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The Pain of Moving Cheese

blusk
Aviator C
Because our President, Colleen Barrett, is a big fan of Spencer Johnson's book Who Moved My Cheese, anytime we shuffle folks and offices, it's called "cheese moving."  Well, my cheese recently got moved--more specifically, my office, and it was painful.  I'm talking physical pain here folks, not mental pain because I LUV my new work group, and I still get to work with my old group-the best of both worlds. However, I am a certifiable packrat.  No way around it.  It pains me to throw things away, which in some respects is probably a good thing.  I am hoping to finance my retirement with the transportation memorabilia I have been collecting for over 40 years-not to mention all my childhood baseball cards.  However, I filled up one of those big giant plastic roll-around garbage cans with unused/unneeded files that I had kept in the thought that I would need them again.  Most of those pieces of paper remained undisturbed in their resting spots for almost a decade.  So, it was time to do some spring cleaning.  Of course, as I threw each piece of paper away, I kept thinking:  "I sure hope I don't need that in the future."  Okay, I guess that I am a file wimp. It wasn't the culling of my file cabinets that really disturbed me; it was having to move all my stuff.  I had about 60-70 pictures on the wall of my old office, and after I moved, I "only" have 52 displayed.  Taking the pictures down was no problem, even schlepping them down the hall to my new office wasn't too bad, but thanks to my Coworker, Jon Shubert, hanging them was.  You see, Jon is the one who oversees all the pictures in our building's hallways, and he conducts these "PhD" (Picture hanging Dude/Dudette) classes on the proper way to hang a picture.  Under Jon's method, you don't just hang a picture within a grouping, you intercalate (look it up) the location by using several "patented" tricks.  As a result, between the removing, schlepping, and intercalating, it took all day to move and rehang my pictures, not to mention boxing and moving my now-decimated files.  Since I am not getting any younger, I was one tired (old) puppy by the end of the day. So, here I am in my new home, with my walls looking nifty and with part of my furniture.  I'm still waiting on the file cabinet (I promise I won't let it get out of control again), bookcase, and chairs--I borrowed one in the meantime, and a lot of my stuff remains in boxes.  However, it is home, and I hope I don't see any more cheese that needs moving for awhile!
13 Comments
Greg4
Explorer C
question on southwest at dulles are we going to see any new routes for dulles I thought we would see swa compete with united at dulles? what was the reason for southwest to go to washington dulles?
Micah1
Explorer A
How does this compare with moving from Delta to Southwest?
Jim13
Adventurer C
Congratulations Brian, I'm sure you now have a well deserved corner office.
blusk
Aviator C
Micah, It's a little different because I spent a short time working in retail between Delta and Southwest. It was emotional leaving Delta after over 18 years, but I knew the time was right to take their severance package. Sometimes you let salary and seniority trap you in a job you don't really enjoy, and for me, it was a relief to have a "way out." For the move I describe in my post, there really wasn't any emotion involved because I still work daily with my old group, and I had already been working on a daily basis with my new group. It was just a pain having to move all my stuff down the hall to a new office. Brian
blusk
Aviator C
Not really Jim. My new office is an "inside cabin" with no ocean view, but it seems to be a bit bigger and a lot brighter. Then again, corner offices aren't a "status symbol" at Southwest. Blog Boy
Francisco_Delga1
Adventurer A
Brian, I still have my view of the ocean.. Congrats on your new office. sometimes its hard to let go of "files", but its part of moving on in life.
Phil_Willman
Adventurer C
What I'm wondering is...how long did it take to move the candy corn? 🙂
Erin7
Explorer B
Brian, I bet if you ate a bag of candy corn it would help :) Erin duck girl
blusk
Aviator C
Phil and duck girl, Candy Corn will definitely be a part of my new decor. I had to move my stash under lock and key, but it is safely stored in my new digs. Francisco, I'm not sure I would want your ocean view right now, although it would be a trip to watch those carrier takeoffs and landings. Blog Boy
FriendofBlogBoy
Frequent Flyer B
Brian, Having seen your office in both of its last two locations, I can relate to the size of the job of moving just the 'memorabilia' alone, not to mention the files! When my former employer informed me that I had to lay off my entire staff and close our office in Dallas, I had to condense 20 years' worth of stuff from a 15,000 square foot building down to about 40 square feet of one bedroom. As you may recall, that is how we met, since you 'inherited' my collection of SWA flight guides. That "radical office-ectomy" turned out to be good practice, though, since I got to do an even more intense version two months ago when I joined the ranks of so many other laid off workers. However, I found that throwing away things associated with 25 years of employment was actually quite cathartic and gave me a sense of closure. Fortunately, I kept my desk and my own form of sugared addiction -- SweeTarts!! Much better than candy corn! LOL Kim P. S. It is just as well that you don't have an office with a window, since if you looked to the east, all you'd see is the best airport in the world with the most beautiful canyon blue 737s taking off and landing all day long... 🙂
Mary9
Explorer A
Brian, when they closed the center we referred to that as having our cheese shredded. Shredded cheese is a good thing, it gives you growth and challenges that you would not have had if left to your own plans.
Pam1
Explorer C
I have looked for a space to put this but I can't find an available nook. In an article about SW trying to accomodate families traveling they discuss the problem of traveling in a group. I have a thought on that. In many of the Texas routes that I have flown the first two rows are facing each other and are really perfect for families. If you re-situated the first 6 rows in this configuration if might be ideal for families.
Charla
Explorer C
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