Working from home is a privilege that I greatly appreciate, and considering I'm still sick and had an appointment today near where I live, it was perfect. The appointment went extremely well, although within the first hour of logging in to work I had three different people ask for assistance in addition to two of my own requests, but it was still more relaxing than being in the office.

It's a strange trend in corporations today. Minimize space by returning to the bench/typing pool model of the 1950's in the name of "encouraging collaboration" while removing any privacy or quiet that could allow more productivity. Even cubes were better than that. In Brooklyn, I'm in a giant fishbowl (glass enclosure) due to compliance issues (which the glass kind of negates, but whatever, it was only lip service and we all knew it), so it's a challenge to train offshore or call vendors. But overall, librarians are quiet; not surprisingly I'm one of the loudest in the fishbowl.

Manhattan is a whole other can of worms, however. When the summer interns arrived they moved me from a normal cubicle near a few VPs I knew, to a bench desk next to IT. Who are always on the phone doing support work so it's distracting to say the least. It's been almost five months and I was just getting used to it, sort of.

I found out today I'm being moved to an actual cube near an admin who is kind, capable, and not too chatty, so will be a pleasure to sit next to. Maybe the work situation is actually improving instead of steadily declining! No new privileges in five years takes its toll, but finally things are looking up.