The gloom of break rooms

Ah, yes it is familiar isn't it? The office break room. They all seem to look alike and they are all equally depressing.

What is it about break rooms that affect me so? Is it the dim lighting? The linoleum floors? I think that's part of it. Along with the crappy table that most likely needed to be replaced long ago, the strange smells that come in and out throughout the day. The beeping of the microwave and tupperware that we all whip out when we are attempting to save money and not eat out so much.



I think in my early days of working the break room just rubbed in the fact that I was working at a crappy job. When it was lunch time, I'd sit in a wobbily chair and stare at the limited tv channels on a broken tv only to realize that the shift was pacing oh so slow.



Now, even though I have left the retail jobs behind and have completed college and grad school so that I can work in areas that have more meaning to me, the break room is still a horror.

Does anyone else feel this way? Is it odd that I should be this scarred by one little room? I admit that the rooms make me feel closed in. I think they are reminders of the fact that no matter how much you like your job or no matter how hard you worked to get it, we all have to spend most of hour lives at work rather than doing other things.

So, what's the solution? Well, I haven't actually discussed this with anyone as I doubt many others have this problem.

I actually avoid going into the break room if I can. If I need to refrigerate something then I have to go into it but I usually rather eat at my desk.

But I guess it just bugs me that I am so bothered by this. It seems silly. Sometimes I think that I'm being too sensitive to something so minor and on other occasions I think that I am perceptive to the details of an environment that others might not be. Hmmm....