Continuity Update for June 8

Hello!

The early summer blogging has been a little off-schedule, and I hope this mid-week post finds you well. We have one big topic for today's blog post:

There oughta be a law!!

Or, at least a rule. Or a general understanding? Or perhaps what everyone calls "common sense" but which everyone defines differently. (So, I guess it's not that common after all).

The workshop with the Emily Post Institute gave us a framework for thinking about our own actions and those of others in the general stew of an open office, but we realize there might be some desire still for specificity.

The Continuity Team is willing but not eager to draft a short and solid set of rules that would help govern some of the communal use of the new space. However, rules are the not always the best way to encourage helpful behavior, and it's a little authoritarian, no?

So here's the deal:

Please use the comments space below to announce to your preference: Do you want some rules created? Do you want staff to participate in the making of those rules? How much participation, and how do we go about it? You can do this anonymously or not, your choice. (Lacking input or killer ideas for how to formulate a set of open office guidelines, Continuity will deliver some rules to you, and we'll do our best to make them reasonable and fair.)

Thanks in advance for your feedback, which we hope will be prolific,
Patti & Continuity

PS: To help you think through this, we'd like to share the topics-in-need-of-action that staff have submitted to the  question box. These are direct quotes from your coworkers: 

Regarding talking:

• Could we encourage people to not carry on full voice conversations at the top of the news pit stairs and from the mezzanine balcony?
• Two people are talking at one of their desks. Their conversation has stretched beyond a quick chat. Other than clearing my throat loudly, what should I do?
• Can people try to remember that there are others around them trying to work, and having a conversation sotto voce would be appropriate?
• When should I join a conversation that is happening around me? I have something to add but nobody has asked me about my great ideas. Should I butt in?
• There is still a big newsroom vs other teams noise divide! We all need to be able to talk comfortably sometimes for work, but this has only come up in the context of news.
• How can we help the loud­-talkers be more mindful?
• It’s way too quiet. Is everyone afraid to speak? Can we at least turn on a radio?
• All this eye contact is making me uncomfortable. People looking up as you walk by and looking at you as they walk by.

Regarding cleanliness:

• What’s a polite way to call somebody out when you see them leaving stuff behind or dishes in the sink?
• What’s the proper way to address some staff’s sense of entitlement? For instance, not wiping down counters or cleaning up after oneself, and assuming there is “someone” who will take care of it. We do not have “someone”. Each person is responsible and accountable for their own messes, needs, etc.
• Can we stop leaving clean (?) dishes to dry in the sink? It looks so messy!
• I’m angry that people are leaving dirty dishes in the sink, crumbs on the counter, dishes left around. What the hell is wrong with us? 

Regarding these miscellaneous problems:

• Food smells & people smells (e.g. perfume or BO). How to address?
• Temperature control anarchy -- is it OK to open windows, change thermostats? If everyone opens windows and changes thermostats, does that make our efficient building less efficient?
• Offsite staff drop in and use desks and some have left them a mess. What to do with that? 
• You’re sitting in the new bathroom stall, doing what you do in there...and someone else comes in the bathroom. What is the preferred protocol for determining stall occupation? Would you rather see the other person trying to peer under the stall door, or would you rather see them trying to peer through the crack between door and the wall? Maybe you’d prefer a verbal call­out - “Hey, um, anybody in here?"