The bad, the drab and the dreary!

When was it decided that certain work spaces, rest areas, waiting rooms, break rooms and other places should be so incredibly bland and largely unappealing, or, conversely, so gruesomely colorful? Government buildings are especially notorious for their uniform ugliness and lack of psychological warmth! Everything blends into a general grayness even where faux wood and plastic plants are incorporated into the interior's design. The choice of decor doesn't always reflect an obvious effort to cut costs (through bulk purchases of carpeting, chairs, tables, art works and other fixtures), but this does seem to be a major factor in contributing to the decline of civilized comfort zones worldwide. Even hotels are cutting corners these days, though they aren't so consistently dingy and depressing as most other public accommodations.


I happen to work for a state agency and I happen to while away my time in a holding pen of indisputable utilitarianess. It has some cloth covered dividers that serve as "walls", but they merely serve to delineate the workspace they surround, and they aren't tall enough to make the space within completely unseen. It's a sort of "plug and play" modular tubing with notches on its posts for adjusting shelf and tabletop heights. It's serviceable, yes, but it's oh so homogeneous! Naturally any kind of customization is taboo, because that would be "unprofessional"! But not even faux wood or a plastic rainforest would really make it any easier on the eyes. I often sit in my horrible black chair and imagine how the whole atmosphere could be enlivened. I picture Rubik's cubicles of geometric splendor, with brass handles on the drawers and gold tassels on the venetian blinds. I picture carpeting that somehow adds both light AND color while, at the same time, also managing to hide stains and prevent static buildup. I picture pictures (it had to be said) and other objets d'art. I picture cupholders and iPod docking stations (hey, it's a vision, I can picture any damn thing I want). I have a dream. Maybe not so grand as the dream imagined by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., but a dream nonetheless. Would it really be so awful to allow people to express themselves openly and freely at work, like they do at home? Wouldn't we all get more accomplished at work if we could, like Hugh Hefner, show up in our pajamas? I know I'm not the first person to make such a modest proposal, but that only confirms what I've long suspected--I'm not alone here! It's the 21st century and there's still a dress code! OK, so neckties aren't so common around men's necks any more, and fewer women bother to wear dresses, but aren't bluejeans just another uniform? Aren't they merely a sop to create an illusion of informality in the office? Besides, has it ever really mattered? Think about this: What will offices of the future look like, once the teens with the piercings and tattoos are in charge? Do you honestly see a future of indistinguishable microcosms of monastic asceticism? Surely there will come a day when a veritable Salvador Dali will revolutionize the way our personal spaces and shared environments can be synchronized. Or not. Because, like it or not, it's the fact that some environments are shared that makes them impersonal! Ipso facto, voila, and eureka! I've written another blog that has added absolutely nothing to the sum total of human knowledge nor done anything but contradict itself. I'm so proud!