What an observation week looks like at a workplace notice board

A workplace information board is not a civic forms hall. People pass it on the way to a kettle. They open it because a pay notice is rumoured, or because the old paper sheet used to hang on that exact wall. An observation week here is mostly standing, not interviewing.

I ask for a chair that does not block the corridor. I note the hours the building actually fills, which are not always the hours printed on the door. I watch whether people open the board on a phone while walking, or only on the shared machine that still sits where the sheet was.

Duplicates show quickly. Three versions of the same canteen change will produce a skip map that looks like boredom and is actually clutter. The office manager often wants a ranking of which department is “ignored.” We will not draw that. We will draw which notices are glanced at and which are opened, with titles, not authors.

The week ends when I have seen an ordinary Monday and at least one quiet afternoon. If the building empties on Friday at three, a Friday-only sheet would lie. The ledger then carries a plate of passing glances, which is a humble thing and often the only honest picture of a board that replaced paper.