<p>Can you bring in a cheap lamp from Target, and buy or make your own sunshade device? i can’t imagine being squinty and uncomfortable for 4 months for the cost of a lamp and sunshade!</p>
<p>Marian, in my office, maintenance unscrewed the energy-efficient florescent bulbs so my office area no longer has overhead lighting. I got a $10 desk lamp at Walmart and use natural light bulbs. Problem solved. I am always roasting in our building – a small desk fan on a table behind me helps a lot.</p>
<p>One of my coworkers has a number of plants and the difference in light streaming in is significant. When the window washers came through and moved everything, we could really appreciate the difference the plants made. For the most part, these are plants sitting on a window ledge and not covering more than about 25% of the window’s square footage.</p>
<p>You might consider mentioning the computer glare to the doc at your next eye appt. – a) they have lots of experience with this kind of thing and b) maybe there are physical changes in your eyes that are exacerbating the problem. (For me, it was cataracts.)</p>
<p>Ask for the inside office if it’s more comfortable.</p>
<p>Most of the people in my company work in cubicles (including me) with most managers occupying offices. For some reason, one of the top people in the company is in a cube and some of the people who work for him have offices. No idea why, maybe he prefers it that way. No negatives that I can see.</p>
<p>I know a lot of people who make their own sun-shades for the monitors using a cardboard box and some duct tape. </p>
<p>I’m really wondering why your company is so controlling of these issues. I would think it would be extremely demotivating for workers in such an environment. It seems ludicrous to me.</p>
<p>Where I work, having a window in an office is considered prime real estate. I would not move from my spot.
Also, if the environment is so controlled, they may have a problem with your request.</p>
<p>If you can get your doc to say that you need the inside office, or that you need certain “accommodations” for your eyes, and your company doesn’t comply or make “reasonable accommodations” – well, I hear a lawsuit in your future. It’s the Americans with Disabilities Act – the ADA. And it’s powerful.</p>
<p>But you have a few other things to try before you get to that point. Just keep it in the back of your mind.</p>
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<p>They’re controlling about everything. It’s like being back in high school, where rules seemed to exist for their own sake. But the company has never laid anyone off, not even during the current recession, and they don’t fire people except in extraordinary circumstances – which have not happened in the two years that I have been there. So there’s something to be said for the place.</p>
<p>The variety of opinions I have obtained here has been very helpful. After more than 20 years of self-employment, I found it very difficult to go back to being an employee and having to live within the restrictions that go with that status. A lot of the time, I feel like a prisoner (or as I said before, a high school student, which is pretty much the same thing). Some of the things you have said indicate to me that my company is more controlling than some others. I didn’t realize that. I guess I thought that all employers were like mine. CC is a very educational place.</p>
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<p>Not at all like high school!!</p>
<p>Yikes. Well, if they’re so concerned with appearances re: the window, I’d do what I could to keep the nicer office. Every company has a ‘culture’ and this place sounds like they care about appearances. Sadly, as a female you’re already at a disadvantage at most firms.</p>
<p>I worked at one place where the low level bosses spent hours charting seating to see if their people were co-located and how large their footprint was, and whether they could make moves to increase their ‘status’ that way. Next place I worked at, nobody cared at all about who sat where. People were scattered all over. Very strange, I think.</p>
<p>You can also get an anti-glare coating on your glasses, if you wear any. If you work on a computer all day, they’re essential.</p>
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<p>Marian, thanks for my laugh of the day :)</p>
<p>Oh Marian, I feel for you. I remember the last crazy controlling employer I had, in 1991. The one who checked every day that I had polished my shoes (I’m female). The one who made unkind jokes about me, loudly, in the company cafeteria. (He was the CEO of a 200-person company.) I lasted all of six months before I was laid off, much to my great pleasure. I remember driving down the highway singing along with the radio, noticing that the knot in my stomach had vanished and I felt better than I had in 5 months. </p>
<p>I hope you’re looking for another job? Really, there are better employers out there.</p>