BootsnAll Travel Community

I know the majority of us are counting the days when we will be done with the cube plantation. I often feel like it is useful to find the good in the ugliest things. I feel like if all I do is complain then I would ultimately end up having a miserable time. I try to find pleasure in the simplest mundane little things.

So my question is, what do you appreciate that you have at your work location or what do you do at work when you need to "get away".

I appreciate the fact that I work in a beautiful town with lots of parks and even farms (rare in north NJ). I love riding my bicycle to work about 20 miles when the weather is suitable or going out for rides during lunch on my motorcycle. In the winter I appreciate the fact that I have a gym in the building and I can spend my lunch (or the "I gotta get away for 15 minutes!!" times) at the gym. This also affords me the luxury of doing my training (running/biking) during lunch b/c I have a shower and a locker.
I do these things whenever I get stressed out here. They also provide free coffee and tea (I think I provide the herbal tea lol).
So, other than BNA and this specific forum, what do you do to relieve some stress at work? It could be something you thought of or something provided by your employer.

quote:

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I do these things whenever I get stressed out here. They also provide free coffee and tea (I think I provide the herbal tea lol).

Coffee breaks with other team members, where we commiserate about our project.

I go for walks around the building. I've always done this, even in past jobs where no one else left the building all day. People probably thought I was crazy, but I can't stay inside all day.

I work at a dot-com that has video games, foosball, table tennis, etc., in the office. Sometimes I play video games as a diversion.

I'm going to start using the gym downstairs, too. Problem is, I've been so time-starved because my commute is an hour each way, but once I move closer to the office I think I will start working out.

Oh yes, and the bike sounds like a good idea. I used to commute by bike to work and it was an invigorating way to start and end the day.

I bike to work in nice weather, but I'll admit I'm a bit of a whimp in the rain and cold. I sometimes brows BNA, but I think that actually makes it worse because I just start wishing I were traveling!!

I appreciate the different herbal teas provided at my office. I reward a couple hours of concentrated effort with tea break. I also take breaks once in a while to walk a lap around the perimeter of our office (where the windows are) or walk up and down a couple of staircases. It gives me some exercise and I usually run into someone I know along the way, so I get a chance to shoot the breeze too. I don't get many opportunities to be social when I'm sitting in my cube.

Sometimes I'll stand up and do some simple stretches in my cube (nothing crazy, just easy stuff). And if I get sleepy on a conference call, I stand up in my cube while I'm on the phone.

Every morning as I'm walking into the building I try to think about something I appreciate about my job. This morning it was freezing cold outside, so I was appreciating that I work in a warm building.

I grew up walking, and in college I loved lapping the campus when I needed to think of ideas for papers and such so it's in my blood.
I too take a lap around the building on almost every afternoon break. Also the only one, unless you count the few power walkers.
If you have a parking garage, that's newer and not the dangerous feeling with the narrow lane ones, it's fun hiking up or down. The grade isn't steep, but it becomes a good workout after 7 flights on that grade. If it wasn't for that, these office parks are beyond boring.

That and to cry in the restroom stall every so often.

About once an hour, I'll take a walk around the cube farm. I do it mainly to get a little exercise on days when I'm stuck there (& not in the field), and it's had the unintended by-product of me "looking busy".

I try to make sure that at least once a week (in a week where I'm cube-bound) I get out to lunch w/ co-workers.

I have a trip planned every holiday weekend, something on the horizon to keep looking forward to.

One year, when I had a real ____ for a boss, I made sure that every holiday weekend, I had a trip including a plane ticket somewhere. A dent in the bank account perhaps, but easier to repair finances than sanity.

Surf the net or read my book. Right now I work midnights, so there's no going out.

I'm lucky in that with my current job, I have to drive around to different schools and community service agencies throughout the day, so I'm not usually trapped at one site all day long. This saves me from certain seppuku since I get to catch up with Neal Conan on Talk of the Nation nearly every day or just listen to a favorite cd.

This semester, one of the programs that I really look forward to each week is taking my students to an equine therapy program -- I get to be outside, with horses, for 3 hours every Tuesday! Sunshine, nature, no computers and little whining -- it is almost the best day of the week.

Some of my office mates have formed a gourmet coffee club. We all chip in $2 per week and have a whole slew of fancy coffees and creams available any time of the day that we like. Little things like that always make my day just that much better.

Lets see, some of my coping mechanisms are...

Quick 15-20 min walk to nowhere (or getting coffee)
Spend my lunch break reading at Barnes and Noble
The Gym during lunch
Contemplating shoving sharpened pencils into my eye