Back in the spring of 2020, when it seemed that the new work-from-home reality was not about to go away any time soon, more and more staff members decided to take their monitors, mouses and docking stations to their home offices. Some of the missing office equipment has been replenished by now, but Don Meuwissen and a team of students will spend next Saturday making sure that the remaining workstations are up and running again. “That means that we are going to install eighty monitors, mouses and keyboards,” the coordinator IMS Logistics says. He and his logistics team are responsible for the electronic equipment used by members of the services on floors 10 and 11 of the Atlas building.

Supply problems

IMS will ensure that each staff member has access to at least one monitor. If the desk doesn’t have a docking station, employees can plug their monitor, mouse and keyboard directly into the laptop. Meuwissen: “We ordered eighty docking stations months ago, but we don’t know at this point when they will arrive. That has to do with a global chip shortage problem. This is a problem that doesn’t just affect us, but e-bike and car manufacturers as well.”

Most laptops have enough ports. If that isn’t the case, Meuwisen asks employees to look for a docking station that was left behind on a desk. Or they can order a USB hub via the Self Service Portal of TopDesk or via the Choose-IT portal. There are more than enough monitors, no one needs to bring a borrowed one to work on Monday. IMS also has enough mouses and keyboards in stock.

100 new chairs

TU/e Facility placed 100 new chairs on floors 10 and 11 of Atlas this week and is currently busy readjusting the entire campus to the new corona measures. Three weeks ago, the halls had to be arranged for a maximum group size of 75 people, but this will no longer apply as of the 25th of September. Facilities account manager Johan Lauwers wonders whether he will get everything done in time by the weekend.

Fluctuations

The service has until Friday to get all the buildings back to their original state. “Don’t forget Flux, Vertigo, Helix, MetaForum and all the other buildings,” Lauwers says. “We need to go into every single building and remove the green stickers that indicate where people are allowed to sit, and take off the foil from the sealed chairs. And we also need to place back all the chairs in the Corona Room in Luna, for example.” The rearrangement of the library is Lauwers’ priority.

The stickers on the doors that indicate how many people are allowed inside have been made blank, but Lauwers decided to leave them there for a while, just as he won’t remove the directional stickers on the floors just yet. “Who knows what the next measures will include.”