Hello all! I just started my new job this week, and therefore have gotten a new desk with someone else’s stuff in it. I was wondering what kind of weird things you have found in your desk after getting a new job, or what kind of weird things do you keep in your desk. The strangest thing I ever found in a new desk (at a previous job) were boxes of rubber bands- not so odd you say? There were between ten and eleven THOUSAND rubber bands in my desk. Why someone needed that many rubber bands in an IT department, I’ll never know.
I have numerous toys from IT conferences in my desk. Balsa Wood Airplanes, Frisbees, Boomerangs, Stress Balls, Rubix Cubes, Golf Tees, Flashing Lights. It’s like a circus in my desk.
The weirdest thing I have is this little Stretchy Man holding two stars in his hands over his head. I think he’s a stress toy because you can twist him in a wide array of directions and poses.
In my previous job i found a huge (huge) assortment of condiments. There was ketchup, mustard, mayo, salt, pepper, texas pete’s hot sauce, knives, forks, spoons, sporks (yes, SPORKS!), and the occasional little plastic tub of strawberry jam. This stuff filled a drawer about 12"wide x 10"deep x 18"long.
When I started at my current job, but in the old building, my desk had a bunch of Xerox copies of people’s faces. You know - all squished up as they pressed their faces under the copier lid. Turns out it was the boss and his kids, when he first started the place several years earlier. Being new, I guess they gave me one of the old crappy desks.
My cube here in the new place is festooned with the usual IT assortment, along with a bound and gagged Mickey Mouse with bulging bloodshot eyes, who is hanging from the ceiling in effigy. It’s a warning to any real mice who might happen along. Unlike the old building, I no longer find mouse shit on my desk, so I figure it’s working.
Oh yeah!!! Well they locked our desks on us because they didn’t want us putting food in our drawers. Also one of the techs on another floor was caught with a freezer bag full of pot. So they locked em’ all up. crazy loons…
These have followed me around:
A British pound coin (engraved with “Decus et Tutamen” on the edge)
A Canadian Dime (from a business trip to Canada)
An Eastern Caribbean nickel (Incredibly light and with a cool scalloped edge)
A Canadian penny that just showed up in my change - I’m keeping it because I’m hoping it will bring me good luck.
Also, I have a roll of tape that is clear with a design in black - it was what art departments used to create bordered ads before computer graphics took over. I got it for about 10 cents and decorated my terminal at my old job with it.
Where I didn’t have to clean out someone else’s crap (except going through actual relevant files) when I started. The HR people hear are pretty good about cleaning out the cubicl…um…workstations, and as I understand it, the person I replaced was only in the job for a short while and she was the first ever in the position.
Wierd stuff on my desk? Well, I keep it pretty tidy, but I do have some fun (wierd?) things. We’re HIGHLY encouraged to do so by management; there’s one employee who practically has a friggin’ living room in her workstation. Carfax is a different kind of company. (Right now the whole office is WAY decked out for Halloween–too much IMHO, but oh well.)
Fun Stuff on/in my desk:
2 Monkees lunchboxes (I keep my music CDs in them)
Cat calendar
Large-size beanie cat
An action figure of Angel (Buffy’s Angel)
Magnet poetry kit
On my bulletin board/brag board/cube wall:
“Norfolk Dopefest 2000 Putz” button
An “I Like Ike” button
2 Palindromes (PLD’s band) CDs
“Think, Care, Act” poster
Photos of me & PLD, me & Peter Tork, PLD’s band and our cats
A copy of the Starfish Story (about making a difference)
Necessities on/in my Desk:
Polk paperweight (gift from parent company)
“President for a Day” nametag
Discman with headphones
2 Mugs and bowl for lunches
Curling iron & brush, hand lotion and toothbrush & toothpaste
Box of cereal, can of soup and pkg of crackers (I usually keep several cans of soup in my drawer to discourage me from skipping lunch)
It sounds like a lot, but as I said, I keep it neat–people actually tease me about how tidy I keep it.
Although, our department has an interesting tradition…at some point someone not too well liked and fairly slobby left the firm and left a bunch of shit in her cubicle including things like shoes and a big canvas bag. Someone cleaned it out for the new person putting all the crap in the bag and left it in the cubicle. The rule for newbies is that they can take something out (if they need it), but you have to put in at least one very useless item (you should see the crap in there–or maybe you shouldn’t:o). You then have to put it on the next newbie’s desk; I had the dang thing under my desk from June until last week (newbie started on Monday).
Peta hon…you forgot to mention that it’s a broken Angel action figure.
I’ve been here for a month, and my cube still isn’t quite decorated yet…I keep meaning to stop in one weekend and just transfer my crap from my car back up here. Right now all I have is a Successories picture, a beanie baby duck, a Redskins beanie bear, and a Dogbert figurine.
Oh, and 20 gazillion test printouts, a bottle of Diet Coke, and my Dayrunner.
There’s some of the usual crap in there too
the desk drawer doubles as my junk drawer … but you’ve probably noticed that already.
The actual usefull office stuff just lies all over the desktop. For easy access, of course
Our workspaces were recently refurbished - new modular furniture and all. I have a few file folders in one drawer, some tea bags/cocoa mix/tylenol/one ketchup packet in one drawer, a few books on the shelf, a clock radio on the table by my computer, a pic of my kid on the cube wall, and my 25-years-of-government-service plaque leaning against my inbox… and 2 plants on top of the shelf unit. I’m kinda minimal. Plus it’s just been 2 months, so I haven’t had enuff time to make my mark.
Nothing weird in my desk, the usual, paper clips, pens, band-aids, etc.
Nothing too out of the ordianry on my desk either, although I must have my mini-toys: Magic 8-ball, view-master, slinky, wooly willy, etch-a-sketch, barrel of monkeys, and Mr. potato head.
My company is a little old fashioned. When an employee “leaves”, all of his office stuff is buried with his body along with his still living wives, servants and livestock. Because of this, I never inherit stuff when I take a new desk. If you do take, say, the stapler of a “departed” employee, you, all of your descendants and every one on your org chart will be cursed for a thousand generations with locusts, maggots, madness, poor margins and unfortunate revenue growth trends.
In my lap drawer I have about a million rubberbands and paperclips all dumped in a pile that takes up the entire drawer. It was there when I got here.
My own stuff includes a Far Side desk calendar, a bottle of Bath & Body Works Kiwi Body Splash (which works very well to cover up the smell of the next cubicle’s stinky lunches), a plant, a small boom box, a clock, 6 pictures of my family, some seashells, a wooden turtle, an alien-head squishy stress-reliever sitting in a red sports car squishy stress-reliever, kleenex, water bottle (empty), water bottle (full), stacks of paper, champagne glass, manilla folders, a sack of bagels and my Employee of the Year award.
It’s quite a mess. But, as with most messy desks, I still know where things are when I need them.
squishy computer toy from a bank promotion
rainbow slinky from a HMO
peach candle from Pier 1 (an attempt to make the office smell better)
Silly Putty to play with while I surf the net
birthday card signed by the Commissioner
A picture of Hallmark’s crazy old lady, Maxine, signed by the artist
several beanie babies on my monitor
the usual junk
the strangest thing I have (according to my coworkers) is my rubber band ball. I started making it over two years ago and it is now officially larger than a softball and still growing.
My office in the back of the station, which I call the “colon” of the station, is jam packed with stuff. 10,000 CD’s, easily. Old equipment: cart machines, carts (eleventy jillion) mic booms, mics, reel to reel decks and so on.
My personal stuff includes, but is not limited to; pictures of my kids, about 8-10 of them, cards, gifts and letters from listeners, a soup can that reads: Cream of Kelowna…radio promotion device. An Eiffel Tower from a listener that went to Paris. Many other radio related items. Many books like, Almanacs, Readers Digest, Womens magazines…I’m such a pansy.
In our on-air booth, where I am right now, is a wonderful collection of junk. The other announcers here are Star Wars nerds. There are several “Siths” (I think) and other Star Wars stuff…too numerous to mention.
Many posters and other clutter…your usual on-air booth stuff
I found original engineering notebooks (preliminary design sketches and such) for an Air Force communications system in my desk at my last job. Specifically, for a system that was decommissioned in the early 60’s. I wasn’t permitted to throw them away–eventually, I gave them to our “Quality” drones to “file”. (I noticed them in the garbage as I walked by their offices.)
The oddest thing currently on my desk is a “Meanie Baby”, Fi-do the Dalmutation. It’s a beanie-type toy dalmation with 2 tails and 2 heads (3 eyes/1 ear on one head, 3 ears/1 eye on the other). I also have a cardboard tube of confetti that HR sent me in the interoffice mail for some inexplicable reason. In the drawers–probably the flashfingers powders (I use them to make little explosions and smoke when I snap my fingers); I keep the two powders in separate drawers for safety.
I have 17 plants in my office (actually on the low side right now. Will probably bring in more shortly for overwintering.) The huge ficus in the corner is decorated for x-mas year round.
The only things on my walls are pictures by my kids covering probably 50-60% of available wall space.
Other than that, a bunch of clay knick-knack things courtesy of the kids, two pink pearl eraser pigs (“Work is Hell” anyone?), lava lamp, and a collection of crap I scrounged from my best buddy’s office after he died including: his mug; a wierd plaque tastefully melding a scorpion, swords, and a mace; and a game of “Whoozit?” (Arts and Literature).
When our labs moved, I took over a certain desk. I sat down, whirled around per custom, and opened one of the drawers. In the drawer was an object. This object stopped me in my tracks. And as soon as I saw this thread, I knew what I had to do. I fired up the scanner: What Is This? I think it is a drain-stopper designed to keep water at a certain level, but <<dramatic music>> why was it in my desk and not at the sink?
lurkernomore - absolutely right about rubberbands as ammunition. Roller chairs are getaway cars or jousting steeds if the hallways are wide enough.
