Office Space - Employees' Loss for Boss's Gain
At work we've downsized slightly, so my company has been moved to a room in the basement and the upper floor of our offie rented out to another company. Having downsized slightly again, the boss is looking to move us into a smaller room in the basement and rent out the room we're in now.
He's also the landlord, the owner of the building. He bought it, a classic Brooklyn brownstone, and converted the bottom two floors into office space and rents out the top two floors as residential apartments. His own private office is on the first floor, and he has his own private bathroom. for the rest of us, including the company renting the upper floor space, we shared three small bathrooms, only one of which has a sink inside for washing in private.
As the owner of the building he decided to refinance it. One of the conditions the bank had was that the bottom floor could be rentable as residential space. So, to accomplish that he had the toilet removed from one of the three small bathrooms and converted into a shower, then locked so no one could go in there.
Now, as a career employee, I've never been under the illusion that my bosses would value me over money. They're in business to make money, and I'm a resource that does work to help bring it in. I've worked for companies that couldn't give out bonuses or raises because sales weren't good enough, yet the bosses and top managers kept getting raises and bonuses and all that. I'm used to that.
But I've never had a boss so plainly demonstrate his value for money over employees as this. I mean, he took an existing space that employees were using on a daily basis for their comfort, and changed it to one we can't use and doesn't in any way help us do our work better, which wasn't a resource he personally used in the office, and isn't going to use in its new capacity, all for his own person financial gain.
This sucks. This is definitely the lowest I've ever felt my value to a company as an employee.
