AnywhereMan

I find that this is incredibly relevant to me as I have actually done some of these exercises. Hilarious! I’ve seen a bunch of Gavin’s videos (the “How to Defend Against Someone Attacking You” is incredible), but this is a top sketch for sure.

Kudos to Jake Olson for sharing this one.

Don’t take that title the wrong way. I love what I do and where I do it. The Anywhere Lifestyle wins hands-down over the cubicle lifestyle 99 out of 100 times in my book.

But sometimes there are minor things I miss about my days working in an office environment…sort of. This is my tribute to those days and those people.

1 – Talking about football on Monday mornings

Wherever I’ve worked, most of the people there have been Vikings fans. Monday morning conversations have either helped soothe the wound of a wicked loss or sweeten the taste of a hard-fought victory for the purple. Now that I’m on my own, I’ve suppressed my emotions after the 31-28 loss to the Saints in the NFC championship game this past season. You know I’m headed for a complete breakdown at some point.

2 – Having people to laugh at YouTube videos with me

I can do a perfect imitation of the look on my wife’s face when I tell her to come and watch something funny on YouTube. She knows two things: 1) It’s going to be stupid, and 2) I’m going to laugh way harder than she is. This was not the case with my co-workers back in the office days. It was all funny, all the time.

3 – The intercom system

My years spent working for Vencio in St. Paul had all of the main staff working in one big front office area. We each had a cubicle but could talk to each other without leaving our desks. Yet, when we got a new phone system and it included intercom functionality, you just had to use it even if you were mere feet away from each other. Intercom systems are awesome.

4 – Inside jokes

Uhhhhh, intercom systems are awesome. Yeah. Fart machine.

5 – The camaraderie of sharing experiences that don’t make sense

Things happen that you’d never believe unless you had co-workers there to experience them with you.  Once, a gentleman walked in and asked if we made websites, which we did. He then proceeded to tell us what he needed. Sounded good. Then he told us it was for a particular “adult” website. Sorry, sir, out of luck here.

Seriously, why would you go to a web development company in person to ask about something like that??? Phone and email are just fine, buddy.

6 – Games

This actually gave me the idea for this post. My wife and I watched the Season 3 episode of The Office when Jim was working at the Stamford branch. He and his co-workers would spend time playing against each other in a first-person shoot-em-up computer game. I’ve done that a few times. We had a basketball hoop behind the building at one point too. It was fun when we all would realize at the same time how pathetic we were.

7 – Friday afternoons

There’s something enjoyable about getting ready to leave for the weekend that puts everyone in a good mood. I had a co-worker that always cranked up the same song every Friday at around 4 PM. We always knew it was coming. We pretended to be annoyed, but it was a celebration of about-to-get-out-of-here-ness. We usually accompanied it with a good bit of fart machine as well.

8 – Co-workers that make you go huh

At every company I’ve ever worked for, there’s always been at least one employee that makes everyone else just go “huh.” Just think about your time in an office. There’s always someone who is just a little on the whacky side and you feel kind of lucky to have experienced their views on life and nicotine-addicted deer.

Is there anything you miss about your days in the cubicle? Or do you get all of the above situations at home already?