Memory: Corner Office

Memories can be triggered by the oddest things.

Glancing through the newspaper I noticed an ad for something entitled “Corner Office.” I believe it was the title of a game or a course (I did not read it closely) that would determine or abet a person’s leadership skills. It implied that if you had sufficient leadership skills, you would work in a coveted corner office.

I remember corner offices. I even had one once. The manager’s spot in the department where I worked had become vacant. My predecessor urged me to apply. I applied. And I waited. It took several weeks for all the applicants to be interviewed. Several weeks of waiting, working and trying not to look anxious.

One morning I walked onto my department’s floor. Rounding a corner, I saw that a very large stuffed animal (a teddy bear, I think) was propped up in the chair behind the desk in the vacant corner office. I approached, puzzled. The rest of the staff laughed and showered me with congratulations.

I was it.

The organization's cost saving strategies moved me out of the corner to another nice office. (The corner office became the throne for the division manager.)

And later, cubicles replaced offices. Rank or status was indicated by cubicles next to windows instead of the cubicles in the Escher-warren-interiors.

That’s when I quit.

I don’t know what happened to the stuffed animal.