The bar for happiness has dropped.

Well, today, my little heart leapt for joy. Why so... do you ask? Well, it’s as simple as this. I got promoted a new cubicle at work. Only cubicle. (So don’t call up asking for a treat…) I initially worked in this fairly teenie-weenie cubicle, which was more like a desk with a partition to prevent your stationery from quietly invading the next guy’s work space. I always felt like it were a post office of some sort. Anyway, the little cubicle was mine. My kingdom and I was sole ruler. (Except for the dude who re-arranges stuff over the weekend when he cleans the desk up).

But post lunch, the admin team marched over to my cubicle and said,” Sir! We are moving you…switch off your computer.” With the current ‘pink-slip’ plague going around, my head started spinning with possible knee jerk reactions…. Handcuff myself to the chest of draws and refuse to move, do the whole tantrum thing that kids pull…legs become like pillars of stone and refuse to budge, start punching the hell out of people, release the virus I have been developing late at night to destroy the mainframes…oops….what virus??? You never read that.

(The Old Desk)

Anyway, the guy was quick to say that I was being moved to a different desk. So I complied. And look. They put me in one of those bigger cubicles where most of the mid level management sits. I was pleased as punch. From a mere desk, I was getting a cubicle. The real deal!!! I felt on top of the world. Was grinning like an idiot. A bigger area that is mine; where I would be king and conquer. This was awesome. Resisted the urge to call up everyone in the world and tell them I now have a cubicle to myself. All for me.

So, there I was in the new cubicle. Eyes all wide open, like a kid who’s just received some unexpected candy. Grinning at this big new place I had. I felt all loved and appreciated at the office. But then it hit me…like a ton of bricks…how low the bar has been set for me to become happy? I was actually buying into this meaningless corporate consumer driven life where something which I can’t even rate as a micro-achievement ,was bringing a smile to my face. Has life really become that dreary, that such an insignificant thing is actually making me happy? Or is it the lack of true success or even micro-achievements of late that is making me so happy to have something which measures like a hiccup on the Richter scale? This is all going so horribly wrong. How can I be satisfied with such a silly thing? Have my standards for being happy dropped so low? Shouldn’t I at least want my own glass cabin with a nice luxury chair and a nice fancy desk? Maybe even a cute secretary in a nice mini-skirt? (little too much to ask for)…but no… I am feeling happy going from desk to slightly bigger desk….tsk tsk… I feel so sad for me. This is so wrong…just so so wrong. Oh well, back to being my usual self….. I don’t like this big cubicle any more…

(The New Cubicle )