Own office

On of the perks of civil service life - and in this the civil service was probably no different from most other organisations of the time - used to be that even relatively junior staff had their own office. Some people even managed a lock on the door as well as a lock on their personal cupboard. So I had my own office for well over half of my thirty five year career there. An office which I was sorry to lose for my last few years - apart from a short break in a glass cubicle provided by the Home Office, a glass cubicle in a short row of same.

The permanent leader of the Treasury at this time was Terry Burns, now Lord Burns, and my understanding was that he sent down an edict saying that we would all live in the open plan, himself, his private office and his senior colleagues all included. The special advisors, in the uncertain waters between ministers and civil servants, were not very happy about this and I think they managed to wangle some special arrangement. While ministers, as far as I know, kept and have kept their suites.

So I was interested to read in today's FT, that the leader of HSBC has sent down an edict saying that the executive floor in their tower at Canary Wharf was abolished and that all the executives who lived there would move down into the open plan. No more drinks' cabinets, thick carpets and fancy pictures on the walls. But maybe they get to keep their decorative secretaries.

I believe that most young people don't see it my way. They grew up hot desking in open plan and are not that attached to their own desk, never mind their own office. But for me it remains a loss. One of the perks of rank was one's own office, away from the eyes and ears of everybody else. A place where one might, perchance, take forty winks from time to time. Or mend the back light of one's bicycle. Or take a bit of time out to read the gossip & social columns in the newspaper. Or just to look at the pictures. All the better to get some serious work done, in between times.

Perhaps once the pandemic has been pushed back, rather than grumbling about not having an office, young people will grumble about not being allowed to work at home for more than three days a week. A different kind of own office, hopefully not shared with very young children.

PS: I associate to stories about the stress of living in places - like prisons and children's homes - where there is often very little in the way of personal space - and where bullying and worse can thrive, particularly at night.