Avid readers may recall my morning ritual of desk booking at work. 3 months have passed and the ritual stays more or less the same. Except more and more of our colleagues are moving into our building. Seats become a scarce resource. Good seats in especially. And scarce resource always drive bizarre human behaviors, much like what our history tells us. Bosses ask the subordinates to book the desks for the entire team (we can only book our desks online up to one week in advance). Some occupy the seats establishing the first-come-first-take rule. Some bring the company laptops home and book the seats in early morning, in wee hours. Wow! It’s just a seat you know!
Colleagues often ask me why I choose to sit in different seats almost every day. Well, given a choice, I would love to be stationary somewhere. But since it has never come across my mind that I have to work hard to book “my favorite seat”, I don’t bother.
Previously, there is a S$5 fine if we don’t show up at the desk that we book (note: no one cares if we show up at work but rather at the desk). That doesn’t seem to work. On paper, every day is a full house. In reality, it is hardly so. Hence recently, the fine is increased to S$50. That raises some eyebrows of course.
If there is one thing history tells us, we human beings are creative in finding ways to get around the system. Increasingly, we are seeing seats being released in the very morning. But for those who have already booked a crappy seat one week ago or have decided to work from home because there is no seat available, how does it matter?
10 replies on “$50 No Show Fine”
i’m really quite confused about this system!
so.. how do they keep track of whether you actually utilise the desk or not after booking it?
Liyi – You know. I am just as confused as you do! I suppose with more than 200 desks on one floor, it is indeed hard to monitor and track. I guess we have spies here and there to report people who don’t show up. For instance, I am contemplating if I shall report the person behind me today who has yet to show up!
hmm you have a really interesting system over there.. thank goodness we have one less admin responsibility to worry about here. =)
and i hope for your sake that the person did show up in the end haha =)
Liyi – Ha ha ha, I didn’t in the end. Oh well, I have to learn how to be mean!
Or if our office instead of donating the whole S$50 to charity and give S$25 to me, I am happy to report people to earn some extra bucks … hehehe.
oh yes btw i think your drawings are way better than nice!
Liyi – Thanks 🙂 Simple drawing, meant to be that way. My new passion in life …
hahah what interesting system which some people fret over ar… i think i might be too tired to try so hard that i just stick to crappy seats (why crappy?) or best- work from home!
Si Ying – Well, some areas are noiser than others; some areas are more open than others. Some desks are arranged as long benches. Some desks face the meeting rooms, face the toilets. Some are surrounded by people who talk very loud on the phone. All in all, some seats are better than others.
Working from home is not really my thing, sad to say.
Ah ok now I understand it better. Ya I guess you will like to interact with people, walk about during lunch etc…
Si Ying – Something like that 🙂 Also, I always try to keep work away from home because at home, I want to relax to do my things. Besides, I don’t even have the office type of adjustable chair at home. Dining table and chair setting hurts my back if I sit too long, lol. Not to mention the extra electricity charge due to air-con and what not.
The good thing is that I can make my cup of coffee any time I want. And my bathroom is just few steps away, hahaha. Smell much better too!