For one who spends a large percentage of his life in an office setting, and the numbers say today's cubicles contain about 50 percent of all Americans, I essentially need three things to make my career life happy and complete. A little pat on the ego and insightful Ann Landers-type advice from the boss now and then, which I get. A good chair, which I finally got. And a handbook on dealing with intra-office quirks, which I'm working on.
Chairs can be very important in a newsroom.
Everybody has one, of course, but we all think someone nearby has a better one. When a colleague leaves the fold, chairs begin to maneuver across the glossy floor like a qualifying round at the Indianapolis 500. This one is swapped for that one. This one's too soft. That one's too hard.