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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to HATE working in an office?

132 replies

HappyGirlNow · 07/01/2014 15:03

With loads of other people.. I find it claustrophobic,irritating and depressing after lots of years of doing it.. I think although I'm confident and will be sociable when required I'm an introvert at heart and am finding it harder and harder to deal with being around people so much, all day, day in day out..

I just want to start my own business, work from home.. Although I'll have to deal with other people I'll be able to get away from them too!

Do other people feel like this?

OP posts:
Original poster
HappyGirlNow · 08/01/2014 21:32

Sounds great Laura - I've just turned 40, worked in big offices for the last 13 years and I've just had enough.. I no longer want to be thrown together and forced to spend so much time with people in that environment..

And for the most part it's not personal just the culture.. Although there are some I just don't like..

OP posts:
LauraBridges · 08/01/2014 21:35

I doubt most people would say I was an introvert as I tend to lead things, give loads of public talks etc but if I have a choice of meeting or an email exchange or a party or a night in with a book I will just about always choose the staying in and being alone options. I see that as one reason I am so happy as my own company is this marvellous nirvana (have never yet lived alone) beckoning if the children ever leave home and the more hours without people around the better so feel very lucky that that is what makes me happy rather than other people being around all the time. I am not a recluse and I sit on committees too and do voluntary stuff but the essence for me is that a week without any meetings is the perfect one.

Original poster
HappyGirlNow · 08/01/2014 21:42

I understand.. Most people would believe me to be an extrovert I'm sure but when my husband is away and I have the house to myself with the dogs I so look forward to and enjoy it.. And if I have been looking forward to some alone time and that gets disrupted I am not a happy bunny!

OP posts:
MarshaBrady · 08/01/2014 21:43

I love going out with friends. Really love it. And a good party. But loathe the office.

I guess I didn't mind it as much when I was younger and we were all pre-dc, go out drinking. But only just.

alicetrefusis · 08/01/2014 21:43

"I now know what I like and don't like and can organise my life accordingly"

Exactly Laura , especially when one's preferences are maybe outside the narrow realm of what is considered 'normal'.

Varya · 08/01/2014 21:45

I work in a large open plan office. They tried to get rid of me last year, ut I hit back and kept my job. I like sitting in corner! Enjoy it - keep my head down and my mouth shut. Do it for the money to pay the bills, no other reason. Its a great life if you don't weaken!

orangestripe · 08/01/2014 22:17

Laska42 - Glad you liked that talk. Brings a tear to my eye too. Funnily enough, it was a friend in the office who sent the link to me a few weeks ago. She was watching it at her desk and emailed it to me later, saying she thought I'd like it. Nice to be able to pass it on. :)

Lioninthesun · 08/01/2014 22:40

Yes, I worked from 19 and managed to finally give it all up about 3/4 years ago. It's been lovely ever since :)
Be warned, office bods get irrationally jealous at times (even though your wage may not be as high as theirs), which to me goes to show I did the right thing Grin

Lioninthesun · 08/01/2014 22:42

*Worked in an office from 19. Worked in Satan's Armpit before that for 2 years whenever I could get on the rota. That was actually better than working in an office....

alicetrefusis · 08/01/2014 23:38

That TED talk was fab. Do listen people- really good. Am reliably informed the speaker has cat flap installed in her office door ;)

Bubblegoose · 09/01/2014 03:59

I work from home and I hate it! Miss the interaction and just getting out of the house.

Although reading this thread through makes me think it's not so bad at all that...

chrome100 · 09/01/2014 05:50

Yes! I hate it. No one is unpleasant and I like my work but I'd much prefer to do it alone from home and not see anyone. I loathe small talk and am paranoid everyone hates me because I am quiet.

I also hate sitting down so much. It makes me feel ill.

I'd love not to work in an office but can't think of anything else I could do

chrome100 · 09/01/2014 05:53

Although I have read Quiet and I thought it was shit - too anecdotal. I don't get the renown it seems to enjoy on here.

BranchingOut · 09/01/2014 10:00

YABU as so many jobs are far more taxing environments than the average office. Restaurants, shops, farms, oil rigs...

I used to be a teacher and now work in an office - it is like a rest cure compared to the average day teaching where I scarcely sat down, was constantly on a clock, had no freedom to take breaks when needed, no opportunity to go to the loo when I wanted, was exposed to noise and was often in a freezing cold or boiling hot environment.

Love it!

checkmates · 09/01/2014 12:00

I worked in several different offices. Didnt really suit me; but it had amusing aspects. Men and young women working together. The party at Christmas was good.

CuttedUpGrape · 09/01/2014 13:25

I hated, hated, hated working in the office. It was only a small open plan affair and everyone was generally very quiet but I still had trouble focussing, what with having to answer the phone or other distractions. Not to mention that annoying colleague with BO issues and a tendency to mess up his computer, who I then had to go and help. Got to the point where I quit and started my own business from home - bliss!

Absy · 09/01/2014 14:03

I find working in an office has its moments. My favourite times are those when I'm in on my own (I start very early some mornings) - there's no one around blabbing, no one phones me, I can just get on with my work, listening to music and drinking coffee. It's awesome. I find it difficult to work in an open plan office sometimes. I like interacting with colleauges (to an extent), and we largely get along, but it's things like people who talk really loudly on the phone, clip their nails at their desk (though that's just one individual with questionable ideas on what's socially acceptable), talk at you when clearly you're trying to concentrate on someone else or who wang on about their hobby LOUDLY while you're doing work. (particularly when it's something urgent/you're snowed under and you get pissed off at old wanger in the corner who complains about having too much work but spends a quarter of their day blaying on and on about their hobby or about how "ill" they are).

Pigsmummy · 09/01/2014 14:08

There are loads of companies that have home workers. Such as BT, Cisco, Vodafone, O2.

I work from home and I know that I would now struggle to work in an office, find it too busy but it can get lonely, like now for example I am taking a break and came here for "company". I probably won't leave the house until tomorrow.

DameDeepRedBetty · 09/01/2014 14:11

Hi have only skimmed thread, just want to say I felt EXACTLY the same about office based work and I think the best decision of my life was to do something completely different after my five year SAHM period. I now run a dogwalking and pet care agency, and whenever it's a bit wet and miserable out there I look at my corporate suit and shoes still hanging in the wardrobe (basically kept for funeral wear frankly) and remember the horrors of that bloody office.

It's gorgeous today, I've already done two fantastic big walks, have dived home for lunch and MN, and now must go out for another, with three lovely retrievers including an adorable puppy Smile

Best of luck attaining your goal.

ElizabethBathory · 09/01/2014 16:36

chrome it's funny you should say you're paranoid everyone hates you because you're quiet. I'm the opposite - I'm paranoid everyone thinks I hate them. (I know friends who thought I hated them before they got to know me.) I like most people, I just can't bring myself to grin and say hello and exchange inanities day in day out whenever I pass them in a corridor.

Pawprint · 09/01/2014 16:50

I hated office work - putting up with bullying, other people's hangovers and bad tempers... awful. On the other hand, I made some wonderful friends.

I work as a dog walker now - I am out and about in all weathers and it is so much fun. Not for everyone, but I love it.

IfNotNowThenWhen · 09/01/2014 17:56

YANBU.
Hate how someone is always chatting, so it's rarely quiet. I find it really hard to concentrate.
The petty rivalries and feuds built up over years (lotta lifers in my office who are feckin institutionalised).
The fat-making snacks being brought in all the time.
The fact that my colleagues like it really hot, and I am always boiling and sweaty.
My job isn't bad, sometimes I realy like it, but I could do without so much inanesmall talk tbh, and the sitting all day.
I think ideally, my job would involve being out and about in some way, and interacting with different people.
I have even considered police work for this reason(but obvs I would have to go straight to Helen Mirren, bypassing the clunky shoes and terrible hat)!

IfNotNowThenWhen · 09/01/2014 17:58

And Oh God yes, the people who complain all the time about how busy and stressed they are, and yet never stop frikkin talking, and going "come and look at this cat on You Tube!"
Aaargh

SwedishEdith · 09/01/2014 20:34

Yes, it's the sitting down all day, staring at a screen which I really hate. Working from home doesn't really remove that. And, funnily, I don't mind doing it when it's non-work related.

My best jobs were the ones where I was out and about most of the week - different places and different people each day. I do hanker after that.

Shazaw77 · 09/01/2014 22:27

I like having an office based job, however, it depends on the office. I moved jobs six months ago. Before I was working in an open plan office with 90% females, now I sit in an office on my own, and am the only female that works there. It is a huge difference, but it is so much better. The office politics, snide comments, bad atmospheres etc are all gone. I miss the girly chat sometimes, but it was so annoying when you just want to go in and get your work done, and there was just such a lot of distraction. I'm glad I got out, but sometimes it is really hard to leave, wondering whether things will actually be better somewhere else.

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