Individual workspaces (offices) and all that they convey

Many in-house counsel spend more hours in their office than they do anywhere else awake. How they fill, design, and maintain their little plot tells much about them. Those individual – or mandated – features of an office, such as desks, chairs, cabinets, also shackle or enable productivity. Workspace design as a topic sprawls far beyond this sparse post, but I have pulled together what I could locate on this blog about various accoutrement of individual offices (See my post of Dec. 16, 2005: ethnography; June 24, 2007: how people decorate their offices and walls; Sept. 27, 2009: the calming whisper of flowing water; and Sept. 30, 2009: a lawyer’s individual office .).

Desks: (See my post of Nov. 8, 2005: SEI Investment’s completely mobile desks; Feb. 2, 2008: piles; Feb. 13, 2008: the messiness or orderliness of a general counsel’s office gives clues; and Nov. 17, 2008: piles on desks and procrastination.).

Bookshelves and cabinets: Hard as it may be to believe, in 6,006 posts there is not a single reference to bookshelves or cabinets.

Chairs for desk and table: (See my post of Sept. 17, 2009: ergonomic chairs; July 29, 2007: to speed up meetings, do away with chairs; Feb. 7, 2008: infrastructure includes chairs; Nov. 23, 2008: thermogenesis on a treadmill; and Sept. 19, 2009: chairs and ergonomics.).

Lights and lamps, both office and desk: (See my post of Dec. 26, 2007: lights and energy-saving; Aug. 4, 2008: better lights for older eyes; and Sept. 22, 2009: dimmers and other light savers.).

Computers and keyboards, laptops in docking stations or desktops: (See my post of Nov. 22, 2010: virtualized computers; April 23, 2006: ergonomics, including keyboard ergonomics; Dec. 24, 2010: three new features of keyboards.).

Monitors: (See my post of Nov. 30, 2009: dual monitors to increase workspace; Feb. 19, 2010: productivity boosts from dual monitors; Nov. 30, 2010: myth of productivity increases; and Sept. 30, 2009: monitors with 6 references.).

Speakers, headphones and webcams: (See my post of Feb. 15, 2010: webcams; and Jan. 18, 2008: headphones.).

Telephones: (See my post of Feb. 24, 2007: dictation to a telephone.).

Printers and multipurpose devices: (See my post of July 7, 2009: printers with 6 references.).

Memorabilia: All the chotchkas, schwag, lucite tiles, trinkets and doodads we treasure, many fragrant with memories (See my post of Dec. 17, 2005: comments on paintings; and July 29, 2007: ambient orbs.).