Thursday, January 27, 2011

and another thing - blackberry ringtones must die


Wayne and Dwayne are now on vacay. Been dropped off, alongside bags of hay, sawdust, 6000 carrots, to an [albeit willing!] friend of mine for two weeks.

Paused for about thirty seconds yesterday, at my desk, and closed my eyes.

You have no idea how much you hear when you truly focus on it, believe me.

Our department is not unlike a newsroom. In essence, it is a newsroom. We deal with the press. We are the people that give statements, pitch ideas to journalists, conduct interviews, find spokespeople, deal with the overall company communications.

As a result, the phones ring off the hook. Depending on what's happening, this usually happens all day, everyday.

My inbox is a real-time stock ticker. I'll go and grab a cup of tea (approximately 4 minutes), and return to an imploding computer, filled with external requests.
And that's just the reactive stuff.

So, with this in mind, my team is the loudest, most chaotic, most flamboyant section of the company. Without a doubt. It's noisy, and the word 'Fuck' is said every five seconds.

The trill of my desk phone, and everyone else's, ringing in constant bio-invading chorus, makes me want to pull each and every one of my hairs out on bad days. I dream of that phone, and I wake up sweating like a mountain yak.

Closed my eyes yesterday and just listened to the constant thronging noise - the bleeps, boo-doops and tick-ticking of frantic typing, pings and voices around me. Do the same.

It's white noise on steroids. And I cannot wait to leave it behind on holiday.
In conclusion, why I need a holiday:

1) Office technological noise
2) I'm tired and haggled
3) I need some Vitamin D

Needing sun, for most Brits, is usually the reason people fuck off to Spain for a week.

Frankly, I just need to get away from constant phone ringing and email.

1 comment:

Nicole B said...

I dont have a very noisy office, as we are relatively small, but at lunch time the entire population of Old Mutual head office comes rushing past out doors and THAT is some hectic white noise on steroids.

As for the phones...on the days where mine constantly rings, I want to hulk out and break things...like today.