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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that office wor is not natural, and working in an office always since leaving school does something weird to you socially?

118 replies

Boomba · 31/05/2013 14:24

I had a 5 year spell where my job was office based. Once I got over the novelty of having a desk/phone/computer/stationary cupboard etc etc...i got to thinking its damn strange....

i struggled anyway to stay still all day and sit in a chair etc etc...but its more than that

the thread about work experience kids making the tea, has brought it all flooding back. Peoples weirdy expectations are all magnified. Its like a continuation of school...with people all forced to be together all day in the same room with the same people

People who thrived, seemed to revel in the gossip and 'drama' and bloody organised 'things'...like 'Movember' Hmm

OP posts:
CbeebiesIsMyLife · 31/05/2013 14:26

Isn't that just working in general? Whether office, teaching, retail staff, police?
Third experiences a are the same regardless of job!

Original poster
Boomba · 31/05/2013 14:31

not IME cbeebies...not if you move around a building/buildings/sites/outside...if the scenery changes. Shifts are good too, in that you work with different people, teams are much more varied. It doesnt get so insular and cross-eyed IME

OP posts:
ShadowStorm · 31/05/2013 14:33

what kind of work counts as 'natural' , op?

Original poster
Boomba · 31/05/2013 14:36

i dont think being in the same room, all day, day in day out for 48 weeks of the year is natural

hmm....what is natural....

OP posts:
Souredstones · 31/05/2013 14:40

I hate office work and dream of working part time pottering about in a garden centre. Bit of a waste of education though!

Original poster
Boomba · 31/05/2013 14:48

depends what your education is in stones?

OP posts:
UniqueAndAmazing · 31/05/2013 14:49

I agree Boomba.

I've only ever done office jobs as stop-gaps, and yes, they are dull after a while.

I worked at powergen while i was doing an hnd- both pretty much full time, and my social life was them too. i had fun, but mainly i think because they were all doing it as a stopgap too.

FunnysInLaJardin · 31/05/2013 15:03

I agree that some offices can become very inward looking and self obsessed. Then the environment becomes unhealthy. I have a largely office based job but also go out and about a lot for meetings etc which means I try not to get drawn in to the nonsense which I see others getting embroiled in

HollyBerryBush · 31/05/2013 15:06

I think it's odd to do manual work Grin but there you go

squoosh · 31/05/2013 15:06

Not all offices are created equally.

Some are fun and challenging environements.

juneybean · 31/05/2013 15:08

I lost all confidence working in an office, it was a dead end job, with a bastard of a boss

BrianButterfield · 31/05/2013 15:10

I've never worked in an office. Schools can be very odd places but you get a lot of variety in your day as you're not with the same people all the time (in secondary). I was saying to DH yesterday though that I always wonder what it would be like to have a job where you sat at a desk with your cup of tea and said "here is my work today" and did your work and then went home and never thought of it until the next day. I don't even know if any jobs are like that!

angelos02 · 31/05/2013 15:10

You could apply your logic to most jobs. A surgeon will spend hours on end in the same sort of room day after day. Same with a teacher etc. Not sure what your point is really.

NowThatsWhatICallANickname · 31/05/2013 15:18

I have never worked in an office so the whole thing seems strange to me. I do regular deliveries to offices though right from cival service, banks and regular jo average office so tend to go in and see it from the otherside. From my experience some have a very strange sense of importance and heavily look down upon workers outside the office. It will usually always be a workman somewhere in the building who will help you with heavy stuff when there is a lot to carry in. Not all are like it but i have come across more than my fair share of it. It makes me think i would hate to work in an office.

arabesque · 31/05/2013 15:19

A lot of stereoptypical impressions of office jobs on here. Not everyone who works in an office spends their days filing and typing and making tea and gossiping about Coronation Street at the water cooler. In fact, I would say very few do. A whole myriad of people work in offices.

Also, and this isn't directed at anyone on here, I get really irritated when people say 'oooh, I couldn't work in a normal 9-5 job' as if that somehow makes them more 'special' and 'creative' than those who do. Loads and loads of people don't have much choice in the matter.

NoelHeadbands · 31/05/2013 15:21

Um no.

Some strange notions on here.

titchy · 31/05/2013 15:26

If office work is not 'natural' then by extension any sort of work other than tending your small-holding, hunting wild animals and cooking on a camp-fire whilst wearing your baby isn't natural either.....

Office work however has obviously done something weird to YOU socially....

Most of us who work in office however are actually quite normal believe it or not.

Original poster
Boomba · 31/05/2013 15:30

i dont think i am 'special' or 'creative'...or maybe i do Confused...does that mean having a screaming aversion to sitting in the same chair at the same desk with the same people for 8 hours a day, day after day after day....?

yes titchy i recognise that it was affecting my mental health. I think it affects alot of peoples menatl health. I think some people dont recognise thta

OP posts:
Trills · 31/05/2013 15:30

Most jobs are not "natural".

Humans generally live in a way that is not "natural". Division of labour allows us to do things and to have luxuries that we would not do or have if we insisted on all being "natural".

Original poster
Boomba · 31/05/2013 15:32

i think to say it is 'not natural' was a misjudgement and is a diversion from what i was trying to say.

It is unhealthy...and does something weird...etc etc?

OP posts:
Trills · 31/05/2013 15:33

arabesque I agree that saying "I couldn't do xxx" is often used to try to make the sayer sound special. If you really couldn't, then that's a lack in your ability. If you mean that you don't want to then just say that.

I might say that "I couldn't work in a school/with the general public/in a job with no autonomy/any other from a long list of jobs I would hate" but that's not true at all. I could, I just wouldn't like it.

Oh and yes, the majority of offices actually contain people who are doing stuff. Not generic "office work" like filing or answering telephones or franking letters but actually performing actions in order to run a business. Some of those activities are actually pretty interesting.

arabesque · 31/05/2013 15:34

But Boomba, all you're describing is a particularly monotonous type of work. But generalising it as 'office work' is ridiculous. I work in what would be called an office, but the job I do is interesting and creative and so are a lot of the people I work with.

arabesque · 31/05/2013 15:35

Exactly Trills.

Original poster
Boomba · 31/05/2013 15:37

yeah...my actually job was interesting....

the office environment is awful

OP posts:
arabesque · 31/05/2013 15:39

Well, that was probably the company you were working for Boomba.

I'm sure there are shops where the working environment is awful; and schools and hospitals and hotels and all sorts of other places.