Hangers and Pennies

I started a new job today. It was full of excitement, as all first days of employment are -- filling out paper work, struggling to remember names, learning the "style" of the place, and setting up my work area.

As I was looking through the drawers of my new desk I found myself rooting through the detritus of my predecessor. I found:

a single Marlboro Light
a half book of matches
three screwdrivers
a Budweiser bottle cap
a metro card with $3.50 left on it
receipts
five loose Alleve

Unlike the drawers and "utility" closets of our homes, which are usually just filled with junk and laziness, I think the kinds of things we accumulate in our work desks are interesting -- even telling. Now, I'm not going to sit here and try to extrapolate what kind of a person used to sit at my desk based on the things I listed. I will say that I can understand the lone cigarette, the trace of beer, and the loose meds. But three screwdrivers?

I guess the contents of your desk could represent the kind of relationship you have with your workplace, your colleagues, your current state of mental health. And, it follows that the things you leave behind, in you little desk drawer, are the cast offs -- the stress, uncertainty, or anguish of your job or situation. Like a snake shedding its skin, we start anew.

I should also note that I found a pair of pants in a file cabinet.

Do with that what you will.