David Godfrey

His Work: Traffic Engineering Manager

 “I feel like I have a responsibility to the other people out here because if my shades are drawn then that’s like cutting off their light.”

Mr. Godfrey describes to me a consideration I haven’t heard in any other interviews. “I feel like I have a responsibility to the other people out here because if my shades are drawn then that’s like cutting off their light.” He tells me he both likes it and feels obligated to keep the shades open. His office is against the wall of the building past an open area of cubicles so if he has his shades open than the light pours into the rest of the building.

 David Godfrey says it gets nice and bright here and I notice the overhead lights are off so I ask him if he uses his lights. He tells me typically he doesn’t unless he is here at night or really early in the morning during the winter. “99% of the time there’s plenty of outdoor light.” “That’s a plus of having windows.”

Mr. Godfrey tells me that he doesn’t have many personal items. He says “that’s one thing I think is kind of strange. I don’t know it seems like most people have more—I don’t have that much personal stuff here.” “There’s two kind of people as I’m sure you’ve discovered there’s the messy people and the neat people at least that’s my theory from looking around here, and I’m more of a messy kind of person. But I like that system in a way.” He tells me “every once in awhile I’ll just go through it and throw stuff away but it kind of works for me better than doing a lot of filing.”  “There’s a lot of dust and dirt in here and maybe that’s a side of my personal life that I bring here but it’s not worth it to me to try and clean it up, it’s too boring. But I think if it were really tidy I might like it better but I don’t really know.”  Mr. Godfrey says it works for him.

I ask him if he likes his workspace and he says “yeah, I guess so, sure. I mean like what changes would I make in a perfect world or something?” He takes a minute to think about it and says “it’d probably make me feel better if it were more tidy but again I’m not that motivated to do it. Otherwise I like the view.”  Mr. Godfrey shows me little pieces of tape in the corner of the window where he has marked spots that show where the sun comes up. “I really like looking out the window, I like facing the window and I like having the window that’s really great. I wish the view was a little nicer in terms of like the parking lot so you can sometimes see policeman doing their thing.”

I ask how he feels when he’s working here “I would say I feel pretty comfortable. I’m more of a person who likes to be by themselves than like a person who gains energy from a group. So I feel like I can come in here and if I feel like it I can give easy indications that I don’t want anybody talking to me right now although I rarely do that actually, but at least it’s possible.” “I think I feel comfortable.”

 I ask David Godfrey about the work environment he feels he works best in and he tells me “I found that I like having music on.” “I kind of like the ability to, unless I’m really sunken into something I kind of like to hop around from thing to thing a little bit.” “I really like being able to look outside. I like to have a connection with the outside. I just happen to have had that all of the time that I’ve been here pretty much so I don’t really have a good before and after” but he tells me that he perceives it to be really important. “I guess I do like the right to be kind of sloppy if I want to be” I say that I understand everyone has their own work style and you have to do what works for you. Mr. Godfrey says he could see someone coming in and hassling him about the orange peels or plates etc but “there’s really no need to hassle me. It doesn’t look professional but nobody comes in here accept the people I’m working with and if that’s what it takes to convince them that I’m professional that’s pretty bad. So if I’m usually meeting with people most of the time I would meet with them in a conference room or something.”

Mr. David Godfrey has worked for the city for the past 15 years. He tells me “this is a good fit with this particular job between my interests and my values and the values of the community are kind of together. So that makes it satisfying.” “I kind of like the engineering side of it but there’s also a service side to it working for the city. And you’re working with everyday things.” “It’s stuff you can actually touch and feel.” “Things you can see and touch and feel.”