Corporate Workspace Analysis-Job Opportunity

I count myself lucky to be employed at the moment. In Europe, the USA, South America and Asia (hmmm, everywhere) people have lost their jobs and incomes thanks to the GFC. However most people kept their jobs, in particular those of us clever enough to be in resource rich countries selling things to China, or American bankers deemed too important and useful to let go by the US government.

As I'm not a US investment banker I had to get and keep my job on my own merits, and for the sake of posterity and for a lack of anything else to do I've put together a description of my workplace.

My building was built in the 1960's or 1970's. It imitates the Brutalist architectural style of the time. Rectangular blocks of pre-fab pebblecrete form the facade, but the designers ran out of either money or imagination and erected what looks like a giant house brick stood on it's end. This building couldn't be more mediocre if it didn't try much-which is hasn't. Even our secretaries are in a different building. This is bad because their building is awesome, and they are hot.

The lifts are slow but it doesn't matter because there's only 7 levels and they definitely get your there. The toilet is down a flight of fire escape stairs, so if there's a fire and I'm squeezing one out it's not far to safety. The aircon works...but the thermostat has a gap between 21 and 27 degrees and alternates between extremes of cold or heat. But this is offset by the fact it leaks from the roof onto the carpet sometimes. On Monday after a hot weekend there's plenty of atmosphere in the place.

A great thing about my building is the City Convenience store on the bottom level. The guy who runs it (and is there 24/7 and never sleeps) keeps it well stocked and swept and offers discounts when he runs out of change.

Despite all this, my boss is a good bloke, and a conscientious worker. So much so that while overseas, on holiday with his girlfriend, on Christmas day, he was sending work emails to us. He really cares, and one day I might too.

One of the perks of the job is that we get to use our own credit cards for all business expenses. As BDM's (sound better than salesman) for Australia this involves lots of flying and hotel stays. The great thing about this is when your boss goes away on holiday without paying your last months expenses, so that you are permanently at your credit card limit. We don't expense interest charged because it's not a business expense.

However we do use laptops with wireless internet which is progressive. But, the internet drops out a couple of times a day which interrupts my facebooking, where I'm trying to add as many hot girls, without being proactive, as possible. So if you're a hot girl and reading this (if you're actually reading this and think you're hot, you probably aren't) add away.

Anyway we use laptops and haven't been given a mouse to plug in. I get a sore forefinger on my right hand from using the scrollpad all day. I mitigate this by using other fingers and my left hand but they lack the dexterity of my right hand so it's frustrating as well as painful. The first knuckle get sore and tender and I find it tough to ball my fist. Who else gets this, and what can I do to fix it?

To conclude, I hope you now have an appreciation of my work environment. I can appreciate that anybody who has arrived at this page has obviously done so by mistake, and if by chance you started reading and inconceivably weren't so bored you navigated away before reaching this point you should know that i) You're gay and ii) I'll be quitting in 5 weeks to go to Central America (flights booked on points accrued through work expenses) and Eastern Europe (when hopefully I'll have something worth writing about) which means that there will be a once in a lifetime chance for you to work in my paradise.

So stay tuned for further details!

Plenty has and will be written about Australia's win over the Paki's in the 2010 New Years Test at the SCG yesterday. I left the office early to watch Hauritz clean up the tail. It was a cracking game of cicket and is a good example of why test cricket is one of the greatest games on earth.


My only regret is that the game didn't stretch to five days so that I have something to occupy myself with in the office today, besides facebook and wikipedia.

Anyway, I wanted to comment not on the game, but on Peter Roebucks remarks about it in the smh online. You can read his comments here:


http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/tourists-snatch-defeat-from-jaws-of-victory-20100106-lucs.html

Roebuck often has interesting things to say about the players and the games, and while it takes some getting used to, his prose is descriptive and colourful.

That said, he's had a shocker with his commentary of this match. From his vantage point safe in the grandstand, he has written of the Paki's captain, Mo Yousef. He canned the Paki's batting, and said the Aussie's were average and lucky. He plants caveats at the start of the article so he can't be accused of whingeing about the game, but I'm going to do it anyway.

Roebuck you're a whinger

Test cricket is about exposing weakness under sustained pressure, and this test showed that both sides are flawed in that respect. I'd argue that's what made it such a great game. The Paki's destroyed us in the first innings against all expectation, then we made an average total in reply. We started well in the second innings only to collapse again, finally to be rescued by a great lower order effort by Hussey and Siddle. This made the game exciting-did we actually have a chance?

Then the bowlers came out and the rest is history. In Test matches it's the weaknesses of the players as well as the strengths that makes it fascinating because players have to battle against not only the opposition but their emotions, self belief, confidence and form.

Roebuck has missed the point. Sure the standard could have been higher. Yes there were lot's of get out of jail free cards to Hussey. But how many swings-and-misses did Peter Siddle endure while he bowled? Luck cuts both ways.

It was great to see a game where the bowlers dominated. Roebuck has seen the errors and largely written the game off as an underwhelming display of mental weakness from the Pakistani's and opportunism from the Aussies.