This summer I read “Unseen Academicals” by Terry Pratchett, and as usual, he got to the “bottom” of human nature in his satire of the academe and soccer (I’m still not sure those two really fit in the same book, but nevertheless…):
For the past 6 years I have enjoyed having my own office, though I never did attempt to smoke anything on UofM’s non-smoking campus. This semester, 2 days a week, I still get an office to myself, thanks to the kindness of a colleague at Berkeley. And to illustrate Pratchett’s point:
The other 3 days/week I work at Facebook. No office, no cubicle walls. And yet, with the right set of headphones and all the screen real estate, I almost don’t miss having an office, and there are plenty of other things to like there.
Except…
I always treat the office bathroom as sort of an airlock. If you’re in a stall and someone enters, you must either leave before they are done or stay after they are done. This way, pseudo-anonymity is kept (unless you look at the person’s shoes).
True and nice illustration 🙂