New digs. Bad attitude.

The company I work for recently moved to a new office. The last space we were in, where we’ve been for just about 7 years, was too big for us (8 people in 4000 sq ft) so we moved to a smaller space 2 blocks away.

I’m not really sure what my problem was – but I had a super big chip on my shoulder about the move. I guess a part of me felt as though we were going backwards – even though I realize that the space we were in was silly big.

They brought us all over to see the space before any tenant improvements had been made. It was a dump. And I was a bitchy little queen about it. I thought it was dark, stuffy, ugly, and small. And my first reaction was (with hand on hip) “I’ll quit if I have to work here.”

The rest of the day I was poubty. A little girl about the whole thing. But then something interesting happened. Someone asked Cristi, a girl that sits next to me who is a free-spirited kinda hippy chick, what she thought of the new space - the one I had just seen with the gross carpet, nasty bathroom, horrible lighting, and ugly paint colors – and her reply was “Oh my God, it’s SOOO amazing.”

I stopped in my tracks. I couldn’t believe she thought that. And then I realized that she was able to see something more/better than what she was actually looking at. It was a place full of possibility, which by nature is amazing. She inspired me to stop being a little brat and make the most – and make the best – of it all.

Well, we ended up moving to this space and the owners of my company spent a great deal of money remodeling the space – new everything. I really like our space now and it feels good for our team.

I guess sometimes you need to try and see things as someone else does and maybe – just maybe – you’ll see something better than you expected.