office – Bitesized Writing

Ever since working from home became common, a new game emerged for me to play. Basically, it was: what makes my back hurt today? To be honest, I think in normal life my posture is quite good. Probably because I am pretty short and thus always need to look up anyway. And in general office equipment tends to be of a higher quality than the chairs I sit on at home. At least for work purposes.

When lockdown began, I actually sat a lot on the ground or laid in my studio. Because space was limited and work scarce, which actually made my hips and sides hurt more than my back. But once I actually found a regular job and started regularly working from home, it was my back’s turn to let me know of its existence.

I resisted bringing the proper chair from the office for quite some months before I capitulated and actually brought the high-quality one home. However, with my currently limited digital nomad life (basically just travelling between 2 cities that are 45 kilometers apart) I sit on a lot of different chairs while working. And although there are definitely high-quality chairs around me, I cannot always hog them to myself.

So today I made the ultimate compromise. I think this trend was hip about 10 years ago when we started paying more attention to the health and well-being of employees. It was the time when we were making fun of al the ‘strange’ contraptions companies came up with. Standing desks, biking desks, back cushions, feet rests and exercise balls. Yes, there seems to have been a time when we thought everyone would be bouncing around in office and behind their desks. Needless to say, it did not happen. But I bounced behind my desk today. So that is me finally hopping onto one trend.

I read an article today about our sense of smell and how it is generally undervalued. Mentioned briefly, but not expanded upon is the fact that smell plays a bigger role in non-Western cultures. I immediately was reminded of China, which is truly a country to be experienced by all 5 (or 6 if you have them) senses. A day experienced through the nose would be something like this:

Breakfast
About 50% if not more of Chinese eat their breakfast outside. Especially if you have gruelling 996 working hours, but that is something to discuss in more detail another time. You can find the food by smelling it. The small food carts and stalls where jianbing, youtiao and baozi are fried and steamed right in front of you. Even if you have had something at home, you may grab something extra, just because it smells so good.

Morning at the office
Because so many people get their breakfast on the way to the office, in the morning it is often a combination of different foods, hanging in the air. Combined with the damp office where everyone is inside most of the time and not always a window open because of pollution outside, this can be a less fun olfactory experience though.

Lunch
Just as you’re starting to smell the warmed up, home-cooked meals of your colleagues, you can often slip outside with some others to go lunch at a restaurant. A restaurant always has a strong smell of something being prepared, some spices hanging in the air if it is a good one.

Afternoon shopping
I do not know how they do it, but many shopping malls have the same smell. It is a slightly sweet smell, mixed with cleaning products and makes every mall you enter vaguely familiar. Maybe you will get something sweet, almost all cafes have a flowery, sweet scent that makes your teeth ache without eating their cakes. Looking for a toilet? You will smell it before seeing it, which is not always a good thing of course.

Grocery shopping
Many groceries can be bought at wet markets, but even super markets often have a ‘fresh’ section. This means that there will be many fishy, meaty and fruity smells pointing you to the right aisles. And for good measure, if you do not have the time to cook yourself, you will undoubtedly smell the oil and garlic of the instant-cooking section where you can get a snack or dish fully prepared to take away.

Dinner
Garlic, ginger and oil. Many Chinese dishes require a combination of these 3, and plenty of other spices and sauces of course, promising to have your kitchen smelling fantastic (if it all goes well) and your stove a mess. If successful, Chinese food is the kind where everyone will be taking a few deep sniffs of every dish before actually eating it.

Tag: office

Daily tidbits: What makes this hurt my back?

China: an olfactory journey