Urgent business:

bursts in through the closed door
“Oh my God, OP, you’re not going to believe this: THE DOG REVOLUTION SET THE BUILDING ON FIRE AFTER BRINGING COFFEE!”
Mhmm, mhmm. Knock first.
Dissertation? This grad student has his own personal office? With a door? I wasn’t even issued a chair. I had to get my own.
As for dogs: when I was in grad school, one of the professors had a dog that sat quietly next to his desk all day, at least as far as the professor knew. When he went to the bathroom, his dog would run into the hall and play with people, but the dog was listening for his footsteps and was always back in his office in time. This didn’t last long because the department head didn’t like dogs and complained :(
I’m doing my PhD in Germany, everyone here is employed with salary and has a 1-3 people office. At least in computer science.
Dog should be top priority.
“The building or someone is on fire”
When I was working in property management, certain people would frequently call me in the middle of the night for what they considered emergencies. They’d wake me up because a stove burner wouldn’t heat, or a lightbulb was out, or they just remembered that a door creaks. This shit got old real fast, so I began training the night callers that “emergency means Fire, Flood, or Death”.
One man was unfazed by my Fire, Flood, or Death mantra, so every time I saw his number ring in, I just shouted into the phone FIRE FLOOD OR DEATH? FIRE FLOOD OR DEATH?!



