dgp
...I put in a telephone system for a chrysler corp buiklding in Atlanta once. Their entire office suite was being renovated. Both of them had nice offices with terrific views. I woulda been tickled to death with either one of them. Anyway, I got the telephone and computer wiring run in left. Later I got a call from my dispatch folks telling me to go back out there that there was a problem. The problem was that when the conttractor put in a wall he didn't realize how freakin important it was that since these two guys were of the same rank within the company that they just had to have offices exactly the same size. The wall the contractor had put in had given one of them about three and a half more inches office space than the other one. The contractor had come back and moved the wall cutting all my wiring. I put it back and billed em for it. The contractor billed em too as did the carpet people who had to replace the entire thing because these guys just couldn't stand a "pieced" carpet. So did the electricians and painters ect ect ect...
About a week later I get another call. There was a problem. When the contractor moved the wall he moved it 3 1/2 inches which didn't split the difference between these two giant ego's and now the other one was complaining about his office not being as big. They had the wall and everything else moved again. I replaced the wiring and billed em again as did the contractor and the carpet folks and the painters and the electricians. They spent more moving that wall and crap than a Auto Worker made in a year probaly.
I have worked at IBM offices that had false walls built into offices to keep people of the same rank in the same size offices as they were subject to temper tantrums if they found someone with the same rank or less with a larger office. Anytime anyone got an office, all his "equals" would show up with tape measures to make sure that the new persons office was of the appropriate size for this individuals station in life. They spent a lot of money and wasted a lot of space doing this.
Once I was working in a building that was entirely owned by one business which was owned by one man. This guy's office was in the basement of his office building. I suspect that it was the smallest office in the building. No windows, no view. When I got to the point that I was replacing his telephone set I tried to move his desk because it prevented me from accessing a phone jack on the wall. When I tried to move it, the whole thing kinda tilted sideways and the middle drawer fell out of it. He came over and says, "let me give you a hand with that". We got it moved out and the new phone installed and the desk put back.
"Ain't you the boss of this entire establishment?" I asked him.
"Yes, I am!" he says.
"How come you got such a small office and such crappy furniture?"
"...because if any of my people come to me complaining about their furniture or their office space, I tell em I will swap with them. It keeps the squabbling down to a minimum."
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