What You Missed Move Wise

Well my office move went okay, I am now located a floor below the rest of my co-workers in a student lab. I have an office with a door which I must remember to lock whenever I leave. Not only because I work with information that the students should not have access to but because someone could walk off with anything from my office without anyone being able to tell. The staffed reception desk is in the middle area and I am at the far end. Everyone using the lab have all their stuff with them, outerwear, bags, etc. No way for any of the staff to know that they may be leaving with something they did not arrive with.

I have gotten used to trying to think of everything I might need from the floor above to reduce the number of trips I have to make up and down. I get everything sent to the printers (and printed), bring a carry bag with everything I need to drop off and a thermos to bring hot water down. If I am installing any software that means bringing the software media up with me as well. Of course whenever I am on that level the usual "out of sight out of mind" scenario kicks in and suddenly people just HAVE to ask me or tell me about something.
Luckily our large department had started using an instant messaging product that is hosted on a secure internal server for ease of communication between different groups within the department and it has been very useful to reduce the isolation. Not everyone logs into it on a regular basis but once people get into the habit it will be even better.

My boss has helped obtain things to assist me in being a more self sufficient island in my office.
I have a multi-function printer/fax/copies/scanner that lets me print what I can locally and receive copies of requests that are faxed to the upper level that I need to follow up on. I have a small refrigerator so I can have some refreshments handy. I still have to go upstairs to get hot water for tea or get coffee and use the microwave to reheat anything but it is helpful.

The cabinets arrived that I needed, I now have a bulletin board, mouse pad and keyboard wrist supports (they were built-in to my previous desk), and both monitor and printer stands. I also have a larger monitor which helps a lot. My old standard sized monitor had multi-layers of windows stacked which drove me crazy. I have bracket shelving that now mainly hold my plants and I have to carefully climb onto my rolling chair braced against the table and wall to get onto the table in order to water them.

How is it down there? Well, it actually is probably more conducive to getting things done when I don't need anything from the other level. I can stay in my room with the door closed and play some music or a podcast and concentrate on what has to get done. Except when the lab printers outside my door get jams and alarm the normal sounds have become just background noise.

In order to visit, it makes sense for people to call first to make sure I am there. Which usually means I don't get visitors or they take the chance that I am not there. Not to mention getting some of the reception staff bugging them to swipe their ids to enter the area. *smile*