Slashdot Mirror
Piimpin' Out Your Corporate Office?
ignoringReality asks: "I just moved into a new office at work that is considerably smaller than my previous one. The furniture is crappy, the walls are plain, and there aren't any windows. I'm trying to think of a unique way to keep myself entertained but not distracted day in and day out. It's a corporate office, so there are obviously limits. Working in a box must be a pretty standard situation for a lot of Slashdot readers, so how do you guys personalize your offices?"
I use OpenOffice.
Did you miss the part where he said "not distracted".
Here is a game you can play. Find and empty white room, with a single empty desk and an uncomfortable chair. Take your laptop, and try to get some work done there.
Your brain will look for anything to ramp up the level of stimulus. And that doesn't mean your work. It means stuff like feeling compelled to spend three hours customizing the font and colors on your laptop screen. Or checking your email every thirty seconds.
Is it a crime to, say, play music while you work? This guy is just looking for the equivalent. Happy employees are better employees.
Oh - wait a sec. Do you work for EA?
Come up with something cool nobody else has done before. Not even people "on the internet."
I once saw a room in college where the ceiling was covered with wrinkled aluminum foil and had red and blue lights pointed at it. It was a pretty nice effect. He did a really nice job too - right up to the corners and *lots* of crinkles. It was all probably about 2-3 inches thick. Neat look, relatively simple to do. (shiny side out!)
But you can't do that. It's taken. Just kidding. Do what you want.
Another guy in the same place had a very small room so he put his bed on a system where he could raise it up to the ceiling using some steel cable, pulleys, and counterweights to get it out of the way during the day.
Collect random junk and try to make something that looks like a person standing in the corner. Dress up a coatrack with random junk. Spare CAT5 for hair (or shredded paper), some spools of some kind for eyes - be sure to add some shades. Old t-shirt from the thrift shop. Think up some other stuff for the rest.
You could put color filters in your flourescent overhead lighting.
Build a LARGE binary clock for your wall.
You can always hang models or random crap from the ceiling.
Use tape or rearrange the tiles for some kind of boardgame layout on your floor. Pac-Man
Do what you can to "0wn" your friends cubicles in a non-destructive way. Racing stripes. Get some from an auto parts store and stick it to the side of your computer or monitor cases.
Have an artist friend do a mural. Mosaic-ify it and do it on the tiles, overhead, on the wall, in the bathroom.
Put up and "I'm from here." map. Even if it's just your city or tri-county area.
Maps. Just find maps from random places.
LEDs. Can't forget LEDs. (Just be sure to over drive them with an incorrectly designed power supply so they burn out and/or try to catch things on fire... HHOK) LEDs everywhere! (Everybody else is doing it.)
Get some lasers and front-surface mirrors. Get a laser to bounce back and forth across the office a few times then smoke something in the dark to make it appear
TUX. Can't forget TUX. He could use some wall space - right?
Beastie. Can't forget Beastie. Make a blanket!
Random sports equipment usually looks sorta cool hanging from the walls. Find a surfboard.
Replace some standard office equipment with the same piece, but made out of LEGOs.
Spare/Junk/Coastered CDs can be put on the walls in interesting patterns or made into clocks.
Make the coffee machine run off a generator connected to an exercise bike. Put people on rotation and make sure they get to work on time. Maybe riding the bike is enough exercise to replace the need for coffee?
Build a still. Like on *M*A*S*H* Imbibe on Fridays.
Build a file-cabinet maze.
Get some flourescent paint. Buy some blacklights.
Mess with the bathroom somehow. Make visitors wonder.
Paper airplane airport. Practice landings. Make a launcher with rubber bands.
Print out banner ads for your wall.
Tin-can-and-string telephone/intercom???
Get some fish.
Get yourself a "Jump to Conclusions" mat for the office.
You could probably etch a number of carpets or other surfaces with bleach or acid. Just mask and pour! (Carpet would probably need something heavy to push down into the pile to prevent run-out. Masking tape won't work unless you use a spray bottle. Mask -far- back.)
Take a Friday afternoon to go shopping for old couches and coffee tables. How about a gaudy lamp from 1964 for the corner of your office??
Have a "Cubicle Pimp-Out Contest". Flashy and Gaudy wins.
Remodel. Just moving stuff around will be fun and interesting for the next few weeks.
No windows in your office? Buy yourself a sledgehammer. It won't come with directions. You don't need directions.....