If you keep making that face, it'll get stuck like that

I have been making a conscious effort at work to maintain a blank expression. Otherwise it would mostly be a scowl. There are a few things troubling me about the work environment here.

The air is bad, but the new Operations Director has taken my suggestion to bring in an HVAC consultant or contractor to try to improve that. It will depend on budget, I am sure, which gives me little hope that it will improve. There is no fresh air component at present, and often fumes from paint stored one level below get infused into our office air.

Certain employees in the "back room" here, where there are 11 occupied desks, have cha-cha ring tones on their cell phones, which is somewhat distracting and annoying. The theme from Gilligan's Island could not be worse.

Certain employees use their Nextel push-to-talk radios in this office environment, which is also distracting and in my view rude and unnecessary.

Certain employees bring the clinging stink of their cigarettes back in after their break.

So I wear earplugs for a good part of the day, and have a fan that I use to adjust the airflow in my cubicle so I can breath. I prop the door to get some fresh air mixed in from the front office.

But I have to think about my expression. I do get scowly at times and have to work to blank that out. Smiles are rare, unfortunately.

Oh, and the pneumatic lift in my chair leaks, so every now and then I need to raise my chair back to working height to get my chin above the table. Did I mention we use tables instead of desks, so the keyboard height is a few inches above ideal height?

And the incessant phone ringing. Sometimes we have a receptionist, sometimes not, so the phone rings through the paging system.

Nibbled to death by ducks.