Archives for January 2009

The New York Times Company, managing entity behind the Manhattan based news paper, is trying to sell its headquarters.  Unsurprisingly, it is being reported as an act only the truly desperate would attempt which for my money is grade A comedy.  Three floors of Harvard educated Business Analysts and the best ‘out of the box’ idea they could find was to sell off that really valuable asset that they never really needed to do their jobs. Alert the presses NYT because here comes a newsflash; you are in the Information business.  Now I live in Michigan so I usually take a free pass to beat up on the Automotive Industry any chance I can, but in this case the big three wishes they had the newpaper’s problems.  A digital car isn’t going to make Ford any money anytime soon, though I’m positive I heard rumors about millions being invested in the idea as a ‘green’ alternative.

The myth that the guys and gals in accounting need to be sitting within 10 feet of each other to process the books is outlandishly insulting when you think about it.  Have you seen the accounting department for most companies?  Its huge.  They don’t ‘walk down the isle’ to go over the Smith file, they email it back and forth.  If you want to ask Sally about a journal entry you either call her up or IM her because shes on the 5th floor and you’re on 7 thanks to expansions in Sales, Marketing, and Legal taking up all the good cubes.   So now that everyone is shoe-horned into the corporate HQ, what real value are they getting out of the experience?  If anyone does try to start a conversation it goes over like a fart in church since the silence is enough to make out personal calls from the secretary thirty yards away.  There is the lunch room crowd that gabs on about their hip surgeries with uninterested co-workers who are eating warm Havarti cheese and anchovies over crackers.  Yes, I am sure that without these bonding experiences the whole organization would crumble into ruin, not that the leadership would notice because they are working from home today.

It is 2009 people, can we really look each other in the eye and say that the office environment is ‘working’?  We have the technology to free our cube brethern from needless commutes in snow, office temperature fluxuations ranging in the triple digits, and unproductive marathon sessions of ‘who took my printout?’.  Even when companies large and small like working together and feel the work environment helps them it really becomes an expense that is hard to justify this year.  So I call on company leaders to send your people home to work.  They may even thank you by getting their work done.

Photo attributed to mudpig