Hot take: I actually liked my job more BEFORE the 'fun' office makeover

Everyone at my call center in Phoenix was thrilled when management spent $15k on bean bags, a ping pong table, and those fancy standing desks back in March. I'm the weird one who misses the old gray cubicles. The noise from the ping pong games is constant now (can't hear customers half the time), and those bean bags smell like sweat after three weeks. The standing desks are cool I guess but nobody cleans them and they're all sticky. Meanwhile our ancient headsets still cut out every 20 minutes. Am I alone in thinking sometimes 'improvements' just make things worse at a boring job?

3 comments

3 Comments

vera_johnson920h ago

Oh man, I have to totally push back on this one! I work in an open office with similar stuff and honestly the ping pong table is amazing for my mental health when I need a quick break from taking calls. Plus those standing desks actually helped my back pain a lot once I got used to them, even if they do get a little grimy. I mean sure the bean bags can get funky, but that's what happens when you have people using them nonstop, its a sign of success not failure.

paul_taylor2117h ago

Take the opposite side for a second though... all those "fun" distractions just make it harder to focus, and the ping pong table is a huge noise generator that kills productivity. Standing desks might help some people, but they also lead to more clutter and people leaving coffee cups everywhere, which just makes the whole office feel gross. Those bean bags getting "well loved" just means they're full of crumbs and bacteria, which is more of a sanitation problem than a sign of a thriving workplace.

mary_west17h ago

Real talk, you're not wrong about the bacteria situation in those bean bags. It's tough when the fun stuff turns into a hygiene nightmare.