[24th graduate] [Shikoku Office] I tried office relocation work [Miyoshi City, Tokushima Prefecture]

2024.07.03

table of contents

1 Introduction
2 overview
3 Advance preparation
4 Day 1
5 Day 2
- 5.1 Work2-1: Assembly
- 5.2 Work2-2: Drain all the water from the pond
6 Final day (third day)

Introduction

My name is Okarin and I joined Beyond as a new graduate this year.
I joined the Shikoku office and the first job I did was this relocation.
In this article, I'd like to write about the office relocation process from the perspective of a new graduate who doesn't know what to do.

overview

The relocation work this time involved moving luggage from the old office, Masaumi Ryokan, to the new office, which is about a five-minute walk away, and doing some light DIY work.
The new office is a tranquil office renovated from an old Japanese house.

*For more information about the old office, please see previous articles written by other members

[Business trip report] Infrastructure engineer to Shikoku office (Miyoshi City, Tokushima Prefecture)

[Come here] I went on a business trip to the Beyond Shikoku office 🏕️! ! ! !![Awa Ikeda]

took
three days , excluding preparations In addition to the three people from the Shikoku office, including myself, Osaka and Yokohama came to help with the relocation.
This blog is about the relocation process from the perspective of a new graduate.

Advance preparation

As part of our preparations, we moved some of our belongings to a location where they would be easier to carry.
We didn't move large desks or other items that would be needed by a large number of people, but we mainly carried out the extra monitors and chairs.

It didn't take long to transport and sort each item

If I had to pick one thing that took the longest time to prepare,
it would be " preparation ."

After joining Beyond as a new graduate, I underwent training in Osaka for three months.
After completing the training in mid-June, I moved to Miyoshi City, where the Shikoku office is located.

two business days since I arrived in Miyoshi City.
Before I knew it, the day for the moving process had arrived, without me knowing anything.
I had been told in advance that "moving work will be done" and "people will be coming from Osaka and other places during the moving process."

The people dispatched to the company were surrounded by superiors,
some of whom had looked after them during their training and had a deep relationship with them.
For some reason, the pressure kept me up at night, and
finally, the day arrived.

Day 1

Unfortunately, the first day started under cloudy skies as it was the rainy season.
The work began in the afternoon when the people from Osaka joined us!

Work1-1: Carrying out

The morning began with the task of removing belongings from the old office.
The hardest thing to move was the long desk. It was obviously impossible to do it alone. Even with two or three people, it was so heavy that it was difficult to lift it.
However, the power of numbers is great. Working together with senior employees, we were able to carry it from the second floor to the first floor.

As I carried my belongings and worked up a sweat, the question sometimes crossed my mind: "Am I really a recent graduate at an IT company?" However, I didn't let that stop me; rather, I decided to work even harder

After moving out most of the belongings, the old office was left with almost no belongings and a clean space.
The only thing I regret is that I was only able to work in the old office for three business days.
However, on the other hand, this I had been there in the new office since the beginning . At this point, I decided to put even more effort into the relocation process.

Work 1-2: Assembly

The next task was assembling chairs and vacuum cleaners for use in the workplace

I had a realization while assembling chairs purchased from a certain furniture store with a senior employee

Before the relocation, I was assigned the task of creating a work procedure manual as part of my training. During the process, I received a suggestion to "write it clearly, describe what the results will be, and make it easier to understand."

How will making the instructions easier to understand affect users and subscribers?

I was extremely lucky to realize this while working in a completely different field

Work 1-3: Weeding

Once we had finished assembling most of the items, the next task was weeding. The area we had to work on
was mainly the parking lot behind the office.
There was a lot of lush greenery, and

we started working while thinking, "If it's growing this much, it would be quicker to just burn it," and
"Maybe it would be better to spray herbicide."

I think we were lucky in this case that the parking lot was gravel, not dirt

The gravel prevented the roots of the plants from reaching deep enough.
If it had been soil, I can't imagine how difficult it would have been. I
would have probably spent all three days weeding.

The weeds were pulled out one by one at a good pace.
Those that could not be pulled out or were too long were cut with a sickle.
We continued working until the time was up, chatting with the seniors who had worked with us.

When the time came and the work was finished,
the surrounding area was an idyllic scene of piled up weeds and the indescribable smell of plants.

After washing our hands, the first day of the relocation work was over

Afterwards, they held a drinking party to thank me for my efforts.
Although there was some tension, I think it was a very enjoyable event.

Day 2

, it was cloudy again that day.
The second day of work began in unfortunate weather.

Work2-1: Assembly

The first task on the second day was assembling the remaining items.
The first thing we did was to assemble the kitchen rack.
This took relatively little time to complete.

After collecting the trash from other work areas,
the next thing we did was set up the tents.

Tents in IT company offices?

It's understandable that you might be thinking,
"What are you talking about all of a sudden?" I had the same thought when I was assembling it.

The tent and camping chairs were set up in no time

These spaces appear to have been created as rest areas for people working outside.
The tents provided protection from the harsh sunlight that had started to shine in as the weather cleared, and chairs were placed in areas where there had previously been no place to rest.
The result was a super chill space, hard to believe it was located behind an IT company.
However, I had work to do next, so I enjoyed the space and then moved on.

Work2-2: Drain all the water from the pond

The part of this relocation that I enjoyed the most and put the most effort into
cleaning the pond .

The new office has a tranquil veranda and a pond, creating a truly chill space.
This will be reborn by the hands of artisans later, but that's another story.
This time, we were tasked with carrying out the preparatory work.

The team started with the large pieces of trash that had been floating on the surface of the water the previous day already having been removed by another member of staff

I put on the waterproof pants I had ordered the previous week, similar to jumpsuits, that I could wear up to my waist even if they got wet

The depth was about knee-deep.
There was a smell, but the mud that had accumulated at my feet was sand-like. My feet didn't get buried in it, so I was able to move around without any problems.

a bucket in hand
, we started by draining all the water from the pond.

Unfortunately, this project was nothing like the famous scene from The Karate Kid.
It was quite a workout.

At first, it was difficult to get the machine to work properly, but it gradually became more optimized with each trial.
Cooperation with the senior employees who helped us also went smoothly, and we were able to drain the water from the pond faster than expected.

The next step is to remove the sludge that has settled at the bottom of the pond.
Using a large shovel held in both hands, the sludge is scooped up and removed from the bottom of the pond.

The sludge this time was not the usual gooey kind, but rather a smooth texture like sea sand.
With
that thought in mind, I got to work with the shovel and removed the sludge.

In the sludge, we could see dragonfly larvae.
Feeling the summer coming, we continued our work in silence for several minutes.

The bottom of the pond was cleared of sandy sludge, and the water that couldn't be scooped up with a bucket was also removed....It
reminded me somehow of cleaning a swimming pool.

After cleaning up and receiving words of praise from my senior colleagues, today's work came to an end.
On the second day, I was able to sleep comfortably, although I was unhappy with the muscle pain that would likely appear from the next day onwards.

Final day (third day)

Today is the last day of the move.
The new office is almost completely tidy and looks completely different, but there is still work to be done.

Work3-1: Varnishing

On the last day, the first job was to varnish the front entrance, which
involved removing dust and cobwebs and then applying the varnish.

At first, I was slow at varnishing and struggled to catch up with the experienced workers who had been in charge the day before.
However, I gained experience in a variety of tasks during these three days.

It wasn't an immediate success, but I was able to improve to a level that looked decent in a relatively short time. I
then took some varnish onto the brush and applied it to the wall repeatedly, and finally finished varnishing the front entrance.

While painting, I wondered if the color would be okay, but when it dried, lo and behold, the
wooden entrance hall had been transformed into a beautiful space.

Work3-2: Moss removal

Yesterday, we literally drained all the water from the pond and almost completely removed the sludge, but there was still work to be done:
removing the moss growing along the edge of the pond.

Using the power of the flowing water from the hose, we used a deck brush to steadily remove the moss from the edges.
Some of the moss was growing in awkward places, and we often struggled with how much force to apply. It
was a tough battle to remove.

However, someone else who had free time offered to help.
I left the hose with him, and I focused on the deck brush and continued working.
We divided the work and polished the pond for a few minutes.

The wabi-sabi pond has now become as beautiful as if it had just been built

The moss that had floated on the water when the pond was washed was also properly removed, and work related to the pond was finished for the time being.
Later, killifish were released into the pond.

Work 3-3: Weeding

The next task was a continuation of the first day,
dealing with the weeds that appeared during the weeding work.

It may seem like a simple task of simply putting the pulled weeds into bags, but it wasn't as easy as it seemed

As I wrote in my review of each day, the weather was unfortunately bad on the first and second days.
The weeds I pulled were soaked with water that they were quite heavy.
What's more, even though the ground was gravel, it had rained and was muddy.
As a result, it took more effort than pulling them out.

If it had only been the typical weeds that we imagine, I don't think it would have been that hard.
However, among the weeds we pulled this time, there were several that were growing very well, and were so large and had hard stems that they looked like shrubs.
When we put them in the bags, we had to break off the hard stems, but the recoil from breaking them splashed water and mud all over them.

In the end, there were so many bags that they could not be counted on the fingers of both hands.
Seeing the bags, which were so full they looked as if they were about to burst, I imagine that all the weeding workers felt a sense of accomplishment and fatigue.
And so the three-day relocation work came to an end.