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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To be thick enough to as what people mean by working

66 replies

clinkers · 01/03/2011 07:37

"in the city" ?

OP posts:

FellatioNelson · 02/03/2011 14:29

god by typing is appalling at the moment. Sorry.

FellatioNelson · 02/03/2011 14:29

See! I can't even type my crap typing apology correctly!

SardineQueen · 02/03/2011 14:36

The City = square mile - many financial institutions but lots of other people working there too. In all the bars and restaurants not least. They are also working in the city.

Oxford street type area = going into town

Working in canary wharf = working in canary wharf as well IMO sorry ephniy! Although apparently average salaries are higher now in can wharf than the city and certainly when I worked there people though it had a lot of cachet IYSWIM

wordfactory · 02/03/2011 14:45

But Canary Wharf is so bloody inconvenient.

DH says if they ever try and move his offices over there he will chain himself to Farringdon Station in protest.

FellatioNelson · 02/03/2011 14:47

Canary Wharf and Stratford are a pain in the butt. If you live anywhere on the Liverpool Street lines you can never get a seat at Stratford on the way home because the train filled up at Liverpool Street. That would cause me to have serious commuter rage after about a week.

Rabat · 02/03/2011 14:50

I have always taken that to mean the financial centre of London and has a job related to finance in some way.

My DH commutes to London to work ( but, as it is not in the financial sector, we never refer to that as 'working in the city' - more like 'Ugh - got to go to Dungeon tomorrow '.

I have a friend who says thinks like 'popped into town'. Meaning that she travelled 1.5 - 2 hrs to get to London and refers to friends as 'muckers' . I find that amusing - she can get away with it. I know I would come across as ridiculous if I said such things!

SardineQueen · 02/03/2011 15:24

Canary wharf is not a great place to work all round IMO. City much nicer. Better mix of people around the place and much easier to get to.

I always felt uncomfortable in can wharf up one of those towers with all these people earning vast amounts of money and literally looking down on these terribly deprived areas of london. Made me feel uncomfortable.

figcake · 02/03/2011 21:37

Yes me too - I hope they have sorted out the aircon too; it was awful to be freezing indoors in August - and despite all those large atria dripping in marble and other bling, I really missed being able to get out into the fresh air without having to negotiate lifts, escalators, shopping complexes and train stations. And once you finally made it out, there was nowhere to actually stand inconspicuously in order to breathe in the fresh air (unless you were heading for a pub).

JamaicaGeisha · 02/03/2011 21:59

Bluegrass and ShowOfHands

To be precise, it's synecdoche.

foreverondiet · 02/03/2011 22:05

"in the city" means work in financial services in central London. Doesn't need to actually be in the "City of London" could be West End or Canary Wharf.

I am an accountant and work for a firm of stockbrokers in the West end (of London), wouldn't say I worked in the city... not really city enough.

blueshoes · 02/03/2011 22:32

Working in the city must encompass doing city-type work, not just the location i.e. global financial services and the lawyers and accountants that service those institutions. It is not high street or even national work.

GotArt · 02/03/2011 22:46

When I lived in London, I understood it as working in the upper end finance world. In the US, they say Wall Street. I don't think we have a term in Canada, just that you work in banking or finance or investing.

SardineQueen · 03/03/2011 13:17

You see, if I met someone who said they worked "in the city" and then it turned out they didn't actually work in the square mile (or near as dammit) I would think they were a show-off arse.

And thinking about it TBH I don't think I know many people who would just say "I work in the city". If the question is "what job do you do" then the answer is "I work in a bank" or "I work in a shop" or "I'm an accountant" and if the question is "where do you work" then the answers "in the city" or "in the city of london" or "near bank" or whatever are quite reasonable.

I don't think I've ever met anyone who would respond to the question "what do you do for a living" with "I work in the city" I would think they were a bit of a twat TBH.

It all conjures up visions of margot from the good life

FellatioNelson · 03/03/2011 16:50

But sardine all the financial sectors used to be in the City until relatively recently, so it has become a turn of phrase to explain loosely what you do, rather than the geographical location of where you do it! But I agree, most people (if they worked in the west end especially) would not say they worked in the city, they'd just say 'I working banking' or whatever, to avoid confusion.

SardineQueen · 03/03/2011 18:14

I still think it's all a bit margot. "He's something in the city" all rather 1950s and hyacinth bucket. My mum would say it The people who I know who work in the financial sector in the city don't talk in those terms, and I never did either

SardineQueen · 03/03/2011 18:26

Hmmm maybe the distinction in my head is that saying someone is "in the city" is usually used to describe others rather than yourself IYSWIM.

Maybe everyone I know if very englishly self-depreciating!

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