Window shades should be even (either completely up or completely down) throughout one side of the floor. Items may not be placed on the window sills ... In addition, it is important to take a break from your workday and enjoy your lunch. Therefore, absent extenuating circumstances, lunch may not be eaten at your desk." The memo ends with a warning that violators "may be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment."

Are you a Jokee?

But there is a young class of workers who are taking the ol' cup of Joe to a new place: their desks. For the Caffeinists, work is all sip and type, sip and type. —Amelie Gillette, "5 Trends I Just Made Up Looking Around the Office" The Onion

(Via B.)

Negative spaces

Photo: Lars Tjunbork, in the NYT magazine.

You should be thankful for meetings

While more overt signs might include a boss who has a habit of yelling at you in front of your co-workers or making belittling or critical comments about your work during meetings, some behavior is more insidious. Ever get excluded from a group lunch or team meeting?
—Forbes (Via.)

(Make sure you click on the slideshow.)

Fitting in

By Jessica Hagy, Indexed

"The trouble with this establishment...

...is that there's no organization."







—Jim Henson's early teleplay The Cube (Via.)

The benefits of pelvic stabilization

Donald T. Chadwick. (American, born 1936) and William Stumpf. (American, 1936-2006). Aeron Office Chair. 1992. Structure: Glass-reinforced polyester and die-cast aluminum Pellicle: Hytrel polymer, polyester, and Lycra, Dimensions range from a minimum h. of 37 1/4" (94.6 cm) to a max h. of 43" (109.2 cm) x 28 1/2 x 28 1/2" (72.4 x 72.4 cm). Manufactured by Herman Miller, Inc., Zeeland, MI.


Research and development while creating the Aeron chair yielded gems like this study: The Benefits of Pelvic Stabilization.

"She eventually did not invite this employee to the Christmas party"

An eye roll, a glare, a dismissive snort — these are the tactics of the workplace bully. They don’t sound like much, but that’s why they are so insidious. How do you complain to human resources that your boss is picking on you? Who cares that a co-worker won’t return your phone calls? —Tara Pope-Parker, NYT

That stings

by Jessica Hagy, Indexed

Cooped up

Cubicles in Buffalo: "Collection Agencies Add Scarce Jobs in Hard-Hit Region," NYT

The seven-year itch

“I needed time to grow into who I am now. I needed some personal time.” She laughs, realizing how ridiculous that sounds. (She still seems slightly amused by her newfound sincerity, as if it’s a particularly funny hat.) “So, yeah, I took seven years of personal days.” —Christina Ricci, New York

Fish tank, probably fake

I saw this on the Tumblr homepage. It looks like some sort of composite image. I don't actually know much about that, though. I certainly hope it is real. It seems, otherwise, to be a very boring office.

This office chair is more beautiful than my office chair

Frank Lloyd Wright. (American, 1867-1959). Office Armchair. 1904-06. Painted steel and oak, 36 1/2 x 21 x 25" (92.7 x 53.3 x 63.5 cm), seat h. 19" (48.2 cm). Manufactured by The Van Dorn Iron Works Co., Cleveland, OH. Gift of Edgar Kaufmann, Jr. to The Museum of Modern Art. Department of Architecture and Design.

While you were out

Should we lament the decline of the office phone call?

How about an envelope moistener?

30 January 2008
The new fashion trend was using office supplies for personal adornment. A stapler could be a stylish pendant.

—The Dream Blog of William Poundstone

Sick day

Office mole Angela sends us a link to this game, which a coworker e-mailed to her...(It's related to this previously posted time waster.)

Glass curtain walls, Docomomo, and office-related architecture porn

"On a winter day, its vast atriums shudder with the sound of wind buffeting the sawtooth skylights. The only things moving along the miles of corridors are shadows."

— The Office as Architectural Touchstone by David W. Dunlap, in Sunday’s NYT.

The suburban corporate campus is outgrown but often beautiful. The photos in the online slideshow — Glass and Grass — also stray toward the softcore; the scale of the suburban corporate campus (as designed by Eero Saarinen, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Edward Durell Stone, etc.) lends itself easily to a poor-man’s Andreas Gursky type of shot.

And then there is “Docomomo, an international advocacy organization (the acronym stands for the ‘documentation and conservation’ of the ‘modern movement’).”