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Patricia Schreiner's avatar

Glad you posted this. As my kids moved into the workforce after college I remember marveling at Ali’s company that had created nooks and crannies around the multi acre campus for folks to work in if they needed a break from an office mate. And then

I freaked out as my son described his Twitter workspace where most had no office nor cubby, but could move around at large tables as the feeling hit them. Where do you put your stuff? While I always prided myself as a collaborator, this boomer introvert wanted a place I could go, to call my own.

I love your idea of the picnic table, for human interaction and creative collaboration, as long as I had a place to hide.

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Sabrina Simpson's avatar

Thanks for those descriptions Patti! Like you, I needed/need my own space to anchor and settle and let my creativity come out. And I also crave collaboration and the sparks that fly when in conversation with others. Sounds like Ali’s place respected the variety of needs we each have. Also, different types of people have different work styles; good employers enable that. I would t have done well with the full-time

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Sabrina Simpson's avatar

Sorry-hit wrong button. Delete that last part sentence! And thanks again for your comment Patti!

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Andrea Eschen's avatar

This article almost made me want to go back to the office to try out this wonderful idea. But I'll leave that to someone else.

I enjoyed reading this because your creativity and thoughtfulness in the work place shine. Also, it describes a piece of the past in another part of your life. Amazing that despite how close we, and the others, remain, there are still big chunks of our lives we don't know about each other.

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Rebecca Holden's avatar

Oh, this is such a lovely idea - I'd never thought about anything like this. Amazing! I need a picnic table in my life...! Thank you for this lovely post, Sabrina!

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Sabrina Simpson's avatar

Thanks as always for your kind feedback Rebecca. I wish I had a photo of the original picnic table to include. It was a beloved well-weathered grey redwood plank table. I got to keep one of the benches, and it lived with me as a favourite perch in the garden until I moved to the UK. I think everyone needs a wooden bench to perch on.

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Rebecca Holden's avatar

Sabrina, I love that you gave one of the benches a home - that's gorgeous!

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Sabrina Simpson's avatar

Thanks Andrea! I agree-It has been wonderful to discover the parts of our lives that diverged so interestingly after starting out on similar paths.

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