Who really does not like office work ?

Telejester · March 2017

I read a comment about office work , its a collection of individuals who pretty much dont like each other pretending that they do. Ive been in office work since the early 90s and i dont like it at all. Ive seen the whole spectrum from bitching, office bores, gossip spreading, rumour starting, jealousy, brown nosing etc etc. Add to this the xmas dinner which nobody wants to go to, power point presentations and office team building days.........oh boy !

For the same money i would take a job delivering the post gladly. Anyone else not like office work and why ?

Heartfeltdawn · March 2017

I've been a chef for about half of my working adult life with periods of leaving for office work. When people say they hate the hours, I laugh in contempt. I've never had to pull triple figure hour weeks when working in an office or gone home in a shirt and tie that smells of fay fryers.

The real difference beside hours is freedom of speech. I've found kitchens to be honest places when it comes to chefs (management on the other hand...). If you have an argument, you say your shit, you sort it out, you move on. Kitchen politics get sorted quickly: office politics is far more slow burning and tedious.

So perhaps the problem with the office is the false camaraderie.

stimpsonslostson · March 2017

I lasted 5 days in my only ever office job.
It was well paid and there was nothing "wrong" with it except that I found it soul destroying to sit at the same desk all day tapping on a keyboard like I was being battery farmed.
I didn't stay long enough for office politics etc to become a factor, but MrsLostSon works for a big bank and often tells me horror stories about that sort of thing.

Telejester · March 2017

People who are all hi there and smiles in the office but look straight ahead and say nothing once outside the office door, im sure every office worker has this member of staff as a colleague. Its all so false and forced.

monquixote · March 2017

There is no such thing as office work an office is just a building not a type of work.

Where I work we all play Mario kart at lunchtime and go to the pub together.

Grunfeld · March 2017

monquixote said:

There is no such thing as office work an office is just a building not a type of work.

I'm sure you're right but my first jobs all seemed to be the same -- moving pieces of paper, or numbers, or looking at screens -- I felt utterly disconnected from what I was doing. This was definitely "working in offices" but because I was young and unimaginative I thought that was all there was to work -- I suppose you'd call it "admin work" or something like that. It was a miserable time.

At 24 I had a light bulb moment and saw other possibilities and decided I was never going to do that sort of work again if I could help it. So far, so good, I've enjoyed work since.

thumpingrug · March 2017

All of the people who work with me in our office have been recruited and selected by me over the past 18 years. It took about 10 years to get rid of the ones there when I arrived. We have a great team dynamic because its the team I created. Love the people I work with and the atmosphere that we create together. Now head office are a bunch of twats staffed by straight out of uni foetuses that don't have a clue what the real world is like, but our local branch office is great.

Telejester · March 2017

monquixote said:

There is no such thing as office work an office is just a building not a type of work.

Where I work we all play Mario kart at lunchtime and go to the pub together.

You are very lucky. In our office we dont do xmas dinner because no-one wants to go, staff enter like someone going to the guillotine and leave like a greyhound fired out of the trap. .......miserable

p90fool · March 2017

Whiny fuckers, I've spent the last 35 years on my feet, my knees are shot and so are my hands and right shoulder, my missus walks 6-9 miles a day as a postie and despite being a superfit ex-international sportswoman now walks with a limp from a worn out hip.

And you lazy cunts sit on your ever-widening arses banging on about "politics".

TheBlueWolf · March 2017

I've managed to avoid working in an office up until now, mainly due to the politics and back stabbing.

EricTheWeary · March 2017

Heartfeltdawn said:

I've been a chef for about half of my working adult life with periods of leaving for office work. When people say they hate the hours, I laugh in contempt. I've never had to pull triple figure hour weeks when working in an office or gone home in a shirt and tie that smells of fay fryers.

The real difference beside hours is freedom of speech. I've found kitchens to be honest places when it comes to chefs (management on the other hand...). If you have an argument, you say your shit, you sort it out, you move on. Kitchen politics get sorted quickly: office politics is far more slow burning and tedious.

So perhaps the problem with the office is the false camaraderie.

Office hours seem long because it's often so boring. However, I think the happiest person in our office had previously run a newsagents usually working seven days per week with a variable income so Monday to Friday 9-5 for a salary seemed like a piece of piss to him.
Much as my job seeker status sucks in many ways I do not miss office politics, although I'm pretty sure they were the only reason some people turned up and loved them. MrsTheWeary has gone back to working on a hospital ward now and because it's shifts rather than the same small group of people a lot of the politics disappears, I think they are also just too bloody busy.

stickyfiddle · March 2017

I've worked 100-hour weeks in my office job, though a lot of that was in hotel rooms not just offices.

Either way, the key to a decent office job, like any job, is decent people around you, whether that's clients or customers or colleagues.

Telejester · March 2017

stickyfiddle said:k

I've worked 100-hour weeks in my office job, though a lot of that was in hotel rooms not just offices.

Either way, the key to a decent office job, like any job, is decent people around you, whether that's clients or customers or colleagues.

Its the unnatural mish mashing of many personality types that is often the cause of office misery and boredom, you have -

The backstabber
The slimy bastard brown noser
The gossiper
The complainer
The i know everything
The confrontationalist
The unwashed
The nervous wreck
The im a victim
The nosey
The unhelpful
The very loud
The irritating
The extremely boring
The aggressive

And when you chuck all these characters into a pot no wonder it is shit

mellowsun · March 2017

office life in a start-up is often fun: fridge full of beer, pool table, ping-pong, and Spotify streaming.

Devs are usually laid back people too. One previous place I worked was particularly good as they seemed always to hire the right people - talented but no egos, which is so refreshing.

IvisonGuitars · March 2017

I had come off tour, got married and decided I needed a 'proper job' so I worked in an office for two months, Got 3 warnings.

By the time the first written warning came, I walked into the bosses office and asked what he was playing at, why couldn't he just come and talk to me like a real person might do?....

So I politely said I'd work out any notice period till they found a replacement. He said I might as well just go. I said fair enough, offered out my hand, which he ignored. So I called up my tour manager pal and went back on the road.

Office Shmoffice.

Sporky · March 2017

I don't mind our office (though it could do with decorating, as it did 8 years ago).

But I'm only there one day a week. In my last stint it was sometimes every day, quite often three days a week. It wasn't the office so much as the commute.

simonk · March 2017

My 'office' is the great outdoors. Suits me just fine.

Emp_Fab · March 2017

I spent 8 years in an office and pretty much hated it. I've spent the last 24 on the road as a field engineer and I don't have to put up with any of the office-based crap. I see my boss once every six months - maybe. I drive all around the place and see some stunning views (equally, I spend ages in shitty traffic jams in the rain at night when I'm tired). I could never go back to working in an office now.... for all the reasons you've already stated.

Cookiemonster · March 2017

I managed a team that was really great. Loved it. In fact I am off to see blackberry smole with one of them soon. But I was moved manage a larger team. And they just seem so unhappy and question everything. I don't know if it's how they have been managed before or expectations are different. But for me if everyone is open to making things work and supportive of each other. Then an office is great. But many like to be aggressive or hide things. And make the days hard. So in 15 years of office work I have probably liked about 10 of them and it's always been because people around me are great.

richardhomer · March 2017

I think it could be the basis of a sitcom - the incompetent boss who confuses popularity with respect, the toady (but ambitious) underling, the one who doesn't give a shit, the attractive receptionist - who's actually a gifted artist - and secretly fancies the one who doesn't give a shit, the office bully, weirdo, etc.

I might start writing it. It's rare I come up with anything original - but I might be on to something with this....

axisus · March 2017

I hit the office jackpot! I have great colleagues, we have the best laugh ever (in between working), intelligent discussions, laugh out loud moments, lots of knowledge going on. Basically people that I enjoy being around. It's all good. I look forward to work in the mornings.

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

In this Discussion

Become a Subscriber!

Who really does not like office work ?

Comments