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"Grey was a symbol of what advertising used to be: very slow and not very nimble," says Tor Myhren, Grey Advertising's chief creative officer in a New York Times piece by Jonathan Vatner (2/10/10). It's a rather stark admission, made possible by Grey's recent move from 777 Third Avenue, which it had occupied for 45 years, to 200 Madison, the International Toy Center building. With this move, Grey left behind its traditional walled offices in favor of an open plan. Grey is hardly the first to make such a move, but for the agency, it's a big shift.

"We've created a faster environment, one that is more open and collaborative," says Tor. "This space reflects what's happening in the digital world." Designed by Studios Architecture, the new space provides "ad hoc collaborative spaces" with "long butcherblock tables." Elsewhere, there are standalone desks separated only by "low cubicle walls." As Alex Lubar, the agency's new business vice-president notes, "No more affairs and siestas. Or at least if you're going to do them you have to be more theatrical about it."

Grey spent a year prepping its people for this change, and has a psychologist, Dr. Joel Mausner, on hand to help everyone adjust. Joel plans to help employees mourn the old space, deal with any drawbacks, and "use the new space to its full potential." He says workers need "to reach a collective understanding of how they're going to behave differently." For Natalia Schultz, the agency's chief talent officer, the adjustment includes finding a place for her shoewear collection. At the old office, she had a closet, but now she keeps her shoes in the trunk of her car. She also notes a new house rule: "Tuna should never be consumed in the open plan," she says.

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"We are all in a big international pile of crap -- but we're in it together," says Didier Guidj of viedemerde.fr, as reported by Sebastian Moffett in the Wall Street Journal (3/21/09). The site is in French, and its name translates into "A crappy life," or words to that effect. Didier didn't dream up the site -- the idea was hatched by Maxime Valette, who initially simply posted stories "about the frustrations of modern life," such as problems he was having with tech gadgets, for instance.

"At first they weren't funny," says Maxime. "They were sad." The funny factor kicked in when he opened up posts to others, and started to receive messages like this: "I came home starving the other day, opened the fridge, and gobbled up some pate I found ... An hour later my girlfriend called to ask what I'd done with the cat food." Then there was the guy who "got two text messages from his girlfriend. The first said she wanted to end the relationship. The second apologized: She's meant to send the message to another guy."

Maxime and Didier say they receive about a thousand stories a day but post only about a dozen. Most aren't funny enough (or at all) and others are obvious fiction. The French don't have a word like the German "Schadenfreude," but Didier thinks the operative French word might be "pathetique." Either way, the site attracts some 70,000 readers and generates enough advertising revenue for Maxime, Didier and a third collaborator to live on. The trio has now launched an English-language version, fmylife.com. "It's like there's a kind of solidarity among all countries when it comes to misfortune," says Diedier. ~ Tim Manners, editor.