“Office” as in workplace, not room.
Here in Hong Kong, it’s quite common for subordinates (even high ranking middle management) to break into a canter when the boss wants something done. We’re not in emergency services or news, by the way.
I never encountered this in England, and wonder if it happens a lot elsewhere.
Mod, please catapult this over to IMHO.
No. Even when something major has happened and someone needs to go across the building to look at a down server/switch/whatever (and sometimes we are looking at cases where every minute counts), noone runs - everyone saunters.
I’ve never seen it in the US unless the task was an urgent one. I have seen it in Japan, though.
I’ve jogged through my office before to get something done in a hurry. Never broken out into a 100-meter dash, though.
Adam
We’ve walked at a brisk pace, but there’s never any running. Running is verboten.
There was a woman at my last place of employment who ran EVERYWHERE. Drove me nuts. Come to think of it, there was a running woman at the place before that. Drove me NUTS.
I did it at one place. This is because it was my job to answer the phone on the reception desk. So if I was in my bosses office and the phone rang, I ran. (If I didn’t answer it in 4 rings, it diverted to someone elses phone.)
Only to catch the elevator.
The only time I’ve run in my office was when I was expecting a phone call and I was standing at the printer, on the other side of a row of cubicles.
The phones here ring three times before going to voice mail… so I dashed around the row, scaring a half a dozen people in the process, because no one runs here. (And few people realize how quickly I can move when I want to… and a 280-lb man suddenly moving very rapidly can be an intimidating thing.)
Of course, I was just in time to miss the third ring.
Running would seem unprofessional, it shows that you are somehow late and panicking, also the risk of knocking into someone else and causing an accident at work would give lawyers orgasms (and we don’t want that now do we).
Health and safety considerations seem to go out the window when the boss wants something done, even though we have procedures for everything (well, they look good on paper) as we’re constantly updating our ISO status. Even saw the tea lady darting around yesterday.
Sure, I jog and run from time to time. Make it a rule to sprint up the stairs (exercise) and if there’s an emergency, server outage, major partner needs something 5 minutes ago, etc, I hurry it up.
I do office aerobics 
I recall running in my workplace on three occasions:
1.) One of our IT guys ran when someone screamed “My monitor is on fire!” His fast action probably saved tens of thousands of dollars and perhaps some lives, as the monitor was indeed spewing sparks and smoke and ready to ignite.
2.) A co-worker ran to the phone when informed that her son was on the line. We were all unaware, but it turned out that he had walked away from his job and his apartment, simply disappeared to parts unknown, without a word to anyone. The call was the first communication the poor frantic woman had received from him in more than six months.
3.) On 9/11, two co-workers who had loved ones working at the WTC ran to the conference room (where we had television news on the big screen) when they were informed of the tragedy. Later, a few people ran from the same room when the first tower fell, as they were overwhelmed.
I myself run from the office.
:Runs into thread:
“Moving…[pant, pant]…to IMHO!”
Nobody runs in my office; in fact, I think there’s a rule against it. It’s unsafe. You could hurt someone.
I’ve seen people jog about the office, but only when there’s free pizza to be had…
I used to work for a Japanese company with a very jumpy guy who used to do sort of a Fred Flintstone run (erect stance, arms at sides) when one of the big bosses would summon him. I still chuckle when I think about it.