John26

I had the most bizarre experience today. This morning, I started my new job in San Francisco near the Wharf. Some of our offices are in the Northpoint Center. My boss told me that there was some office furniture up for sale and asked me to help him measure it to see if it would fit in my office.

I went with him to the 4th floor (we had to use a security card to get the elevator to stop there). The doors opened and we stepped into a darkened but huge office space. It basically is on top of the Safeway supermarket, but extends into the rest of the plaza (think larger length and width than a supermarket, but not as much ceiling height).

I asked him who used to be there and he said, "United Airlines - it was one of their call centers."

The place had been pretty much cleaned out, but there were still some documents on the floor and some trash that wasn't picked up yet. Basically just needs a good vacuuming and it's ready for the next occupant.

Considering this was only 1 of their Call Centers, and considering that I manage call centers in my profession, I have to say I was impressed by its size. My boss said it had 750 work station (I'm not sure how he would really know that, other than maybe from the leasing company that we pay, but I could see that # of small workstations fitting in the space).

From what we walked through, it was (is) designed like 2 cubicle mazes, 1 on each side of the elevators. Near the center of each maze is a raised desk (probably where supervisors passed out assignments to new employees coming on the clock, or maybe some type of employee service center of sorts). Those things kind of looked like "command posts," and are basically what gave you any sense of direction amongst the cubies.

Bordering the 2 mazes were larger offices, probably for managers (maybe for sales managers?). They were of varying sizes. The only thing distinguishing them from the cubies is that they were pretty large office spaces (especially when compared to the cubies) and they all had windows, most with great views of the Bay.

Each cubie sat 2 agents next to each other, and then would come the ubiquitous cubicle wall, before the pattern repeated itself. The same was also repeated in a mirror fashion behind the seated worker (so you basically had 4 stations inside each cubie).

The space itself didn't look confined but the deskspace looked tiny. Basically enough room for a computer monitor and keyboard, and maybe a pen and pad of post-its. I imagine it was much worse when filled with staff at each station.

The color scheme of the desks, floors and carpet didn't match any of United's logo colors, but were still contemporary in terms of office design (I think it was that light veneer color, with somewhat dark green/teal office chairs, with the cubicle cloth walls matching the chairs). None of the white lights were on and it was pretty dark so I could be wrong (there was enough sunlight from the manager office windows to see).

Some of the bulletin boards still have the blue and dark blue "butcher paper" covering them. They have those striped blues (dark blue & light blue) like you see on the fins of the aircraft.

You enter from outside the center so, employees could start even if the shops and Safeway had closed.

Considering that I'm one of those frequent fliers who has a lot of affection for United, and considering that I almost worked for UA as an Onboard Service Supervisor managing Flight Attendants, this was, to say the least, an eerie experience for me (I would have been laid off had I applied and been hired earlier, etc).

I've felt apprehension over revealing to FlyerTalk my past employment interest in UA (partly out of fear of being labelled a UA apologist by zealous FTers, and partly because I thought FTers would always take my viewpoints as unbalanced). Now that I'm getting over that, I guess it would be semi-useful to mention that as I went through the interview process, I learned about FT on my own, and planned on monitoring it as a lurker to help Onboard Services with improvements that were within reach, as well as to get a feel of what "some" of the Premiers (yes this includes 1K, 1P) were really thinking.

I felt sad, but also remembered that, physically, these places are just as easy to set up as they are to tear down. It made me hope even harder that UA gets through these awful times.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading about what others will probably call a dull subject. I imagine I'll be in there to pick out some chairs and a credenza. I'm not sure what else to say to describe it (if you have a question you think I'll be able to answer, go ahead).

As always, fly safely. Thanks.