Of paranoia

I am really paranoid. In the lab where I work, no one ever cares what other people are doing unless if they're working together. Otherwise we are each in front of our own computer screen.

But each time I start writing an e-mail (to a friend, I mean...if it's for work I wouldn't hide it!), I'm constantly looking over my shoulder (not literally, since I don't dare turn my head without a reason…see à quel point (to which point, literally) I'm paranoid!), afraid that someone is looking over my shoulder.

And I wanted to tell people all about it...except that it is so hard to describe how our places are spread out in the office (office, lab...it's half-half actually, so sometimes I say office and sometimes I say lab)

So I drew a plan. Here you go:

(not drawn to scale!)

The two orange bars are the doors. The door on the top goes out into the "workshop" area, and the one on the right leads to a smaller office, which in turn leads out into the "workshop" as well. At the bottom there are windows all the way across (you can look out, but not in!). On the left there is a blank wall, and actually on the other two "walls" where there are the doors, there is transparent glass. (north should be somewhere on the right)

The green circles are our seats. I am the star (hehe, I just didn't want to give myself a number, but that actually sounds good! lol)

Now, numbers 1, 2 and 3 are the people who actually work there. The rest of us are students. Number 1 is the chief, and number two is my tutor who's in charge of my internship. You see where they are sitting?! If they look up they'd be able to see my computer screen! (don't blame me for being paranoid now, huh? :P ) Of course, number 2 is at a rather awkward angle to actually see what's on my screen...but then, you never know.

Number 4 is Rodrigo, and number 5 is Guillaume (the first one mentioned in my previous post) It's okay if they're there...I don't think they'd rat on me anyway.

The difference between the blue and purple tables is that the blue ones are like the ones we find in labs; there is a high shelf and the back of the table+shelf is blocked. (argh I don't know how to explain it) Suffice to say that even though Bakary (number 6) is sitting opposite me, I can't see him at all...except his legs if I bend down :P Or the top of his head if we're both standing up. I think the "shelf" is about as tall as I am.

Whereas those at the purple tables can see each other all the time...as some of them have mentioned, it's harder to go to sleep 'cos there is nothing to hide behind :P

And the question mark? It's an empty place...where sometimes someone from another lab comes by to do some work.

Actually I think my tutor doesn't even mind if I send personal e-mails when I'm at work. He had already seen my inbox once (we use Microsoft Outlook for our Bosch e-mail address), with an e-mail from my friend right on top of the page - just arrived, in bold. (and I believe that at that moment the e-mails in my inbox were practically all from this person :P ) But he didn't say anything...whereas I hastily opened a new message (he was telling me to send an e-mail to someone). I wonder whether he actually noticed it :P

In the end, I guess I shall continue being paranoid.

Edit:
Oh yeah, my first week there, Rodrigo hadn't yet arrived, Guillaume and my tutor weren't there, and number 1 was out of the office most of the time. So I was basically lost in a deserted corner of the room. Luckily contact with the outside world was still possible :P

I even took some photos with my phone at a moment when no one was there (even number 3, which meant that I could see no one at all)

behind me

part of my desk, with my mouse (the one they lent me, of course...not my beloved minesweeping buddy :P )

desks number 2 and number 3

Oh, and now let's hope that no one finds my blog who shouldn't. Paranoia kicking in again. lol