the 30 year club
when you come in in the morning...and you're walking from the parking lot...if you're more than a yard behind someone who works with you, you can ignore them. nevermind that you work in an office of 12...max...you can do this. and you can do this without feeling rude. here's why: it makes you feel like you work in a 'real' office.
also making you feel like you work in a 'real' office is pretending like you can't hear other people's phone conversations, even though their desk is mere feet from yours and you have no cubicles. so when that person gets off the phone and is all frazzled, you ask what happened. and they tell you their half of the conversation (which you've already heard) and then they tell you the other half (which you couldn't hear but is clear from the context clues and other half that you've already heard twice). and then you comment on these conversations.
in real jobs, people have staff meetings. they're boring, but you can get stuff done during them, like work stuff. productive stuff. they're enlightening. in an office of 12 with no cubicles and three total full rooms of office space, you're constantly up in everybody's business. so staff meetings devolve into 15 minute conversations about who takes out the trash in the ladies room. even though the one clear division of work and duties is between the people who sit at a desk (no uniform) and hte people who don't (green shirts).
the intimacy of a 12 person office also prevents you from asking why that one staff member is patently not required to be at (and hence never shows up to) the weekly required staff meetings.
in real jobs, working for 30 years will at least get you a watch, or a jacket, or a pat on the back and a lot of vacation. 30 years in a tiny office means you get insanity pills. which you take religiously. apparently. and membership to the 30 year club. where you are clearly insane. Clearly.
i'm not in the 30 year club at my 12 person office. i'm just...not that crazy. i'm a little nutty, i've got some craziness issues, sure...but i'm not in the club.
in fact, the last duty i had for the year got cancelled (which is a damn shame because it's the most interesting thing i do all year...i can say that because i've officially worked for a year here). this frees me to begin looking for a new job now as opposed to a month from now.
30 years my ass. if i make it 30 months without going crazy i'll be surprised.