I didn’t know how isolated I was until I wasn’t.
One year ago I moved out of my office and into one of our open work stations. We had a new team member joining us as a staff recruiter, and she didn’t have a private place to do her work. We could have converted a conference room into an office for her, but that’s no way to welcome someone new. Besides, I am out of the building more often than I’m in the building. When I am in the building, I’m typically meeting with people in conference rooms or in their own offices.
There were opportunities that came with this move that weren’t obvious when I made the switch. I didn’t realize how isolated I was until I wasn’t. While my door was mostly always open, not many people would cross the threshold or stop in for things. It was only a step away and yet few interactions came of it; only ones that were deliberate and intentional.
At my new spot, when I am here, I hear things, and people hear me; I see things, and people see me. I have more impromptu conversations and am able to ask and answer questions on the fly. If I need privacy, I can find it, which is much less often than you might expect. It is energizing and uplifting to be among it, not adjacent to it.
As we all know, election season is here. Last month I had the pleasure (and I do mean that sincerely) to represent the Master Builders of Iowa Chapter at a national Associated General Contractors Leadership Conference in Washington D.C. The event was filled with learning, fellowship, programming, awards, and visits to Capitol Hill. I left encouraged. All of the elected officials we interacted with seemed human, reasonable, thoughtful, curious, and genuine. This isn’t the vibe I get from a seat at home through any of the means of media that we consume. It helped to be among it. I believe I see better who it is, and I am now hopeful that policy makers we elect as a nation will make it work for us. All of us.
I was just meeting with a consulting engineer the other day who has been at his craft for many years. He has experience, and I believe a really good teaching demeanor. While he has an office, he finds himself posting up more and more in the work area with his team to foster interaction. He wants to be available for their questions and he wants to also be around when they don’t have questions to see how they are getting along, and to teach them new things they haven’t yet experienced. His statement was striking: “I had worked my entire career to have an office, and I find myself now being out of it more and more to be with my team.”
This commentary is not a challenge to anybody to abandon their private office, but rather a reflection on the physical barriers and how they can not only give privacy, but also isolation. For your own well-being as well as that of others, it may be worthwhile to be among it.
Mike Espeset
President