Something 4 The Weekend # 176

Belle & Sebastian: Dear Catastrophe Waitress: "Step Into My Office, Baby" [mp3]

Our office move is nearing completion, although I hestitate to say that because it seems like every new day brings some new fresh hell with it. In actuality, today we completely cleared our old offices, and signed off on the closing contract with the owner of the building. This weekend we'll be at the new offices, where our IT guys will be working frantically to get the network and phone system fully in place while hired contractors will be loading everyone's offices with their hardware and personal effects.

As the #2 guy in the Operations Department, I've been spearheading the logistics of the move with my boss, which essentially means facilitating all our coworkers - answering questions, loaning out tools, getting them boxes and tape guns and whatever else they might need to pack up their offices for the move. It also means working with the moving company and other assorted contractors, and for me personally, it's meant taking care of address changes with all our vendors and partners within and without the company.

Having taken care of all of that over the course of the past few weeks, this week has been a hardcore concentration on getting our old 40,000 square foot building completely and utterly emptied out.

We've been at this location for the past decade. In 2000, there were approximately 250 employees. Today there are 109, thanks in large part to the tech-bubble bursting several years ago, and the old CEO and CFO essentially being incompetent and/or insane. Although we have half the manpower we did a decade ago, we still have all the supplies, furniture, etc we had back then. Combine that with a Facilities Manager who was a hardcore hoarder, and I cannot even begin to describe all the unused crap we've had to deal with. And by "deal with" I mean trash, recycle, or give to charity. I've spent approximately 30 of the last 48 hours lifting, lugging, and throwing into dumpsters or moving vans all manner of furniture, electronic gear, and anything else you can imagine a company possessing. I would estimate that we've thrown away about 10 tons of old, useless crap. As I've been saying for the past few weeks, "we're paying for the sins of other people", and what I mean is that we're now busting our humps because of the hoarding Facilities Manager (now terminated), who packed the basement and assorted unused rooms with literally tons of shit she was supposed to get rid of bit by bit over the years. This is a woman who I've caught red-handed removing items from the dumpsters that myself and others had thrown out. All this unused crap, coming back to haunt us.

As a middle-aged man, I cannot begin to describe the aches and pains I'm feeling right now.

I'm too old for this shit, and I cannot wait for the day, probably still two or three weeks away, when I can go back to flirting with K__ in Engineering, and taking care of my normal, everyday business.

Hotcha! Hank