to ask you what you do 'in the office'?

[Crevix]

i was reading cosmo and realised i have no idea what happens 'in the office'.

why do you need special clothes? do people really have 'office romances'? and 'office parties'?

and what sort of work is done 'in the office'?

Don't need 'special clothes' as such, as long as no jeans and strappy tops, and yes to the office romances and yes to the office parties - well where I work anyway

Simmer with rage mostly.

Whilst wearing smart clothes.

Depends where you work. Some offices demand work type clothes - so no to jeans and very short skirts, but yes to blouses, smart trousers and skirts. Depends on the culture of the organisation and whether workers meet or are seen by clients. You need to wear smarter clothes either to project a professional image to clients or because the company thinks that if people dress more casually they won't behave as professionally.

In some creative fields the above dress code would be seen as too straight and boring. Instead an unstated dress code of acceptable clothing would be there. For example, shirt and smart trousers for men but worn very scruffily with scruffy hair.

Yes office romances really happen and office parties.

but what do you do?

do you sit at computers and write letters? to who? about what? do you do filing? again, what do you file?

In my office, we make difficult, complicated and necessary things happen against hugely overwhelming odds and nigh-on impossible deadlines. If you were to come in and look round you would see a small group of people staring at computer screens and talking on the phone, with the occasional jaunt into a side room for a meeting. The calm appearance of most offices is very deceptive, IME.

I wear smart clothes, the others not so much. And there's sod all romance.

there's scandal in the offices up with the sister company to mine - major going's on - we just get the gossip filtered down, it's great. office parties yes - we all went out last week for a nice meal. and ahem got a little drunk.

clothes - usually smart casual. hated working in a practice as had to wear a suit every day as was meeting clients.

and work - as little as possible when the boss isn't there, as much as possible when he is. :o lol. seriously, what needs doing, my area is finance so all that entails.

Are you asking what each mumsnetter does? or just what offices do?

In my office I account for oil and gas, I allocate what has been metered back to the fields and the wells. I calculate how much CO2 has been emitted to the atmosphere. I also report how much stock of oil and NGLs we have in tanks and pipelines.

Totally outed myself there haha! ;)

I wear either back trousers with whatever top, or a maxi dress, or a pencil skirt and top. Normally flat shoes.

We have office parties and some romances, but not for ages.

i have never worked in 'an office' and just have absolutely no idea what people actually do and how it works.

Er well many businesses have offices so could be a wide range!

I wear suits mainly. Go to meetings to see clients or with colleagues to give updates. Review other peoples' work (am a manager). Admin stuff like sort out annual leave, appraisals etc. Send emails to clients for information requests etc.

Oh and gossip!

Ok crevix, all businesses have offices. Banks, insurance, retail companies, energy companies, mumsnet even. They manage the business, so they will have a marketing dept, finance dept (budget, cash flow etc), human resources (to deal with employees), sales, purchasing, IT...

Sorry if that was very simplistic, but you asked a simple question.

I work in a school, and have my own office. It's massive. In a former life it was the boys toilets!!

reality It's like the IT crowd vs. The Aspergers Convention wearing clothes chosen by their mother.

My office is at home (self employed), so I wear jeans and t shirts. I tap tap on the computer all day, writing papers trying to persuade organisations with money to give it to other organisations. Sometimes I call them up and do the same.

My sister works in academia and when she first saw my open plan office (before I went freelance) she found it hilarious - rows and rows of people in little cubicles.

good question
i often think 'they're all probably on mumsnet or facebook' what else could they be looking at on those screens?!

i have absolutely no idea whatsoever about the way the real world works

how has it taken me 36 28 years to realise that i fel suddenly like there are all these people, doing things i don't know about.

in my next life i shall have a normal job, with normal hours, and wear nice smart clothes., and go to 'the office', maybe on a train.

What do you do Crevix? Sounds a lot more interesting that what the rest of us do ( at the thought of not working in an office every day btw).

mess around with various bodily fluids mostly (midwifing) and baby cuddling.

Well my office is a converted portakabin under a motorway flyover, with rehearsal studio on top of it. I keep track of what the charity is spending and pay the bills/manage the general office day to day/assist my Boss (mate) in running the charity. We support musicians/bands, so there are always lots of skinny rock boys with bad haircuts and guitars hanging about.

We boil in the summer and freeze in winter. It is the best job I ever had!

When I worked in an office I used to spend a lot of time trying to arrange meetings for my boss but this was difficult as the people required at these meetings had already arranged to go to other meetings. So much to-oing and fro-ing trying to find dates when they were all free as they were all So Busy. Then a place for them to meet. And travel arrangements for them to get to the meetings. And catering. Then boss would be called to a More Important Meeting so lesser meeting re-scheduled and it would all begin again...

OK, still !