My chair.

I sit in my office on the same chair since ’98. It served me well for 21 years and it will probably for another few. You know, it is the classic office chair with roller wheels. And it is ocean blue leather, now faded. I wish it was orange. My desk and cabinet drawer are also the same since ’98.

I still cannot understand why businesses should spend piles of hard-earned money on unproductive office space and inventory every few years, just for the sake of it. As designers and consultants, our job is to create and our tools are our minds, hands and computers. All we need adjacently is a civilized office space (no need for class-A), heat or cool, some decent kitchen facilities for coffee and tea mostly (nobody’s cooking at the office, let’s agree on that) and that’s all. No huge investment is necessary. On the flip side, good computers (I said good, not fancy), software, big quality monitors and network infrastructure are a must and investments/expenses should go there. Storage space, shelves? We pay a very decent fee to an archiving company to keep our paperwork. Pool and table tennis? Why? I am here to work not to play. Expensive colour printers? No need, today almost everything goes through skype, email and other forms of presentation/collaboration. Fully equipped meeting room? None, if necessary we can turn our chairs and meet in the middle of the working space, at our clients’ premises or better in a coffee shop. I am particularly delighted to discuss with my colleagues and meet our clients over lunch or coffee in the city. It’s something called a direct human relationship.

I love to read the stoics (Epictetus is my fav) and probably I am influenced by them. However, I see no logic in spending part of my and my colleagues time in earning money that goes on unnecessary items for the production workflow. It adds nothing to it. Also, I see no need in charging our clients for money that goes to fancy/designish/expensiveish/cool/youknowwhatImean offices and facilities. Our time is much too valuable to spend it on nonsense. I call this decency.