My New Digs

Its with great sadness that I say good-bye to my former office, and hello to my new one. I no longer have to drive to Monroeville to go to work (a commute that is roughly 35 miles each way and takes, on average, 1 hour each way to travel). Now, with my new office in Cranberry, my commute is about 1.5 miles and takes me 7 minutes to travel, each way. Sad, I know, but I'll live through it. I think the 7 minutes was a bit too long, too, because I parked too far from my building and the only traffic light that is now on the path was red when I got to it. I think I can make the drive in 5.

Our work organization finally made the move to the new Westinghouse headquarters building in Cranberry this past weekend. I've been waiting for this since the first day on the job, over a year and a half ago. The new building is something like $200 million and seats 4,000 people. So, I'm one of those 4,000 that has a new office to use and so close to home I can nearly see it from the windows.

Since I've been taking my truck to work 99% of the time, the fuel costs have been high. I filled up on average every 4 days, and with a 21 gallon tank, I was spending upwards of $275 a month just in gas to get to work. Now, I'll be surprised if I spend that much in 6 months.

The new building is amazing. It has over 1 million square feet of office space in 3 buildings (the 4th one is under construction and will add another 200,000 or so square feet) and, floor to ceiling (including all furniture) is brand new.

This has its pros and cons. First, the pros-- its like getting a new car. The smell is new, the windows are perfectly clean, the bathrooms are spotless, and you are afraid to do anything to it to mess it up. No dust, no stains, no scratches, nothing. The cons: well, all the bugs are still being worked out.

For example, in a rush to get into the elevator to get to my floor (3rd), the motion sensors in the door didn't work , so I got mostly through when the doors trapped me in its grasp. Luckily, the pressure sensors picked up on this and opened the doors, else I would be cut in half vertically as the elevator decided to ascend to the upper floors. That would have been the first unfortunate stain on the new marble floors. Second, the bathroom lighting is controlled by motion detectors. This is great until you get in a stall... the motion detector is positioned just a bit "inconvenient" as it cannot detect you when you sit. Thus, after a minute or so (unless someone else enters the bathroom), the motion detector sees nothing moving, and lights out! You are then forced to wave your arms or something to get the lights to come back on, making your "visit" a rather entertaining experience.

So, the new building is a home away from home, really. Aside from the typical office, the company has done a lot to keep its people happy, which (for the most part) I am. It has a "Wellness Center" where you go to get "well"-- e.g., its an indoor gym that includes weight-lifting, treadmills and the like, various odd exercise machines that pull and stretch you in various directions, instructed classes you can take throughout the day designed to make you sweat, yoga, etc. Once done, you can take a shower or take a steam in the sauna. Yoga is definitely "out" for me, fortunately. I find it weird to believe that I can bend backwards, stand on my face, and feel good about it later.

The building has a full-service cafeteria: grill for all the grilled foods; salad/soup bars; Japanese grill (I assume this is for anything that is Japenese on the menu-- sushi and the like); deli; pizza/Italian bar; a homestyle section (for things like fried chicken, meatloaf, and those kinds of items); "treehugger" bar (I call it this because it serves things like hummus, olive bar, and those kinds of granola-style entrees that you'd see hippies eating); drink all over the place; and a dessert bar. Menu changes daily for each of these.

Outside has a basketball court, volleyball court (beach style), hiking and biking trails, a large pond with fountain (they'll soon see me in my waders with my fly rod standing in it), and an outdoor patio for eating (umbrellas included).

A childcare/preschool center is located in one section. This is either for your kids, or for those people that are so dumb they need an educational refresher.

And, the infamous "stress room", which has pool and ping-pong tables, bigscreen TVs with video-games, leather sofas and recliners, etc.

All I can say is... someone's got to do it! Bear in mind, though, that very few of the amenities are free. Most cost me something.

Oh yeah, and we make nuclear power plants on the side.

At any rate, the move is done and I'm now permanently stationed in Cranberry, a stone's-throw away from my home. It can't get any better than this.

Oh, one more con: the main hallway leading to my building from the main entrance has a large photo advertising Westinghouse capabilities. The background of the advertisement is Jackson Lake with the Tetons behind it. Its big enough that I feel like I can step into it and suddenly be within 50 miles of Idaho Falls and my previous home. That can be hard to see at times. I'd feel better about it if it was a photo of the INL site, sagebrush and all, with the phrase, "Smile... you could still be here" written across it.