Here is the background. In the office in Sweden we recently had a
fire drill. The office follows activity based working (ABW). This means that no
one has fixed desks, no desk phones, no chance of keeping personal items in
your work area. Coats are hung on coat stands near entrance doors or to be kept
in your personal locker. Since I don’t have school drop off duties, I normally
arrive before most others and get a choice seat. One of the goals of ABW
is for employees to move about the office. I stick to sitting at the best available
corner desk. It gives me a chance to observe others and also blend in the
background. Limited number of quiet rooms are available for taking and making
calls. Getting a meeting room is always a challenge and there are casual areas
available around coffee tables that can be used for non-confidential meetings.
People also gather around coffee tables for their FIKA break which in other
cultures can be translated to chat over coffee or Chai pe Charcha.
Being a newcomer, I wanted to follow the protocol of ABW. I would
arrive in the morning, choose my desk, place my laptop, take out paraphernalia
to make the day go smoothly, chargers for laptop and phone, earphones, notebook
and pen and my reading glasses. My access card which is also the VPN card would
go into the slot for it in the laptop. Lunch box went into the refrigerator and
the laptop and crossbody bags went into the locker. As I got more comfortable
in the office, I found it more convenient to leave my bags at my desk and
eventually started leaving my outerwear draped on my chair (strict no-no by ABW
standards).
I have been in a fire drill in Denton. The first few times we
heard the piercing siren and most people just waited at their desks, waiting
for someone to make a move towards the exit. They then appointed a marshal for
each area who lead the people out to a safe place. We got better at evacuating
the area with more practice.
The fire alarm went off in the office last week. People
immediately began moving. I took a few seconds to wear my two jackets and took
my access card with me and followed the crowd out. In perhaps 5 minutes, there
were about 300 employees gathered outside the fence in the gathering point.
People were in various stages of protection against the weather. Many had
walked past the coat stands to get their jackets, some had taken time to bring
their laptops and bags and perhaps head home. People hung around in groups and
I waited with my Hungarian and Thai teammates. My Thai colleague had left the
office without his coat (his was in his locker) and was bravely standing in
freezing weather in a light sweater. After what felt like ages, but was only 15
minutes, they gave us the all clear and we headed back in. Someone had had the
presence of mind to open the gate in the fence so people could move in en-masse
rather than one at a time via the turnstile.
As I walked back to my desk at the other end of the floor, I
realized I was unable to see anything around me. There were people around me
who were headed to their desks too. They were all at least 6 feet and 2 inches
tall. I know that I am not tall by any standards. And I live in a country that
has very tall people. But this was the first time that I was literally in their
midst. So, this is what an ant must feel like on a forest floor, surrounded by
bamboo trees!
(In one of my earlier posts
I had talked about the way to talk to a tall colleague was to stand as far away
as possible so that you are not craning your neck to make eye contact. The other
way is to wear very high heels. But when you are already a foot shorter than
the average person, high heels are not of much use.)
I carried this creepy feeling of being an ant into the next day, till
I met Andrea, a colleague visiting us from Italy. He had been a professional
volleyball player and was at least 6ft 9 inches tall. My Swedish colleague
Henric, who is definitely over 6 ft 2 inches tells us that he feels very short
in front of Andrea. The feeling of being an ant went away. Of course, a bamboo
tree will feel like an ant in the midst of a redwood forest.
Like all other things in life, height too is relative.
