A few years ago I learned that location is my big trigger. We were moving from one office building to another. When we moved into the current building, there were 5 people in the company in my role with my title and we all got offices. Eventually I ended up with one with a great river view. At the time of the move to the next building our organization had grown by about 110 people with about 40 of them sharing my title. The office space didn't have floor space to give all 45 of us offices so we all got open cubicles instead.

In advance of the move, they set up a 4-cubicle sample work area so we could see what the new 'modern' workstations would look like. The cubicles were modern looking but they were set up in a dark, dingy area on a neglected floor in our old office space. I made the mistake of checking out the space. I was furious - the angriest I've ever been at work in more than 25 years in the workplace.

I have a great working relationship with the woman who was my boss at that point. When she asked what I thought about the new setup, I told her that I would have given her my retirement notification if I were old enough to retire. She was stunned that my reaction was so extreme.

The irony - within a few weeks of moving I've adjusted for the most part. At times the noise from those around me gets bad but I'm dealing with it (with the help of noise-cancelling headphones). It helps that I was assigned the best cube space on the floor... I've got a corner with 2 windows and the width of my workspace is about 3 feet wider than standard because of a pillar at the building corner.