So, after re evaluating the proposal one last time, the bullet was finally bitten and the challenge was now to minimize both the cost and the disruption; easier said than done. Tight project scheduling and a fast turn around was the key, and we found in our contractors a willingness to work quickly, provided we could clear the appropriate work areas at the right time.

So furniture was moved, removed and re-moved. Covered, uncovered and recovered. Hot desking took on a new meaning, and through all this the phones were still answered, quotations were still submitted, and instruments continued to be dispatched. True grit from all concerned!

As I write this blog was it all worth it? Absolutely, yes. The improvement to our working environment is plain for all to see, but more importantly there has come about a renewed pride and focus. Continual improvement is not only relevant to our product but also to our attitudes and the way we do business. Shaking up the routine and questioning the status quo is to be recommended. It’s a truly refreshing experience and a perfect breath of fresh air.

I was reminded of this on opening a rather taut package the other day and was met with a shredded paper tornado when the pressure was released. The consignment was in this ‘bran tub’ somewhere and spreading the detritus over the office floor was the only way of extracting it.

Surely the amount of energy used to create this shredded paper and ship it across the world to my desk, together with the electricity used to vacuum up the offending shredded fallout strewn around the office, far outweighs the environmental cost of having it recycled locally. Indeed in some quarters ‘exporting’ waste requires legal formalities and licenses doesn’t it?

Anyway I am not in the least bit becoming paranoid, but I feel it’s a slippery slope. Currently I’m only discovering shredded paper and reused bubble wrap. How long will it be before I’ll be trying to dig out goods from a box packed with yoghurt pots, aluminum cans and fruit juice cartons, all being added to the parcel in the misconceived notion of trying to save the planet.

I know you’re out there. I know who you are and where you work. I have just cut the lawn and collected up the grass cuttings…….and the parcel needs returning…..

Am I alone in thinking that The Paperless Office has now become unachievable, as it appears that each new technology brings with it yet another format to be saved and yet another method of outputting paper in more sizes, weights, colours, finishes and dare I say quantities.

Anyway back to the work in hand. Do we really want to struggle moving those archive boxes yet again.

The cry goes up, “scan them”, in my head I’m thinking ‘can them’. The thought of spending days scanning and cataloguing these files fills me with dread as there’s more than enough scanning to be had coming through via the fax and the letterbox everyday. Who should get the short straw for this particular assignment anyway?

Let me be clear I’m not talking about the paperwork we are required to keep by law, but for example, those instrument leaflets from 1984, the working drawings for that idea that never got off the ground in 1981; working drawings in pencil on tracing paper that have long since been superseded by development and CAD, and the feasibility study that proved it was unfeasible.

Surely it’s simply a matter of date. Pre 2006, no longer required. But some of this material has heritage value hasn’t it? Part of the company history. Who’s brave enough or foolhardy enough to turn on the shredder, besides which look at this old price list from 1988 and these old exhibition photographs.

Let’s check out the new proposed office layout again. Perhaps if we didn’t move the printer or the stationery cupboards. Then those desks could stay where they are. The meeting room need not be as big (leave it as it is) and the kitchen area wouldn’t need changing. That’s perfect because then we wouldn’t need to move the archive boxes.