The Pursuit of Space

You have probably heard the saying “It is lonely at the top”.  While it is true that it is literally lonelier due to the significantly lower number of fellow human beings you interact with as you go further up the pecking order, it is also probably truer because of the increased distance that we tend to give those who are further up the ladder.

As I write this, I am sitting on the first row of an economy class cabin of a Dakar bound Kenya Airways 737-700.  My front row aisle seat that was specifically requested for provides probably the best leg room space for an economy seat.  It also provides the best view into the first class (or as they call it – premier class) cabin, where I cannot help but notice the significantly more space per passenger that my fellow travellers are enjoying.  They have wider seats - two on each side as opposed to our three on each side; and they have more space between seats – technically referred to as seat pitch – which is 40 inches per seat compared to our 32 inches … L The bigger planes provide a pitch of up to 75 inches for first class seats while holding the economy class pitch at 32 inches… L L

It seems to me therefore that our aspirations to get further up the ladder result, either consciously or not, are the aspirations for more space for ourselves.  As your fortunes increase, you dump the bus and the train for a car, you move from a smaller house to a larger house, from a flat to a maisonette, then to a bungalow and possibly a villa.  You move from a small back garden to a half acre property, or maybe a five acre…  Even as you check into hotels, the key differentiators between various stars of hotels is the size of the room, and even within the same hotel there are standard rooms and superior rooms, and there are suites and penthouse suites – there are even presidential suites complete with several bedrooms and kitchens and offices.  Talking of offices – have you noticed how much the space you have around you matches your level in the organisation? Why did they introduce those modular “open space” cubicles in your office recently – and when they promote you they move you to a standalone office along the wall?  Have you noticed how much natural light flows in from the two sides’ full windows of the boss’s corner office?  It is not by accident that the boss’s office is the largest, has the most natural light and has the fewest available seats.

Even as you attend a political rally – which is where raw power is demonstrated, the biggest Kahuna sits alone with significant space between his seat and that of his neighbour – while at the bottom, the lowest in the rank will squeeze among themselves for a view of the podium.  And as they leave the rally the biggest Kahunas depart at the back of the biggest cars, sometimes with the road cleared for them to maximise the space between them at the watus (pips).

We should then not be surprised that it is lonely at the top – while we all aspire for the same larger spaces as we aspire for the top.

PS: As we disembark off this 9hr flight at Dakar airport the first class passengers, all eight of them, leave in their own bus to the terminal building while the rest of us, nearly a hundred of the us squeeze into the next bus of the same capacity.  But then again – life is not fair – deal with it.