What are your working conditions like

W Stewart

I work in a cubicle and I enjoy the privacy I get.

saspro

In support we've got an fairly open planned office. It's designed for 8 people but there's just 5 of us here.
The desks are on the outer of the room with a massive space in the middle (for throwing stuff at people).
It's handy so the guys can shout questions across when they get stuck.
Both myself & the support manager have the end corners so we can see the who office & what people are doing but they can't see us

terryfera

At my old employer we were in a building that use to split in to 4 separate rental units. The one the IT room was in was an old medical clinic so IT got put in the reception office with lots of windows and on the way out to the smoking section. We got a lot of traffic from people just walking by and asking us random questions. I got promoted a moved across the hall to my own office that was about 15x15 with a window and a door that closes I miss that office.

Now I'm in an office that it meant for 3 people that 2 of us share. It's got windows in to the core (server) room and has no door . We're also on the raised floor so we always have the gentle hum of the HVAC in the background lol.

The other location is my home office which I much prefer!

Everyone

Some past working conditions I've had...

Early career... First there was the assembly line, 12 hours of putting the flip part on, putting the buttons in, and passing it to Phil. After that I ran cable and wired displays up, so field work, no office or cube, different place every week.

First real IT job and first base I was stationed at with the USAF... I worked IN the datacenter. My desk was part of a row of desks, and there were a couple more rows in front of me. Mine was directly in front of the server racks, so I'm sure you can imagine how loud it was in there. Then there was the deployment to Kuwait, where I didn't do any IT work, lived in a tent, and walked around outside in the desert heat all day.

2nd location, a console in a NOSC, several other people sitting at consoles to either side of me.

3rd location, back in a datacenter. Actually had a large cubicle there, but shared it with 2 other people. The cubicle really did nothing to quiet the server noise. Eventually moved into an office (with the same 2 other people) that was attached to the datacenter. The "Office" was previously used for storage, and the HVAC was constantly breaking.

Next job... cubicle in an office with about 7 other people in the basement of the Hospital. Mine was on the wall directly opposite the door for the office, so my back was facing the door, and people walked by me going in and out all day. My desk was directly below an operating room. Nasty colored "water" would drip down from the ceiling and run down my wall several times a year. Usually it was an "exploded" dialysis machine, which they claimed was "clean water". A couple times it was some moron dumping an entire bucket of water to mop the floor up there. A few times it was an overflowing toilet. No matter what the supposed source of the liquid raining down on me, it was always disgusting.

So yeah, I didn't always have it as nice as I do now working from home. Even the 10% of the year I don't work at home for this job, I have great working conditions. I either work in a cubicle next to a large window (tons of cubicles in this building), or I work out of an "IT closet" that is actually a large room on the 14th floor of a skyscraper with views of Lake Erie. Both locations have a cafeteria in the building. Although we're moving out of both of those buildings and into a brand new building sometime next year. I'm sure the new building will be even nicer.

jmasterj206

Great thread! Currently, I am in the basement of a hospital. No windows and drab cement walls with carpet straight out of the 70's. Oh, and I also have the upper floors sewer pipe in the corner of my office. I always get to know when someone flushes the toilet on the floor above me. The room also has a standalone sink. If it had a toilet it the office could pass for a prison cell.

bababooey1

Great responses! Funny how the IT guy/gal can be banished to a leaky basement with exposed pipes, rodents, noise pollution and poor air quality without a problem. Try doing that with Joe from accounting or Jen in marketing.

gunbunnysoulja

Currently working out of my house in Florida! Yay for full-time work at home programs! Woot Woot!