The Old Office Space

The remodeling of factory building #3 is nearly complete.   Soon we will vacate Factory Building #1 and move into our new space.  Here’s a quite tour of the old office space.

Heading up the stairs to the second floor.  “You are welcome again to Schumacher Elevator!”   ... and it ain’t Schumacher USA!  Bright red is the favorite color in China.  Bright blue is next, and all trim is gold or silver when possible.

Service, Purchasing and Marketing offices.

My office is all the way down the hall on the left.  The factory manager is at the end.

Halfway down the hall is the infamous bathroom with the squatty potty.

Entrance to my office.

So far I don’t have a lot of technical journals in my bookcase.  Check out the air conditioner.  It “conditions” the air in the summer and the winter.  Typical in China.

Conference room for my office.

Lunch time.  Around here they say “Tcher Fahn”, which means “Have lunch.”  I don’t know how to spell it in Chinese, but this is how to pronounce it.  Lunch time is a social time, but for me there is no talking because no one speaks English!  It’s still important for me to eat with them and be part of the group.  The Service Manager (gold glasses) knows about three English words.  The Engineering Manager (black glasses) knows about 1,000 English words, but he’s still pretty difficult to understand, because he hasn’t spoken English for ten years.

The ladies lunch table.  Sometimes I eat with them because I work closely with two of them, but I feel weird eating at the women’s table.  The young lady with the purple sweater speaks a little English, for which I am very grateful.  The rest just smile!