Katy Coleman

Her Work: Development Engineering Analyst

“I spend so much time here that, you have to make it comfy for you. And I literally have spent a good portion of life here, right here.”

Katy Coleman has worked for this city within Public Works for over 20 years. “I used to sit over there and I moved here. A former co-worker sat here before and she retired and passed away. So I think about her a lot sitting here because this was her workspace and I have her photo right here.” “We were really close.” “I was, after I heard you were coming, and I was like well what do I have on my walls? And I have a lot of non-work related stuff on my walls, sort of funny things—the crazy cat lady action figure” and a few other personal items like these delicate Tibetan prayer flags and some plants. Ms. Coleman says “It’s functional. I got everything I need. I just got a new chair, the old one broke finally.” She has a large plant near the front of her cubicle and she says “the plant acts as a screen” so that provides her with some privacy.

I ask Ms. Coleman to tell me about her workspace. She says “It’s rectangular in shape with cloth covered walls.” “it’s good parts are that I have a lot of natural like coming from that clerestory up there and it really makes a difference the plants love it.” “It’s really nice and open. The bad part is its really noisy right here. I hear everything at the counter. See this curve in the ceiling here? It carries sounds over. People standing over there” (a fellow employee is walking towards that area and offers to demonstrate) “if I’m just sitting here and I’ll be working away and all of a sudden Ill hear him. He can talk really soft.” Katy Coleman tells me it’s like the whispering wall. “I’d like to say I’ve gotten used to it but I think, I don’t know maybe I’m getting older, but it’s a lot harder for me to concentrate now with all the noises. I used to be able to block it out a little better.” My chair sits closer to the open area so I can hear even more sound bouncing off the curved ceiling. I feel that I can hear about 10 whispering conversations so I can understand what she means.

Kay Coleman tells me a little about the different experiences she’s had with different workspaces. “We used to have an open area and we all sat at open desks, we didn’t have cubicles. And then after a remodel we all got cubicles and that was a big deal.” She tells me it was such a big deal and that everyone thought ‘ooooh a cubicle!’ I ask her if that was exciting? She says “oh yeah, It was such a step up. My husband gave me this plant, and it was only about this big, as a cubicle warming gift.” “life is funny I mean you think about how you start and the things that were such a big deal to you and now I would just love an office with a door.” She laughs, smiles, and speaks with a warm tone. “It is kind of nice to have a little private place to go even relatively speaking.”

Ms. Coleman explains to me that when they were remodeling in the early 1990’s she moved down to the annex building. “I had the greatest spot I was sitting right by the front window, my desk was right there.” “I could see the lake and the trees and I could look at the crows fly around—and I got more work done. It was a beautiful view, it was the best.”  She tells me that “it’s an old building with cool windows and everything, and it just has a lot of character so it just had a good feel to it. It wasn’t a modern building like this. Wood and old fashioned windows.”  She jokes and says “I’m a window, freak I like my daylight.”  

Katy Coleman says she likes the height of the cubicle walls and that the taller ones can feel a bit claustrophobic. She tells me about a building with high cubicle walls and a low ceiling and she says “It was sort of creepy like a maze.” She says that in this office “they purposefully, they want the cube walls this high so that you can see across it and see windows and daylight.”

I ask if she likes her workspace and she says “yeah accept the noise is the part that is probably the worst. Everything else I’m ok with it. I’m sure there are nicer workspaces but I like the light. I don’t like the noise but I’m used to the people coming and going and asking me questions because it’s just what I’ve been doing for so long. The drawback to being in an office with a door is that you’re not in the middle of things anymore and you get used to being in the middle of things. So yeah I mostly like it, it’s a little hard to get things done occasionally.”

I ask Ms. Coleman to describe the work environment she feels she works best in and she says “I like a work environment where I like the people. None of this would work if the people weren’t right. You can put up with a lot of uncomfortable work areas if you like your co-workers.” “As far as the physical where to work, I guess being really enclosed- I don’t like that feeling. I’m used to the openness and I like that.”

Asking Ms. Coleman to put her experience with her work into a few words she replies “steady, secure job. But it’s unpredictable enough that it keeps you interested.” “It’s low stress. It’s not a stressful job.”