transitioning to a new office culture

i like my company's officue culture. very low-key. we do our work, keep late hours, and tend to keep to ourselves. all of us have ipods and crank it up when it's time to get down to serious work. dress requirements are pretty lax as long as you look presentable and fashionable. and we all have occasional days of rolling in looking like slobs.

moreover, we take care of ourselves- especially because we are a start-up with only four employees (in the NY branch). for example. . .the president makes her own travel plans, gets her own lunch, etc. our vp makes an occasional coffee run. etc.

moving into a new office space, i'm discovering some interesting habits and rules of the company we are subletting from.

1. people like to sing and play music in their office
i love jazz, but if i have to hear smooth jazz 4 days a week for years, i'm going to lose it.


2. there is serious lock down and security (i'm talking oceans 11 style with infrared motion detectors and stuff).
the first full week of being here, the pres and vp somehow contributed to setting of the alarm which alerted NYC police and key people from our subletter company. now we have to

3. they love committees!
they have a kitchen committee!! that decides when to clean out the fridge, what coffee to order, and everyone votes on it. and after we set off the alarm (see 2), some committee decided we will have a sign in sheet/sign out sheet to make sure no one has been locked in.

4. they love to talk and gossip
after we ordered our own water cooler, i had two people come ask me about it. .

Office Worker: ooo, i heard you guys got your own water!!! how nice!!

V: um, yea.

translation: how did you hear that? are you spying on us?

seriously though, everyone is super duper friendly and going out of their way to make us feel at home. . it's just that we sometimes prefer to not talk to anyone and hole up behind our office doors. . . in any case, it's a million steps up from maddyM at the last office. . tales of her to follow!!!