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In the Dark Again

A while back, I noticed that the motion detectors in our offices led to much hilarity. Well, I have since moved to a different office, so I don't have to deal with those motion detectors anymore. However, I have once again noticed that there are light-related shenanigans afoot.

About a month back or so, I walked in at my usual time and noticed that the lights were off. I happen to work in a cubicle, so it's not like the lights in my office were just off. I didn't have any light, so I knew that a bunch of other people didn't have any light, either.

Resolving to remedy this situation, I went hunting for a light switch. I figured it must be nearby on one of the pillars near by cubicle, but this was not the case. I started making larger and larger circles away from my cubicle, but none of the pillars or walls yielded any results. Even when the guy in the next cubicle showed up, we couldn't find it between the two of us.

Defeated, I called the group in charge of the facilities to see if they could help. They weren't in, so I was connected to the front desk instead. They had no clue where the light switches were, but they promised to send one of the facility engineers to check on the lights.

When the engineers showed up, they spent all of two minutes asking me what the problem was before they promptly walked over to the light switch and turned it on. In my defense, the light switch was hidden away near the bathrooms, in pretty much the last place I would have ever thought to look for it. Still, they laughed a little, showed me where it was, and went on their merry way. I was mildly embarrassed, but at least I had discovered how to fix this problem.

Fast forward about a month, and I have routinely started walking in to all of the lights being turned off. I don't know why this switch suddenly happened, but the lights are all off when I walk in. Now, the switches are located so far away from my work space that I usually don't notice that the lights are off until I have passed said switches. Given that, I usually drop off my stuff and grab something to drink before I double back to turn on the lights.

However, I have noticed that as I walk to and from my cubicle, I routinely hear the sound of typing. In the dark. That means that other people, who show up in the office earlier than I do, are actually working in the dark. I don't know if it's a result of ignorance or a result of laziness, but for whatever reason, there are several people who are actually willing to work in the dark rather than go investigate the problem with the lights.

In fact, I was talking on one coworker who said, roughly, "it's weird, the lights are always off, but they turn on around this time every morning." I checked my response, but I did notice that the time she mentioned happened to coincide with the time that I usually walk in to the office.

So, even after about a year, my original conclusions seem to hold:
1. Someone has a wicked sense of humor and likes messing with those of us that show up early.
2. Some of the folks around me still put pride and laziness above being sensible. I have yet to figure out which ones these are, but once I do, I'm going to have to figure out how to turn this to my advantage.

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