Emptiness

Twenty-nine years and two weeks and six days ago ago, I took up 7 a.m.-3:30 p.m. M-F residence in a hole in the wall not much bigger than a closet to serve my employer as a proofreader. Three or so years later, I moved up the corporate ladder and became an administrative assistant - or secretary - for the first time in my life. In 2003, we (my employer and co-workers) moved two buildings down and six floors higher. Ten years later, my department moved up one floor.

My Silver Anniversary

In December of 2019, I began working from home while Lizard was recovering from surgery. Four months later, the world joined me in Sheltering in Place, Safer at Home.

Sometime in 2022, I was able to go back into the office two or three hours a week, a schedule I would not mind at all if it weren't for the traffic.

And last week, I spent my last three hours in the "old" office we had occupied for 20 years. My floor was the last to be decommissioned. Our new building won't be ready for several weeks. Everyone is working remotely again, just like back in 2020, except now we don't have to treat everyone as if they have cooties.

In corporate world of 10-year leases, I've seen so many changes. From rotary phones, weeklong postal delivery (and photographic film processing), carbon copies, mimeograph copies, Liquid White, shorthand, and manual typewriters to facsimiles, "bat phones", delivery tracking, overnight delivery, digital photography, zerography, electronic document signing, email, and now, Zoom.

The general manager of the office where I work emailed an hour before we vacated the building, asking if I had good photos of us using the building for memorable events. A memory-filled farewell email was being planned. I went through four (personal) external hard drives, two of which no longer work, and found a handful of digital photos I thought might be suitable. Five were used in that final email. The general manager thanked me. And now, we wait for our new digs.

Twenty years is a long time to be in one building. Two decades of a way of life, and now, everything will change again in six to eight weeks. I don't know yet what to expect from the new location, except that I won't have as much file space. Much of the stuff I brought home won't be going back to the office. I'm thinking I should treat the new building as temporary so I won't have so much to remove and discard next time. But I'm also kind of hoping there won't be a next time... Three office moves in 29 years (and six office moves in 37 years) is more than enough for me!

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