Judson Adams

His Work: Build Engineer (within a large software company)

“It’s just a cube. It’s a place where I can come in and spend 8 hours of my day which pays for everything else in my life. I would like to have window, I don’t have one.” “It’s a means to an end.”

 Judson Adams tells me about his workspace and says “I’ve modified the environment to more of my liking. I’m deaf in one ear so I like to be able to have my good ear facing outside so people don’t just come and start talking to me and not realize that I have no idea they’re talking to me. Also, having this view I have a better idea on what’s going on.” He shows me the normal default setup and how he changed it. He took an entire desk out and switched things around. He says it “opens it up a bit and makes it a little nicer.” “I brought in photos and I brought in my plants which I’m trying to continue to let live, I’m doing a pretty good job.” Ms. Adams tells me that as far as the cube walls go that “things get stuck up there forgotten about.” “The desks are variable in height so if I want I can raise this or lower it. I’ve seen people be able to stand at them and I’ve done that in the past. I’ve got bad cabling right now so I can’t do it.” “I’ve got two monitors on my desk top and my laptop.” I ask him about the personal items like the plant, if he had any intentions to make the space feel different. Mr. Adams says “no, I didn’t have a place for that plant at home.” 

I ask Judson Adams if he likes his workspace and he says “I’m not a cube fan, too much noise. Deaf in one ear I am unable to filter out noises so it can be a little distracting whereas offices would allow you to have a little bit more focus time.” “Lighting in cube worlds or in offices are normally bad but in offices you could have more free standing lamps because the space is a little bit larger.” I ask him if he is looking forward to having an office someday maybe and he replies “if it ever happens, it happens.”

Mr. Adams says “the benefit of the cube is more of a teamwork atmosphere since you can look over and talk to somebody instead of going and find their office and seeing if they’re in there. There are things like tossing these darts that make it a little bit more enjoyable but at the same time the benefits are not as much as the noise and what not. It’s has a lack of benefits.”

When I ask Judson Adams how he feels working in his workspace here he replies “fine. I’ve got everything I need to get the work done.”  I ask to tell me about the tools he needs to get the work done. He says “we’ve got webcam, we have instant messaging that’s tied into phone systems so you can do voice over IP, wherever you are. I can take my laptop at home and still have my phone calls answered at my laptop. The technology that’s available here gives you the power to do whatever you need.” “There are a lot of tools that are out there. Wherever I am I can be on the [company name] network.” Mr. Adams tells me that whenever he logs on through his laptop that he is on their network which means that he can be sitting on the bus or an airplane and work remotely if he needs to.

Judson Adams tells me a little about his general attitude towards work. He explains “I think with work I’m always learning and that’s one of my chief goals. If you stop learning you get stagnant and then why go to work.”

I ask about the community here and he tells me “The group here is pretty tight knit.” They got a new boss back in September so they are still learning him, but the fact that he is over in another building makes it a little difficult. Judson Adams says “as a group we try to help each other out and make sure that if something needs attention that it gets the attention it deserves.” They do IMs, emails, meetings, and casual walk bys. He works on his own projects independently and they have their own independent scheduling, but they are available to help one another if they need some support. Judson Adams tells me that he has been working here as a Build Engineer for a little over a year and that prior to this he was a sub-contractor for the same company for three years.