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'?

Crevix -I'm with you. I work in Intensive Care, so therefore get to spend the day in pyjamas, getting to breakfast at 4.30 in the afternoon, mostly because i am busy SAVING LIVES .

I have just started having an 'office day' where I get to do all the paperwork stuff related to the other staff - It is a constant source of stress thinking about what to wear, and I feel like I have to ask permission to go for lunch, or get a coffee because all it's a relaxed... odd.

crevix, then you do have experience of 'office' life. Just sounds as if you're doing a fantastic job in busier and less well resourced surroundings than a lot of people's.

My office life is pretty similar to most of the descriptions posted here. Clotheswise anything goes (my boss is usually in jeans and T-shirt), but I only do a few days a week and dress like a bag lady casually the rest of the time so I like to put something half-decent on for the office. Printers and computers are in decent supply but often on the blink, so a lot of time is spent on swearing at them fixing them. We have meetings. I print things, and send emails, and send chase-up emails when people don't respond, ad infinitum. I answer questions and sort out problems for various people, fill in forms and send them around the place, create and maintain spreadsheets and lists, help colleagues with simple things that they should be fucking able to do tasks, take frequent trips to the canteen to buy tea and cakes that I don't really want, and read Mumsnet, Facebook, personal emails etc.

I went to work yesterday in shorts, t shirt and sunglasses and big beach bag ( to put my lap top, A4 files and camera in ) and got the comment from DH 'nice day for the beach then' Ither days I have worn a halter neck top, wide leg pants and sunglasses and the comment from DH is that I look like I'm auditioning for CSI Miami!!

Oh, and there are office romances but not that many, I don't think. There is plenty of gossip and back-biting and silly politics, from which I try to stay removed while still knowing what's going on.

we get cake fairly often and chocolate even more often, which is always very nice.

crevix-I am a nurse and can also relate to looking at office workers enviously, would love to sit down at a desk sometimes.Would prob drive me nuts after a few hrs though.

In my current office I dress smartly coz it makes me feel better and i can tell dh i have to have my smart office clothes whereas I actually could get away with any smart trousers and a smartish top.
I come in and check my emails, and phone messages, check personal emails, ebay and mumsnet.
Make a coffee
Answer the phone and ring people to try and sell them stuff.
Get prices via email or standard price lists to prepare quotes.
Email quotes out.
Talk to people moaning about problems with previous sales.
Prepare email shots and update the website.
Have more coffee.
Escape home.

A bus station is where a bus stops.
A train station is where a train stops.
On my desk, I have a work station?.
what more can I say??..

One thing I used to not like about working in "an office" was the sounds that go with it. The photocopier... The fax machine... The monitors... The background chat... People having important conversations on phones... I found it so monotonous. All that beeping and buzzing in the background from various gadgets!

But then I had a really boring job so I tended to notice these things and couldn't wait to get out!

crevix I work in the City as a lawyer. Full City battle-dress required during the week, though we can dress down to business casual on Fridays if we have no client meetings.

I get in at 9 on a good day and leave anywhere between 7pm and 2am. Officially we can leave at 5.30 but that's when the secretaries leave, lawyers are expected to be around for at least an hour longer. It's a pain - I have a 1h45 commute because we have to live where DH works, but that's not as bad as some.

My day is spent: checking emails, filling in my timesheets, making and returning phone calls, doing research, drafting and reviewing memoranda of advice/contracts/tracker documents/more emails, sitting on conference calls (and emailing/MNing during the bits that are irrelevant to me if I'm at my desk - like right now!) and attending training/meetings/client meetings. Lunch is a pret soup and sandwich at my desk while reading the FT and specific sites relevant to my work.

Sometimes it drags - like when I'm waiting for someone to get back to me before I can continue with work - but usually it's manic and it's 8pm before I know it.

PS Could never beat an "office night out" though! These were always the best nights out as it was like we had all been let off the leash! (yes I worked for a very crappy company too!)

Well, I am on mumsnet!! I should be working!!

Midwifing and cuddling babies sounds like a lovely job!

This is my first day in the office for a week and it's like walking from a sunny meadow into a black cloud of anger and hatred.

I'm a divorce lawyer

"Is it frequented by fit blokes in a state of semi undress Briff?"

If only Unfortunately a couple of young lads, that I am old enough to be their mother and the rest are middle aged and balding.

A couple of years ago I came out of the loo into the showroom to find a lifesize cardboard cut out of a huge fat hairy angel a bit like Brian Blessed in Flash Gorden, something to do with the latest SEAT marketing campaign. It not a pleasant surprise i can tell you. Now that SEAT are sponsoring the latest Pirates of the Caribbean film I do feel that we should be allowed a life size Johnny Depp!

we have a dirth of fit chaps.

This is making me wistful. The first career job I had was at a old company but with generally young 20-somethings. We were all friends, worked together, drank together..um..did other things together. It was a fantastic place to work, and I thought it woudl always be like that. I thought that by the time I got to where the boss was I'd be taking 3 hour lunches and throwing the receipt at my PA. By the time I got there I had a corner office (bien sur) but it was freezing, I was working obscene hours and not really feeling that impressed with it all. I wanted to be back in the pool, coming in with a hangover, shagging the men, and conducting post-mortems on pub gossip with the girls.

This was so far back that email was a relatively new concept, and one couple got it terribly wrong. That old one about sending to 'all' instead of the person you meant to send it to?? Went to the entire staff telling us she was going to be out at x time, having a fag by her car, if he wanted to "join" her.... 145 noses pressed against the glass watching for this previously secret liaision to be outed in all its gory detail. Unfortunately he seemed to notice there were 147 people listed above the email he was reading and must've warned her. Love gossip I'm afraid.

Miss it all.

Noeledmondshair - I do, occasionally, make my own coffee, but not often.

If someone wants a break from their desk to go and loiter chatting in the kitchen for 10 minutes rather than work make everyone, including me a drink then that's fine. I don't go "Oi, You! Minion! Make me a coffee now!" Unless, of course, we have work experience in .

smartish clothes, jeans on a friday
open plan office full of geeks at computers, 2 - 3 machines per desk - the evil non tech 'suits' at the other end, boo ssss
Multiple windows open monitoring various systems for the client 8am-4pm - hours used to be long pre baby but can be on call 24/7 and maintenance windows are always 2am!
Am only female geek team leading 3 blokes.
Proactive system monitoring, bug fixing, controlling change, planning for growth, maintenance and disasters and some coding.
Good banter, NO ROMANCE, good nights out, but a large multinational consultancy who I hate but love my current client, have worked on this account for 5 years.

I am another non office worker fascinated by this thread.

I often think about having an office job, but fear that I'd just procrastinate and time waste all day long.

what is 'consultancy'? i have a friend who is one but have always been to embarrased by my ignorance to ask her about it i just smile and nod sagely.

We wear jeans and tshirts, or smarter casual clothes. The boss wears jeans and smart lace-ups (a personal hate of mine).

Our office is completely silent. Everyone works through email, rarely uses the phone and I suspect is on their chat forum of choice much of the time. Fortunately for many of my colleagues, their work is also their hobby (I'm in the games industry) whereas my MN addiction has to be secret.

I spend the day ordering things, asking people to design or translate things - and MNing.

There are no office romances, occasionally the boss takes us for a night out. We all get on well, there are no office tensions as far as I know.

Goth, that's what offices are for really. Reading this thread I do wonder how any work gets done, ever. I'm relieved ? I thought I was the only, or at least the biggest, timewaster on earth, but evidently I'm not! What do you do then?

i dress like an indian princess when i go to work, bright fuschia pink saris with gold embrodiary, i wear beautiful chiffon veils draped over my hair. my boss looks at me, shakes his head and ignores me!
i work in customer services, taking telephine orders and dealing with complaints and enquiries, in fact i sold over 10ks worth of something to steve redgrave the other day! not that i knew who he was. its quite interesting, ive met mr tumble, mps, lords, etc...even had job offers from customers who have their own businesses. i take great pleasure in telling my boss they have tried to steal m, he jsut laughs and says its enough of a challenge getting me to come to work atll, he doubts il be running of to wales or london every weekend. bastard

In my job now we are only in a small office and we can wear what we like. I think because it is media related they are more relaxed than say, an insurance or accountancy office.
I only work mornings and I spend my time typing up booking sheets, proof reading things, updating spreadsheets and databases, answering phones, phoning up clients, and when I can't think of anything else to do, I facebook mumsnetdo the filing.
We don't have any office romances - the only man is the boss and his wife works here too!
However in a previous life before dc, I was a secretary for a well known insurance company and the things that went on there would make your hair curl. Office romances (married or not - it was a free for all) lots of office piss ups parties where all kinds of things went on.
I miss those days

knitted, you must look amazing. Do you dress like that for any particular reason?

I think I take calls from HappyAsASandboys office amongst others, looking after their facilities and making sure their buildings run smoothly. I dress smartly even though I work on the phone. My office is full of power struggles, bitchiness and horridity and I try and stay out of it.