Office Max!

Last Sunday, due to my huge-ocity and my penchant for leaning way, way back in office chairs, I snapped the leg off of one of those cheap $79 Staples jobs, whereupon I went crashing backward, driving the chair into my back. Topping that off was the fact that I had no other office-style chairs in the house, so I’ve been sitting on a dining room chair all week.

In the office the locals have machines on their desks, made from clear plastic about the size of a cereal box. They fill them with water and you would see a plume of steam coming out of the machine. Initially I thought it was a rice cooker, but I was told they are for raising the humidity around a desk.

Today, he felt better. I ran out and got a Sunday paper because, well, we’ve still got a few people on our list who can’t just get earrings. I am done with my shopping, except for C himself, but we still have his family to accomplish. I shouldn’t talk so big — if I don’t get to knitting, I’ll be behind. Anyhow… OfficeMax had a SanDisk 2GB flash drive on sale. Since we both love flash drives — him for music, me as a back-up — we went and picked us up two.

The earth began to shift earlier this year with the revelation that Verizon Communications (nyse: VZ - news - people ) paid Hewitt Associates (nyse: HEW - news - people ) several hundred million dollars over the years for human resources work while Hewitt also served as the CEO compensation consultant. It's obvious that there is a potential conflict of interest for the consultant to recommend big pay packages for CEOs, who then direct consulting business back to the consulting firm. In today's climate, even the appearance of such a conflict is unacceptable.

The one major casualty was my trusty Brother fax machine, now dead as a doornail. It was not surge protected.

As a preface to the story you should know that I work in a small office and that I work for a Baptist organization. This all means that mostly all of the bosses are men and mostly all of the employees are white. I'll also put out there that I'm not racist just because 1) I am not and 2) I'd hate for you to think I am. I'm not going to go in to explaining all the ways I am not racist because when people do that they always end up sounding defensive and, well, racist. Okay, end of preface.

These truisms can help guide you in starting and running your small business. They represent lessons learned by entrepreneurs like yourself. The road to success will be much smoother by being aware of the messages they represent. Most of the truisms are accompanied with a supporting vignette based on a real business experience.

Next stop…a home furnishing chain that was closing a few offices and needed help packing. During many of my approximately three million trips across the office, my arms loaded with various office and computer supplies, I’d walk by people who were emptying out their desks. Several of them gave me looks that clearly said, “Oh my Lord in heaven, by next Monday my life may be as pathetic as yours.” Yes, yes it will, I said silently with a smile, while tripping on phone chords that were now lining the hallways. That job was fairly introspective. Most of the time was spent sitting in an office, disconnecting anything and everything. I was able to enjoy some human interaction at lunchtime, when I’d sit in the sun with the professional movers, devouring a Big Mac and sipping down Coke, as if my work throwing obsolete business cards in a trash bag was as exhausting as carrying industrial furniture on your back. “Long day, huh?” I’d say, reflecting on that binder clip that fell behind the copy machine.

In Google’s army of web office products, this is one that will seem strikingly different. JotSpot is also another example where the power and advantage of a web-based product has been put to good use. In the end, this is how I think web office will dominate traditional office: not by simply replacing and replicating, but by adding something that previously would not have been possible.