Back when the PHX office was on Camelback, I had a pokey little office with a modest-sized desk. It was a basic metal type of thing, with a few small drawers and not much of a top for the screen and the keyboard. When we moved to the new place on Indian School Rd, the office I got was triple in size, which seemed to shout ‘get a real proper desk, no rubbish!” I did some research as to the one I might get, but this careful study was made redundant when I discovered the previous occupant of the office, the chief attorney of a departing law firm, had left behind his/her desk – so I inherited it. It is a king-sized-titanic-unsinkable-Molly Brown entity, as wide as a boat. It makes me feel quite butch and masterful to sit beside it (insert bad Freudian-type joke here). On the negative, the two chairs for patients on the other side of are a tad too far away. The patient and I would have to stand up and lean forward to shake hands if people did that sort of thing anymore. There should be some space between therapist and patient but not this much. All the same I like its ‘feel’, for it is made of proper wood and not out of some sort of plastic with a veneer of ersatz wood that peels in time.*

Nowadays most folks don’t have ‘desks’ but ‘workplaces’, an extension of a cubicle, with just enough tabletop for a computer monitor, a keyboard, some speakers, and one or two knickknacks to give it a personal touch. More’s the pity, as most of us spend a lot of time at work, sitting at desk, which is an extension of ourselves. At your desk you feel the captain of a proverbial ship as it were.

The previous owner of said desk had it face outwards that sitting allowed me to look out at the mountains, but I found this distracting from work, so I steered the boat around so it faces the opposite direction. Now the patients look past me out the window. Much better! This also allows the patient to get up and out without having to go through me first. One of the basic rules of interviewing people (especially patients) is never put yourself between them and the door out, lest they feel trapped and need to go through you on the way out.

If the The Overlords ever decide to be rid of me, I will leave the S.S. Spo behind for the next Joe to make it his or her own. Another ‘plus’ of the thing is it has a ‘full front’ which allows me to take my shoes off without being seen by the others across the desk. Oh the embarrassment.

*That type of desk resides in my MESA office. It’s pseudo-wood covering is peeling and makes it look cheap. ‘Should have bought German’, as Spos like to say to something going to pot.