First, may I say how glad I am that our office furniture is upholstered in microfiber. N.Lo is prone to making quite a mess with his meals, and if not for microfiber and all its stain-resistant glory, I might be looking into our tarp supplier for a full office treatment. As it is, we have our raincoat supplier handy in the Rolodex.

Secondly, I am not generally a fan of white noise. I don't like buzzing flourescent lights, I don't like bathroom fans, and I don't really notice it while it's on, but once the heat or air conditioning is turned off, I suddenly feel peaceful. Like I can really think, and hear. However, considering our recent escalation of Night Shift Issues, I have come to really appreciate, even seek out white noise. White noise masks so much, like creaking floorboards, and coughing, and dogs shaking their coats. We are not intending to train our employees to be easily disrupted on the Night Shift, but certain jolts of noise at the wrong time of night, and an employee can so easily be thrown off-kilter. Just waiting for it to happen is stressful, and without white noise, not only am I prone to a constant undertone of over-sensitivity to noise, but I hear too much. A murmur or shout here or there and I am wide awake, ready and ready to be frustrated at a request for assistance. The past few nights, the weather has been freakishly warm for winter outside our offices and windows have been open, the air off. And it is. Too. Darn. Quiet. I have slept with a pillow over my head some of those nights, and last night finally voiced my annoyance to the CEO, who suggested we just turn on the system's fan, without heat or cold, and that worked well.

On order is a white noise machine for the employees' workspace, as we prepare for them to officially join forces. The hope is that all those tiny rumblings, even if they weren't going to be a problem, really won't be a problem in creating big interruptions on the Night Shift. I'm thinking of it as insurance.