"(Office Story): IT & the Office Remodel." Topic

I'm in the IT department at my company and the offices are getting a remodel. The higher ups have decided that the different colors cables that are at each persons desk are 'unsightly' are we have been instructed to change them all to a 'neutral tan' color that will match the new décor.

These 'unsightly' cables are the VOIP telephone cables, Network Cables for PC's, Printers, test equipment, and are currently colored coded for type and function.

So far protests have hit a brick wall, because we are not willing to compromise for the sake of making our offices look 'professional'.

Oh I forgot to add, our server room has windows in it and is visible from our lobby, and they want the cables in the server room changed to tan as well.

How about some nice tan curtains for the server room instead?

better do what they tell you so you can laugh at them later when they find out why cables are color coded.

Why not just make some sort of cable cover? Cheaper than new cables and no outage.

Get those flexible cable conduits, spray them tan and slip your cables into them. You keep your cable colors and they get their uniformity.

And emphasize the cost. That usually stops this.

How about telling the dumb-ass demanding this to put it in writing so that you have proof when it all goes tit up later.

Naw! Just get the idjit upper level suits sunglasses with
tan colored lenses through which to view the finished
project.

Anyone THAT stupid will NEVER figure it out…

You do realize that changing the cables as ordered provides guaranteed job security for a long, long time?

The fun part will be explaining why the service times go up by a factor of ten.

Rick

….or a factor of 'tan'.

I don't know, I work in a fairly large data center, there are probably about a quarter million cat-6 patch cables in use. Every one of them has an ID number. And every single one of them is white.

If you feel you MUST keep the color codes, just color-code the cable ends. The parts that plug in. The rest of the cable can be tan.

This just sounds strange. Since this is a complete remodel, why aren't the cables being hidden in conduits anyway? Also, I would think that the best way to get them to re-think this is to give them an estimated cost of replacing all the perfectly good cables.

they are not perfectly good cables; they are the wrong color.

'Also, I would think that the best way to get them to re-think this is to give them an estimated cost of replacing all the perfectly good cables.'

And suggest that it's charged to the budget of the advertising department as it is a non-opeational issue?