Crates, Stickers and Post-Its, Oh My!

After five years in our downtown location, my company is moving tomorrow. I couldn't be happier if you gave me a year's supply of Starbucks or Qdoba. We're moving to a brand-spankin' new office complete with all new furnishings and much closer to my house. After visiting it earlier this week, I left with that "new office" smell consuming my nostrils. In keeping with the tradition of the most unique place in which I work, this move, although time consuming, has been made fun.

A week ago the commercial movers delivered the crates we're using to pack up for the move. Being very eco-friendly, the crates are re-usable and you can't swing a dead cat in our office without hitting a stack of those suckers. Along with the delivery we had a "moving meeting" last week. One of our employees said "Um, I know how to pack a box" which was overhead by the moving company representative who quickly said "This is about more than just packing a box." Some people need to lighten up and enjoy life. They issued all of us numbers to assign to our crate(s) so that when the boxes arrive they land at our correct location. I didn't even have to look at the list to know that my number was 13. The number 13 has always been my lucky number. The first new car I purchased rolled off the truck from the factory on Friday the 13th...I accepted a job on Friday the 13th almost 20 years ago that has been the connector to every job I've had since then. Thirteen has been very, very good to me.

Since everything at the new office will be, well, new, all of the current furniture and file cabinets, etc, are available for free to any employee that wants them. Everyone needed to affix a Post-It Note with their name on it on the said piece of furniture and as long as no one else slapped a Post-It on it with their name, the prize was yours to keep. If multiple Post-Its appeared, we would conduct a drawing to determine the winner. That occurred today complete with festive cake and brownies to celebrate the last hoop-la in the current location. The big prize was the refrigerator - the only catch was the winner has to clean it out. With about six months of science experiments going on in there, you had to really want that fridge. A contest like this wouldn't be complete without the expected pranks. I found the toilet in the bathroom tagged with a co-workers name. Priceless.

Our new office will be like moving from the ghetto to Manhattan! We not only get new furniture, but a new fridge, ice machine and two new microwaves. Each conference room will be equipped with flat-screen TVs mounted on the walls...just in time for March Madness. And thanks to our Sales team, a Wii Gaming system so we can have competitive fun when we need a break. The movers come at 4:30 tomorrow and will move all our belongings tomorrow night. Saturday we go into the office to set up to be ready for business as usual Monday morning. We'll take any office-warming gifts you'd like to send.