Today, my boss took us out to look at potential office space. Our current space, while having enough square footage, simply does not meet our needs in terms of heating, cooling, power, and network connectivity. Looking over this space actually got me a bit excited. It is in a warehouse, and the offices are more like extremely permanent cubicles with drop ceilings. You can actually go to the back of the office, take a ladder, and get on top of the offices and still be indoors!

So now I am thinking about my ideal office space, set up to maximize my productivity. Some things that I would want:

  • Aeron chair: never underestimate comfort and ergonomics; my current chair is literally impossible for me to sit up straight in, and the armrests are a few inches below the height of the desk (even at the tallest chair position), making typing extremely painful.
  • Lots of network connections: as a developer who works with a few test PCs from customers, I need lots of network ports. In our current space, I have a 5 port switch on my desk which is full, and all of my wall ports are full too. It is easy and cheap to run extra connections when doing a build out and a lot more expensive and problematic to do it after the build out.
  • A deep equipment locker: I have tons of spare desktop switches, mice, keyboards, and other odd shaped things that need a happy home.
  • A small workbench: I am also the systems administrator, so I need a place other than my chair to pull apart PCs.
  • Quality ergonomic keyboard: my hands, wrists, and elbows ache by 10 AM if I am on a roll. For what even a Kenesis keyboard costs compared to an IT worker’s salary (about $300 for the keyboard, $45,000 per year for “just above entry level