Before my life as a stand up, I went to school for Interior design. My first job was in a beautiful showroom but with offices in the basement. On the interview they tried to woo me with quips like, “we’re just like a family,” but that wasn’t comforting because didn’t Charles Manson have a “family!?” Ignoring my higher sense perception (that is my stomach), I took the job. On the first day they said; “Roberta, we want you to be creative and think outside the box”…and then they brought me to my cubicle. And they weren’t even trying to be ironic.
Can you say jail cell? Now, I’ve never actually been in jail but from everything I’ve seen in movies & TV, the cell seemed equivalent to my cubicle.
I can prove it--if you know someone who gets fired or laid off and they worked in a cubicle, you’re happy for them! You’re like “good for you-- you made it out” like they got paroled.
I’ll admit that I would decide who I’d hang out with based on what they had in their cubicle. Troll dolls and unopened boxes of Disney characters meant we are NOT having lunch. Let’s just say I ate alone.
I had nothing in my cubicle so I’d be ready to escape at a moment’s notice.
Correction- I had one thing- a mirror. And I’d look in it daily and say to my reflection; “Hang in there--you will get paroled!” And six months later I did.
Roberta Rockwell is a NYC based Stand up comedian and screenwriter.
“My first day of work as a designer they said to me, ’Be creative and think outside the box!’ Then they walked me to my cubicle!”