Is Your Office ‘Bugged’?
We all take precautions at home to limit the impact of wildlife and nature on our personal living. But what about your office space? Have you critter proofed it?
My corporate career was spent in the top floor of a downtown office building. The building had many owners over the decades I worked there. But, regardless who the owner was, we always had a Spider Spectacle, as I liked to call it. Usually in the heat of the summer, spiders, lots of them, and very large ones, would make webs outside our windows. It was difficult to have a meeting as we all were inevitably drawn to the Spider Spectacle occurring on the other side of the window. Our greatest fear was that they would make their way inside our offices. Luckily, that never happened. The window washers would get back out there and take them down so we could all continue our jobs.
When I owned the dog swim center I was once out of town for my corporate job. I was at dinner with colleagues when I received a call from our dog trainer. She was calling me to let me know a bat was flying around the pools and was dive bombing the dogs in the pool. I calmly reminded her I was not even within driving distance. Did she call my business partner who was in charge of Operations? Did she call the landlord’s 24 hour emergency maintenance number? Did she call our own maintenance engineer? Did she call our contractor? Sadly, the answer to all these questions was No. she called me, the President, sitting at a work dinner on the other side of the state, about eight (8) hours away.
Fast forward to my current consulting practice and industrial office space that I share with my sister’s architecture practice. As I was preparing lunch in the kitchenette, I noticed spots on the wall. Then I noticed them on the counters and on the floors. Oh my goodness they were bugs! Not just a few or a hundred but literally thousands! They were covering our window sills in the conference room and everything in the kitchenette. We called Maintenace who was right on top of it-baby mosquitoes. It took a few days of recaulking the window sills and using natural bug spray but they finally were gone.
So, what have I learned from all of these encounters with nature at an office? Be prepared. Stock natural bug spray, peppermint or lemongrass, it smells good and bugs hate it. If you have shades or drapes on your windows, close them, it hides what you do not want to see. And, bats or squirrels or groundhogs or birds - they are curious creatures always looking for a new place to call home or at least be fed. Know your local laws on how to humanely and legally relocate them! And, if all else fails, have your property management phone number close by, even better, on Speed Dial.
Leadership comes in many forms. If you have an encounter with wildlife or nature at your commercial office space, call property management first. Do not call your boss or owner or partner first. Unless they specialize in wildlife encounters, they likely cannot help. It is moments like those above where the true leaders show themselves or where you are reminded there is a reason you are the boss.
Be well.
