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my company is 330 employee, when new people come in, it will be a desk in a box and a computer still in carboard box. yes, you want sit down, assemble it yourself. I usually help just because I have assembled about thirty of them. but its your office, either do it yourself or talk someone into helping. we buy furniture at office depot, its comes in a box
The only times I ever had to assemble furniture was when I began working for an organization that was opening a new (additional) location on a specific date. My first day on the job was two weeks prior to the planned opening, and everyone pitched in to open boxes, assemble shelves, place items where they belonged, etc.
Later, we moved to a new location, and the process more or less repeated itself - lots of knock down and reassembling, packing and unpacking.
But in both cases, my desk and chair were intact and just needed to be put in place.
Seems to me this organization should have let you know before your first day on the job. I remember being dressed professionally on my own first day - which certainly wasn't appropriate for the physical labor required. I wore jeans for the next two weeks, then went back to more standard attire once we opened for business.
So what is the problem? If I hired someone who right away started with this "it's not my job thing" I'd can them and look for someone who is eager and adaptable. Be thankful you have a job. Talk about whining!
That's a small company and it wouldn't be worth hiring someone to put together furniture since they probably do not add to the headcount all too often.
Seriously? 60 is a small company. And they sprung for new furniture, that's awesome. Assembly is not typical but I doubt there is anyone else with time to assemble furniture and they're probably watching every penny. Barring a fairy godmother bippity-boppity-booing it for you, I don't see better option. I wouldn't expect the boss to do it.
I just got done disassembling my desk to convert it to a stand up workstation - used a power drill and everything. And I moved my file own cabinets around. I've got gobs of seniority but I'm a get-it-done kind of girl. I don't tap my toes waiting for maintenance to get around to it. And I've never been unemployed or had anything but good reviews and upward mobility in all my working life.
So you have been given a shiny new place to start. Yay! Work hard, prove yourself resourceful and adaptable and if you still need posher surroundings, you'll have a good reference when you move on.
I wouldn't even give them an excuse. I would have said I don't know how to put furniture together and I don't want to learn. The End.
The convo after that would have went along these lines:
"Now, what did you do with the Old furniture? Oh, you got rid of it. That's okay. I'll take my laptop out to the reception area and do my work on there. What printer can I use?"
I refuse to be taken advantage of in ANY way just because some employers believe they can.
Nice attitude. If I had been your boss, the conversation would have continued me saying, "Well, this company isn't going to be a good fit for you, then. There's the door -- think you can manage to open THAT on your way out?"
Yes. Furniture that comes disassembled in a box would not surprise me for contractors working on-premises.
And I'm sure someone will say "They'll give them old furniture! Used furniture they bought elsewhere!" If they don't have spare furniture, yes, it's not surprising to buy low grade Sauder furniture. And many legit companies are not going to buy used furniture, regardless of the working relationship of the person working in their office. YMMV.
Nice attitude. If I had been your boss, the conversation would have continued me saying, "Well, this company isn't going to be a good fit for you, then. There's the door -- think you can manage to open THAT on your way out?"
It's good to be a team player, particularly if you have a personal interest in working there, but anyone that has worked for a normal size corporation would look at a manager like they have lost their mind if someone asked them to assemble their own furniture. It really depends on the environment you're coming from.
Sure, if you're at a start-up it may make sense. But no normal, fully functioning corp is going to have a white collar professional take time out of their day to do something they could hire someone for $7 an hour to do. It doesn't make any sense. You've got someone you're paying $30-$50-$100 an hour and you're going to waste their time assembling furniture? No way. Makes absolutely no sense. Most furniture stores will deliver and assemble furniture or if it is a company beyond minuscule size they already have a maintenance staff to do things like that.
With an attitude like yours you'll talk yourself right out of 80% of the people who come through the door. Unless you're already lowballing your offers and are picking up people who have no options, haven't worked anywhere else, or don't know any better. Your standard white collar people come in to do a job, not the maintenance staff's job also.
So I arrived at work for my first day and all of my furniture was in my office...... in boxes.
This was a test and you failed.
Should have made this:
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