Public Service Girl has been ousted from her office. She feels this to be a gross injustice as it this is only her first real job out of uni and having been given her own office and plaque on the door with her name on it she will never be able to adjust to anything less. (What mischievous lark put 'accommodating and flexible' as key characteristics on her resume?!)

Besides, the woman who's returned from maternity leave and reclaimed her office is highly likeable and Public Service Girl cannot find a single reason to resent her, which is very frustrating. She was going to surreptitiously start stealing the woman's milk from the communal fridge - like everybody else does - but it turns out the woman just steals other people's to put in her tea.

So now not only does Public Service Girl have nothing to hold against the barbarian who invaded her office and forced her into exile in the rows of cubicles out with the plebs, she and the barbarian have actually bonded.

The only advantage of this is that, by being out amongst the mere mortals behind the flimsy partitions, Public Service Girl has become much better at making petty chit chat about the weather and whether or not a particular team was going to win a particular sport on the weekend.

She's almost perfected the art of the 15 second meaningless conversation it is obligatory to have in the lift with colleagues from other sections one does not work closely enough with to justice talking about work but with who one must nonetheless pretend to converse.

Public Service Girl has worked out that the distance between her floor and street level gives her just enough time to sigh about the gross injustice done to her by the recent Office-Ousting-Incident-We-Dare-Not-Mention after which her companion has just enough time to emit a sympathetic monosyllable.

But then the lift doors open and the companion's opportunity to delve further into the matter is over. Which is just as well. Such delving would only reveal that Public Service Girl had no real claims to that office in the first place.