The Italian Office

Just a few unbiased observations on the difference between an office in the States and one in Italy (Europe). 1] Paper US paper is, for the most part, based upon an "A-size" or 8-1/2" by 11" sheet that we normally call Letter Size.. From there, you double it to "B-size" which is 11" by 17", double it again to "C-size" which is 17" X 22", "D-size" which is 22" X 34" and finally "E-size" which is 34" X 44". There is even an "R-size" that is 44" wide and on a roll so you can make it as long as you want. Then of course, we throw in Legal at 8-1/2" X 14, Executive at 8" X 10" and whatever you call the 5-1/2" X 8-1/2" stuff. Europe [for that matter, the rest of the world] uses sizes based on a size called "A0" [A-Zero] which is 840mm X 1188mm. Converting this to English measurements makes it 33.07" X 46.77". Then you start folding it in half to get an "A1" size, which is 594mm by 1188mm, then to "A2" which is 420mm X 594mm to "A3" at 297mm X 420mm "A4" at 210mm X 297mm to "A5" at 148.5mm X 210mm. "A4" is the standard size that would be equivalent to our Letter Size with English dimensions of 8.27" by 11.69". This 0.23" and 0.31" difference doesn't seem like much until you go to stick in that binder or clipboard that you brought from the good ole' USA. (See Item 2 - Holes). Envelopes are another matter. They come in sizes "B" and "C" that somehow correspond with the paper size, depending on how much slop you want for your insert & I haven't gotten them quite figured out yet. Just told get some small ones and some big ones. 2] Holes If you brought your US three-hole punch and a US two-hole punch with you, you might as well throw them away, because the rest of the world two and four holes in their paper (seeing the problem here?). If you use their two hole punch, it will punch two holes (duh!) 80mm (a little more than 3") apart centered on the long side of the paper. This is nice because it fits in their two ring binders. If you have a four ring binder, you must A -- adjust your two-hole punch to punch the holes 25mm (~1") from the bottom, then B -- turn the paper over and do the top. If you are not smarter than the punch & paper, you end up with holes on the left side and two on the right side of the paper. Or, you can save yourself the embarrassment by buying a four hole punch! This works well for both the four-ring binders and the two-ring binder. Now there is one small wrinkle in this whole process. There is also a two-ring binder that has rings that are 85mm apart. In this case you adjust your two-hole punch to punch slightly off center and turn the paper over and do it again from the other end to make oblong holes. 3] Binders As you pretty much guessed from Item 2 - Holes, there are two types of binders -- two-hole and four-hole. If you brought your US three ring binder and a US three-hole punch and just have to use them, refer to Item one - Paper. Since the "A4" paper is 0.69" longer that the US Letter Size, and the US three hole punch punches three holes - one in the middle and one centered 1-1/8" from each end, you end up with all of the extra paper sticking out of the top of your US three ring binder by about 3/8". Looks pretty ugly (oxymoron?) If you choose the two-hole binders (the cheaper choice, so guess what we were supplied) which are 340mm or 13-3/8" tall which gives you nearly 1" of clearance between your paper and the shelf the binder sets on. This means that your paper hangs heavily on the top ring and the holes start to enlarge eventually requiring the application of hole reinforcement rings, commonly called "Plastic &%#-holes". If you order the more expensive two-ring binder, you get a clamp that goes down on the paper to help prevent this problem, but only if you remember to clamp it down each time, but they are still 340mm tall.. If you use the expensive 4-ring binders, they are only 318mm or 12-1/2" tall which leaves only a 10mm or 3/8" gap to the shelf which is more typical and with four rings, there is much less chance of needing plastic &%#-holes. One very nice feature that the majority of their binders have, is a finger hole about 1/4 of the way up from the bottom. This make it so that they can be easily pulled out of the shelves, which is nice since they are taller and therefore closer to the bottom of the shelf above, it is more convenient than pulling them by the top like we normally do. 4] Staples, Staplers and Staple Removers If you brought your Made in the USA stapler with you, I hope you brought plenty of Made in the USA staples, too. Just like in the US, they have different sizes and brands that only use a specific size or brand of staples. If you brought your staple remover, it almost works on the larger size staples here, but you can only use one tooth on the small, less expensive type (again, I ask you to guess what we were supplied with). These monetarily efficient staplers use 6mm or 0.23" wide and can handle up to a whopping 10 sheets of paper. After that you have to use one from each side then beat the staple points flat with the back of the stapler. 5] Tape This is not really an issue because the normal tape here is good old Scotch Brand Magic Tape, that comes with the standard Scotch Brand Magic Tape Dispensers, both the cheesy plastic ones and more functional desk types. 6] File Cabinets Never ask "Can you get me a small two drawer file cabinet, you know the kind that I can put hanging files in?" The phrase "One picture is worth a thousand words" applies here. You will have to go to the photo entitled "Italian HANGING file cabinet" to get the full effect. 7] Desks Desks are desks, tables are tables and credenzas are credenzas, right. Right, only why on earth would you make them all different heights?!?!?!? My desk is 720mm, the table is 750mm and the credenza is 870mm tall. Now, granted, the credenza has to be tall enough to hold two rows of binders - see Item 3 - but at least make the work table and the desk the same height! And while your at it, don't put two 135mm (5-3/8") deep drawers in the darn thing, put a thin, wide drawer where the chair goes and a file drawer in instead! 8] Chairs Cheap chairs have no padding! No matter where you buy them, cheap chairs have no padding! I do not consider 1/4" (6.35mm) of open cell foam and a pretty red fabric, padding! People with bony butts (or those who exert a lot of pressure to a non-bony butt) need padded chairs! At least they all match. Looks nice in the conference room with different size tables. 9] Office Lunch Area We ask about getting a coffee maker and a mini-fridge for the office. It takes too long for (most) of us to go out at lunch, so (most) of us have sandwiches that are sold at the local store - ham & cheese, salami & cheese, speck (smoked ham) & cheese, tuna & tomato (I normally pass on this one) on fresh Italian bread. Tasty, but you need a good set of teeth to get through the bread crust. Not hard like the dinner rolls, but a bit tough. Having the fridge means we can add some mustard, mayo or butter. Also keeps make the milk for the coffee last a bit longer. Now the coffee maker is a bit of a strange saga. Like I said, we ask for a simple coffee maker -- silly Inglese -- thinking that they would get a cheap Mr. Coffee knock-off. No, in comes this 5-foot tall 18-inch square coffee machine that for 50 Euro-cents, you get about two teaspoons of a thick, dark-brown liquid in the itty-bitty plastic cup. Not what we had in mind. So we pooled in 5 Euros each and bought our own. First time we made coffee, we used one rounded spoonful for each cup of coffee. Seems like a poor way to make sure the project makes money. The following is for information only: Watch out what kind of coffee you get. If it is their normal coffee, it is ground extremely fine. If you take one coffee bean that is, for ease of calculations, a 1/4-inch sphere, you have a surface area of 0.19635 square inches. If you pour one liter of water over this coffee bean that has 0.19635 square inches of surface area, you are going to get some very weak coffee. However, if you grind this same coffee bean into small spheres that are each, say, 0.005-inch in diameter (about the thickness of a human hair) you have over 490 square inches of surface area are that can be contacted, transferring 2,500 times as much coffee to the same one liter of water. See where this is going. The stuff that they bought was like flour! Much smaller that the thickness of a human hair. Lesson learned, don't use coffee ground for espresso makers in a drip coffee maker or if you have to, don't use one rounded teaspoon per cup, otherwise, you end up with a mug of espresso. Now if we could just get them to buy more than two or three 6-pack of 50-cl bottles of water at one time, life would be good. *See photo in photo album.*