First off, you need to know that I work at a local newspaper as a photo tech. Our parent company was recently bought out by another company and the whole place is going through changes - new paint on the walls, cleaning things up, etc. Most of the changes have been barely noticeable, except for the paint, which is a vast improvement over wood panelling, lol. Anyways...

So I get into work today and the arrangement of the desks in my corner of the newsroom is different. There's a new reporter and he's where I used to be and the desk I'm in now is on the other side of his...facing the wall. I don't care that it's smaller by a bit, I don't care that it's moved over a bit, BUT I CAN'T STAND FACING THE WALL. It's making me really uncomfortable and I don't like the fact that my coworkers can't easily motion to me when they need something. Because I can't see them, I can no longer wear my earbuds, which really, really pisses me off because I have misophonia and I need to block the noises if something's getting to me. This is going to be a long night and the boss isn't here, so I can't really talk to him right now, other than an email, but I'd rather wait to talk to him in person, because an email can be ignored. My one other coworker says she doesn't think it'll be changed though. But if they don't change it, this might be the last straw that pushes me over the quitting edge.

Anyone else have idiotic changes at work or elsewhere they can't stand? Any ideas on what I could say to change the boss's mind?

I worked at a buffet for a while and we changed how we did the entire assembly line for pizza to enable the making of gluten free pizza.

Don't get me wrong I understand some people genuinely can't eat gluten but it took about 35 minutes to make a gluten free pizza and when you have some scrawny teenager screaming at you for her 'dietary needs' that you can't quickly accommodate (we didn't keep gluten free pizza dough on hand because it went bad quickly and was expensive to produce) but then she'd go grab regular pizza off the buffet because she was 'too hungry'. it made you want to strangle them.

Ended up quitting over it b/c we got a new GM who was a total asshole.

Maybe if you go to him with a suggestion on where else to sit, or even find someone willing to swap, it'll make him more likely to change it... not that anyone else would want to face the wall lol. And highlighting how it's negatively impacting your work will help - if you really are on the verge of quitting you could tell him "I can't work like this" and mean it!

My workplace (online retailer warehouse) makes stupid changes every fucking week. It's good that they try new things out, but sometimes they don't think shit through; usually an improvement in one area is at the huge cost of another. Recently the quality department started moving the fucking inventory around, EVERYDAY, creating errors, just to see if us problem solvers are able to find and fix it 100% of the time. I'm starting a new job as a lab analyst next week, so fuck that.

I would suggest phrasing everything so that it goes back to your productivity as I think they would be more inclined to do something if it is going to affect the way you work and how much you get down. i.e. tell them it's difficult for you to communicate with coworkers and so forth.

I worked at a public library and when we got a new assistant librarian who was in charge of the pages (I was one of four pages) and she changed the entire system of how we worked, switched times, how our posted schedule looked, in short everything. She made our lives more difficult and, after three months, started getting lax on her changes. Our entire system was upheaved for something that she maintained for less than three months and I about pulled out my hair.

You could bring a small mirror to work and put it on your desk, that way you should be able to see what's happening behind you at least.

I agree, sometimes changes are very difficult to accept.

Pretty sure that quitting a job, especially in this job market, just because you're now facing the wall is really, really over-the-top.

's suggestion of bringing a mirror is a good idea. You might be able to make small changes yourself.

Believe me, I know about the job market being total crap. It's not just because of facing the wall. This is just kind of the straw that broke the camel's back, you know? It's a lot of little things that have just added up. I'm keeping it for now, just until I find something else, but I have a couple of possibilities now so I'm hoping I won't be here for long.

That's not a bad idea at all. Maybe I'll give that a shot. Thanks.

Oh, I hear you, I'm currently looking at new jobs as my present place has just had a 'brainwave' and has moved to 'rolling rotas' and weekend work.
Did they get in weekend staff? Nope, everyone else has to cover the new hours! Not happy.

Good luck finding something better or sorting the situation.

I actually just sent in an application for a different place today, so fingers crossed that it goes through. Good luck to you as well!