Be careful what you joke about

Thirty Years of Memories
As we celebrate 30 years with Cru, we are sharing fun stories that have happened during that time.

Our office team moved to a more open cubicle design.  My desk was at the end of a row and  was open to the walkway.  As people turned the corner, they’d often walk right through my office.  As the director, I wanted to model adjusting to the open plan by taking the most "exposed" desk area.

The whole open concept was new to all of us, so I talked to the whole team that we'd need to get use to it, and we would have have "office norms," like not going up and talking to anyone just because you see them.   

And then, as a joke, I announced that another office norm would be that we don’t walk through people’s desk areas.  Since no one else had my same desk setup, I was obviously sending a clear message!

This is what I found when I got back to my desk that afternoon.