Forwarding Address

Disclaimer: This post has been edited to sound less confusing than the situation really is.

I've been abandoned. As of today, everyone in my office area has moved to the 3rd floor. Except me.

When I started this job 8 months ago one of the first things I was told was that I would probably be moving my office to 3rd floor. That's where the fellows' offices are, and I'm the Fellowship Program Coordinator. Later I was given the option of staying where I am, which is in a combo office/clinical area in the basement, near our conference room. Then there was talk about moving me to a nicer office area in a different building, where another portion of our staff works. I didn't care much for that option, as it's a pretty good hike away from the people I need to work with.

So let's speed this up with the abbreviated version. The basic conversation from March until this week:

"We have a space for you on 3. You need to be near the fellows."

"We don't know if there's room for you on 3."

"Don't you want to move over to the other building? You'll be all alone if you stay here."

"You'll be fine staying where you are."

"You can't stay where you are."

"We have space for you in the other building."

"One of the program directors is moving in next door to where you are now, you'll like being near him."

"You're moving to the other building. In two weeks."

My hope through all of this was to fly under the radar and hope they forgot about me altogether, which would result in me being able to stay in my current office. That didn't work. I was informed earlier this week that I have a space in the other building. That was generous phrasing. I have a closet in the back of a file room in the other building. I won't even start with the "Do you want to move your furniture instead of using the crappy desk we've squeezed in there now?" which is now, "You can't take your furniture, it has to stay."

Don't get me wrong, I have no problem working in a closet. I don't need much space. I offered to start bringing my own laptop and working from a table at McDonald's. Unfortunately, nobody took that offer very seriously.

I don't care what my office looks like or how big it is. I had a nice big classy office at the bank and pretty much hated it. The only thing I asked for was to stay in the same building as the fellows and the primary program director, which would also put me near the conference room that I frequent. So of course they move me to a building halfway across campus. I realize there are space issues and that I'm about as low on the totem pole as it's possible to be. But I did offer to provide my own equipment and work from McDonald's. At least it would have been in the right building!