Someone came into my cube and took one of the empty cartons that's been sitting on my desk (I had several things delivered here a while back, because it's more reliable than at my place where no one is there to sign), and I'm (irrationally?) angry about it. Not about the box, I could care less about the box. But the fact that they came into my cube! That really bothers me. Is that weird? I know it's work and it's not like I've got anything to hide, but just...even though it technically belongs to my company, shouldn't this be MY personal space? I respect everyone else's spaces. Granted, I may stop into one of my coworkers' desks to leave a note or something, but I KNOW this isn't someone I know, and I KNOW they TOOK something. Without asking! While I wasn't there! It feels so sneaky. I keep wanting them to come back so I can entrap them, haha. I don't even know what I'd do. But I'm feeling really violated right now. I guess I mistakenly took my cube area to be a (kind of) sacred space. I'll have to revise that notion.
I just think it's one thing if someone stopped in to find me and I wasn't there, but it's quite another to be presumptuous enough to walk in, TAKE something, and leave. Without even letting me know. Maybe even hoping I wouldn't notice?? I hate presumption, it pisses me off.
Now I'm cranky, and not getting any work done. Blah.
I've got to go back to that. xoxo
p.s. I'm also now VERY curious about corporate law's views on what a company owns. Like, do I own those boxes or, because they were on company property, the company does? And if that's the case, do they also technically own anything I walk in with everyday (cell phone, wallet, keys), and the clothes on my back? That seems a little creepy.
3 comments:
I'm no lawyer, but I believe that your own personal items do indeed remain yours, even when you're at work. So if those empty boxes had contained personal items you'd ordered (and not stuff the company was paying for), then those empty boxes were yours and most assuredly not up for grabs.
Any chance the cleaning staff took them away as rubbish/recycling?
One of my grad school professors told me about the time he learned a hard lesson about tidiness. He had been in the habit of leaving his papers (e.g., photocopied articles, student essays waiting to be graded) in boxes--the kind that file folders come in--all over the floor in his office. One night, a new cleaning person picked them all up and threw them out. Ouch!
I'm pretty sure that anything that the company did not provide for your use is not the company's. That said, things that they do provide aren't necessarily yours for using personally, either--like the internet, phone, etc....even though we all do. :)
I think a cube should be treated like an office - would someone walk into an office and do the same thing? If the answer is no, there's a problem.
Ok, so I know I should be working but I read your post and you should talk to my friend Amy here at work. In fact, I am sending her your blog for today. She packed two tupperwares, one with salad, one with dressing, in a Banana Republic bag and put it in the fridge. Someone put the dressing on the salad, left the empty salad dressing container -- but took and ate her lunch!!! Who does that!???? Maureen said it used to happen all the time in law school (with her poor law student lunches) until she finally put a note on the fridge saying she was a poor law student and when someone took her lunch, she didn't eat. People...
P.S. Marsha, I did that once too. I had a tiny cube (tiniest one in the office, yet I had the job that used the most "stuff") and rested a binder on my trash one day. Came back, and found it gone. Made me totally upset...
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