Life has been pretty nutty, but I was determined to get in a Friday Five this week!

This isn’t an all-inclusive list, but I’d say they are definitely the highlights –

• Company Culture – I don’t think I could possibly describe the differences in a couple of sentences.  I think it deserves it’s own post.  Stay tuned…. it will very likely be posted this weekend
• Cafeteria food – I’ve mentioned before that the café downstairs of my old office building was not great.  The sandwiches were crappy, bland, and cost almost $7.  I guess it’s because I’m working in a snazzy HQ building now that the food is really good.  The cafeteria has 5 or 6 different sections with different types of food and all of them are magically delicious.  On top of that, the cost is very reasonable (around $4-$5 per entree).  I don’t eat there everyday, but it makes those days that I forget my lunch all more bearable.  Better food & better prices? Yes, please!
• Stress level - In my old job, my stress level was always through the roof.  Every time I got that MS Outlook notification, my heart started pounding.  “Great… what now?!” was all I could think — especially when I saw those emails came from specific people.  The overall environment was a lot stressful too.  Everywhere you turned, people were walking a thousand miles per minute, and had this crazy cartoon look in their eyes.  I know right now I’m not too stressed out w/ the new job, but I know it will increase as I get more into it (which is why I gave it around 30%).  The stress the people in my group have isn’t anywhere near what the stress levels were at my old company… and it’s a much faster-paced environment.
• Challenge level - My old job was not that challenging -at all-.  I used to joke that I could probably teach a monkey how to do my job.  It was a little bit at first, but after the first 3 or so months, I could pretty much do it in my sleep.  My new job, is a teensy bit similar to my old one, but there are so many more layers to it and I’m in a whole different part of my field.  Additionally, there are so many more intricate processes that have to be executed across several dozen sites which makes it more complicated than what I was doing before.  I’m really excited.  My new boss promised to keep me challenged whereas I had to beg my old boss for more challenges.  Maybe that’s why I got canned?  I made it look too easy!
• Work life balance – My old job was pretty cozy.  The work-life balance was easy to acheieve, but then again, I didn’t work at the HQ level at my Former Company.  I have several friends at that HQ who said things aren’t as fun as they were out in the field.  My new company goes the extra mile in making sure their employees are taken care of.  They want to make sure everyone still has time to spend with their families, and they encourage their employees to step away from the desk during lunch.  It’s been a pretty amazing experience so far because I definitely did not expect that at the HQ level.

Today was a very stressful day here at the Present Company, and I was amused by how similar everyone in my office thought.  I think it’s one of those things where you just start saying things that you hear others say around you all the time?  Either way, it’s nice to know that not too many people in my office are suicidal, though we do like to cuss out the people who aren’t picking up their phones.

It’s been cold here recently and I believe I’ve found a scientific correlation between the general office productivity and the temperature outside.

I think it’s important to note that the productivity line (in red) starts at around 85ish.  You might think “what the hell? Shouldn’t it start at 100?”

The answer to that is no.

I can guarantee you that for every super duper hardworking Corporate Citizen in your office, there are at least 4 who are surfing the interwebz, buying useless crap on eBay, Facebooking or Twittering (tweeting?).  In other words, they aren’t complete slackers, but they don’t make very productive use of every single minute in the entire 8-hour day.

So 85ish is where we start.

You’ll notice when the temperature outside is really hot, productivity is at it’s highest.  This is because while it’s bright and sunny outside, it’s also 110 eff-ing degrees.  People would rather be inside… keeping busy and doing their thing in the sweet, sweet A/C.

As the temperature begins to lower to around the mid-80s you will see a sharp decrease in productivity.  That’s because it’s beautiful outside and you suddenly realize that you’d rather be outside with your dog playing Frisbee in the park.

This trend continues up until around the 60-degree mark.  That’s because for many people (except those that live up North) 60-degrees is the cusp of being cold. It’s then that you realize, “hey, it’s probably getting really cold outside… I think I’d rather be in here getting stuff done”.

I think it’s important to note that the above observation is not true when it is dark and gloomy AND cold outside.  My raw data shows that when you put those three variables together, productivity actually goes down.  These three variables are also known as the Triple Threat.

From that point down, productivity and the temperature drop almost perfectly together which isn’t a big surprise.  Most people lose productivity due to the thought of the cold weather and the Triple Threat.

Thank you for your time today.  Please forward your questions to my teacher assistant.

xoxo,

Professor Cee

I was not very productive today.  I don’t think working from home is made for me.  I was feeling a little under the weather so I asked my boss to work from home.

I need the structure of the office much like I need the structure of a classroom when trying to learn things (Those “Speak Italian by using these CDs in your car” did nothing for me because I never used them).

Here is a brief rundown of what I did all day:

Am I the only one who can’t concentrate at home?