Morning Light

So we’re moving offices this week. Or, actually, have been moving offices.

My spot (center, by the window) in the morning. Apologies for the crap HTC One camera.

The short of it is that SAPO is moving to a separate building¹ and I’ve thus been toing and froing between both buildings for a week now, mostly settling on the new one for the peace and quiet that comes with a half-empty office.

It’s so nice (even without all the fixtures in on my floor) that I simply packed everything a few days earlier and started sitting at my new desk almost a week early, enjoying the light (and the quiet) tremendously.

The new office is nice, airy, very well lit and sports spiffy new, modern office furniture with cable runs and smoked glass partitions that making for a nice and clean look. Well, at least until everyone moves in and start cramming their desks with hardware, of course.

But there’s nothing quite like popping open your laptop on a clean and uncluttered desk, even if it’s noticeably smaller than my previous one. It’s so pleasant that I found myself missing my hotdesking days – sadly, trying to juggle multiple documents on a laptop is still far less productive than my usual twin HD displays, so I suppose I’ll put them up again once I finish unpacking. Maybe with a little twist², if I can.

Hotdesking is pretty much impossible in a “big startup” (which is sort of what SAPO feels like most of the time) due to the monitors per seat ratio being at least 2.2 in developer country, but there’s a nice clarity of focus about it that makes me long for living off a laptop again.

Maybe when I upgrade to something beefier (if ever).

Anyway, it bears noting that I hated the old building with a passion. Before working there for the last four years I was an irregular visitor starting some 20 years ago, and I never really liked the place³. At all.

Even though our floor was redecorated a little while ago (to excellent effect and with daring style and gusto, if I might add) the air conditioning played hell with my sinuses and there was never enough light for comfort in my corner, causing me headaches and prompting regular visits to the ophtalmologist every winter – my eyes would get tired and blurry every now and then (even after bringing in my old desk lamp and with F.lux installed on every machine), so I took to traipsing around the floor with a laptop whenever feasible, grabbing vacant seats in better-lit areas.

Which means I’m largely immune to the nostalgia that is making the rounds among my colleagues and belive this to be the best thing that’s happened to me in a while, at least physically.

For instance: I take the stairs every morning, and climbing up an extra three floors (to an 8^th floor now) makes a difference.

But the biggest change is that we’re not on a single big floor anymore, so it requires extra effort to go over to someone else’s desk to ask a question (and that is going to take a while for some folk to adjust to).

Hopefully it will also make a difference in general fitness terms – I’m a bit miffed that Google Fit can’t seem to keep track of stair steps properly, but after a few days spent mostly shuttling between the first and eight floors with a few occasional detours, I feel limber already.

Not that the couple of new projects that landed on my lap recently are going to make me sleep better, mind you, but at least I can now exercise throughout the day.

It’s going to be an insane Monday unpacking, but I’m very glad for the past week already.