One of the most trite people I follow on Twitter is Sarah, the Duchess of York. She always comes out with some cliche you’ve heard a million times before, but yesterday, she was spot on.

“The only constant thing is change,” she tweeted. Seconds before I read her tweet I had been to a meeting where we were informed that we would all be moving desks and the department would be restructured. I move from THE ROYAL DESK as I like to call it, to a much smaller one. My magazine team will be spread out across the rest of the rest of the newsroom in an effort to streamline operations.

“Embrace change” is the slogan I am trying my best to drum into my mind. And everyone else’s. It is funny how much people hate change, and how they especially hate to be moved. Obviously I am furious because I lose THE ROYAL DESK but even people moving to the same size desk they have now are upset. The blue packing boxes are being ignored and faces are set in determination and many have put in fevered requests to be allowed to keep their keyboards.

I have been trying to work out why we hate change so much. I guess it is so much worse if it comes as a total surprise, as this did. I remember Chantal our childminder in France who could handle anything, as long as it was “prevu”. If it was “pas prevu” there was no way she was going to do it. So forget getting invited out to dinner on the spur of the moment or even the day before. But we could go away for weeks at a time, as long as we gave her plenty of notice.

I suppose change also means going from the known, the comfort zone, the secure to the unknown and the insecure. Or from THE ROYAL DESK to a small desk.

Maybe downsizing will suit me? Perhaps I will find the simplicity of a small desk with less drawers in which to keep my hand creams and porridge oats and less wall space to adorn with images of my children, Rafa and Torres a relief, rather like someone moving from a chaotic vast mansion to a neat little apartment. But I doubt it.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2011