Hmm… let’s see. They like to move our desks around so I tend to not accumulate too much stuff so I don’t have to pack it up again in a few months.
Picture of my nieces
Candy dispenser
Stress ball
Dalek figurine (how I find out who else in the office is a Whovian, others have asked me why I have a little trash can on my desk)
Water bottle
Calendar
A couple of magnets on my file cabinet
I almost forgot my mug - my wife got it for me on a trip to D.C. It’s covered with slogans/logos from various Presidential campaigns through the years (e.g. All the Way with Adlai; Reagan: Let’s make America great again; Clinton, a cure for the blues; Au H2o '64)
I’ve been here for almost 7 years now and I have a decently sized office, so I’ve accumulated a lot of crap.
[ul]
A bunch of pictures of family and postcards on my bulletin board[/ul]
[ul]A lacquer box of paper clips and binder clips[/ul]
[ul]A pottery cup for pens[/ul]
[ul]An encyclopedia I helped edit[/ul]
[ul]A Willie McGee bobblehead[/ul]
[ul]Several plants, most of which I inherited from coworkers[/ul]
[ul]A marble (art exhibit souvenir)[/ul]
[ul]Many snacks[/ul]
[ul]Books from grad school[/ul]
[ul]A basket with a turtle on the lid from Indonesia[/ul]
[ul]A carved board from American Samoa[/ul]
[ul]Framed photos from places I’ve traveled[/ul]
[ul]A drawer full of shoes
[/ul]
I have four Art Cube souvenirs from various museums; they’re 2x2 cubes that unfold in multiple ways to show multiple pictures. The ones I have are:
I also have my vi reference coffee mug.
[ul]
[li]Photo of my husband and me[/li][li]Another photo of my husband[/li][li]Little Doctor Who mini[/li][li]Rubber duck[/li][li]Two shooting paper targets[/li][/ul]
None. It’s unprofessional to decorate your work area like its your personal bedroom. People who do that aren’t taking seriously at work.
I forgot: I also have one of those Chinese money frog doohickeys on my desk.
Why would anyone wanna be taken seriously at work?
You’re stuck there X hours a day, let your hair down.
A fossilized belemnite phragmocone, two halves of an infilled ammonite, some Witwatersrand gold reef, a piece of jasper, a fish fossil, an amethyst cluster, some ferrochrome from a smelter, a cut-open quartz geode and a piece of obsidian from near Mt Shasta on the PCT.
Rock on.
All I have is a child’s crayon drawing done by someone else’s young child and left at a desk I inherited years ago. I am not even sure what it is meant to depict.
You must be a blast to work with.
mmm
My husband is like that. We had a fight once because I bought him a dog calendar and he wouldn’t hang it up.
Truthfully, I’m with kayaker on this one. If anyone’s taking me seriously, they must not know me very well.
I won’t go as far as letting my hair down per kayaker, but hey, I work in a grey cubicle and don’t see the outside all day. Does an inoffensive art poster really make me look like a goof-off? Does it make it better that I can’t see it from the way I sit, eyes pinned to the computer screen? I only see it on my way to and from the bathroom, and I run there and back, not making any small talk or even acknowledging those around me. Must get back to work after voiding myself!!! Pleasantries waste money!
I started a new job a month ago, and have a private office for the first time in over a decade. In fact, my previous company had instituted hoteling/hot-desking, so I hadn’t even had my own desk for about a year. I’m still figuring out what I want to have at the new place, but so far:
On My Desk
[ul]
[li]A latop stand that I bought five years ago but wasn’t using at home anymore (a guy who works in a different office likes to do video calls, and it’s better for everyone if I’m looking up at the camera)[/li][li]My iPod Nano[/li][li]A small Bluetooth speaker that I use with my iPod, and that doubles as a speakerphone for my cell phone[/li][li]A cell phone stand (I had two at home, but no longer have a separate work phone so I brought one in to use at the office)[/li][li]A Paris page-a-day gallery calendar that my aunt bought me as a gift to celebrate the new job, since I just went to Paris five months ago[/li][li]A water bottle[/li][li]A picture of my dog[/li][li]A small USB-powered fan[/li][li]A USB charging station (for the fan, speaker, iPod, etc.)[/li][/ul]On My Bulletin Board
[ul]
[li]A large monthly At-A-Glance calendar[/li][li]An oversize pin from a jazz festival I go to every year; it says “Standing Up For Real Jazz”[/li][/ul]On Top of The Storage Cabinets
[ul]
[li]Mugs from places where I’ve worked[/li][/ul]On The Window Ledge
[ul]
[li]A nameplate I’ve had since my very first job (25 years ago)[/li][li]My challenge coin collection[/li][li]A Washington Nationals bobblehead (the original Screech mascot, from 2006 [holy crap I can’t believe it’s been 12 years!])[/li][/ul]On The Walls
[ul]
[li]A framed New Yorker cartoon that’s related to my job[/li][li]A framed abstract print[/li][/ul]
On the desk I own:
2 personal laptops
A Bluetooth speaker
A dog bed and blankets. He is in the bed when we are there and when we leave the bed is on the floor. Also on the floor are his water bowl and food bowl.
A shot glass from Jacksonville
A few photos just loose
In the drawers:
Dog treats and ear medicine
Over the counter meds for me
A Tide pen
An old iPod
Extra eyeglasses
Dental floss
Various usb cords
A dog bed on the desk? :eek: How small is your dog??
Not a one.
Funny, I tend not to take seriously the people who DON’T do that.
I have a monkey wrench that is about 100 years old. It does not reinvent itself into a fresh new way of thinking about delivering solutions, which my computer is doing all the time. The wrench is beautiful because instead of doing this, it actually works.
I have also:
A brass lobster Mrs. Napier gave me for sentimental reasons.
A massive block of copper, out of which sprouts a blossom of thermocouples, whose colors look like a bouquet.
A Type T thermocouple, bare wire 1/8" in diameter, visibly copper and silvery on its two legs…
A couple of blocks of unusual metals.
A carved wooden Buddha sitting on a wooden box which contains patchouli oil and leaves. This asshole business leader type once asked what was in the box, and I showed him, and he said, “That’s pot!!!” and he kept getting louder and louder, like he was exposing my crime. I was extremely entertained as I watched him create a scene, demonstrating that he couldn’t tell pot from patchouli – not that everybody has to be able to identify pot, but that he didn’t recognize patchouli and was so assertive about making his mistake. He died soon after, but that wasn’t really connected with this.
Artwork my kids made (20-30 years ago). My bulletin board is covered with political paraphernalia from campaigns I volunteered for in the past 30 years. Also a few toys - I have the occasional visitor bringing kids.
A few pictures of my son, a plaster cast of my teeth leftover from a dentist’s appointment years ago, a souvenier model of Stonehenge, 4 Funko pop figures (The Joker, Ghost from Game of Thrones, Baby Groot, and Finn Balor the pro wrestler), a backup tie in case I need one, 4 posters (Albert Einstein, Firefly, a schematic of the Space Shuttle, a diagram of the electromagnetic spectrum), and some pictures and postcards from a business trip to China.