to think if your first office job is in your 30s its too hard to adjust

[spegal]

Hi,

I've started an office job in my 30s, its been a month and still just finding it a miserable and boring existence. Such dull conversations and other people seam to delight in pointing out minor mistakes or picking arguments over little things. To be honest I really don't care about it all, I'm just like whatever its not like anyone is going to die if something isn't perfect.

I'm coming to the conclusion I'm just not an office 9-6 kind of person. Maybe if I had started in my 20s I could of coped. But now I've had such a great life not sat in offices it makes it so hard.

Am I being stuck up or does anyone see my point of view?

Might just stick it out till Xmas for the cash

Panda I think OP gave as good as she got.

She's now started another thread thinking people were unkind to her as English isn't her first language.

She's now started another thread thinking people were unkind to her as English isn't her first language.

Really though, there did seem to be quite a lot of responses along the lines of " how can you have 2 degrees and use 'could of' instead of 'could have' / 'seam' instead of 'seem'"

That's a little bit picky.

For starters, most people aren't going to be spell checking and proofreading to the same extent when posting on mumsnet as when they're writing essays / reports etc.

And secondly, the same level of written English isn't needed for all degree courses. OP hasn't said (I think) what her degrees were in. You'd probably be able to get away with that kind of error far more easily if you were doing degrees in STEM subjects (Science, Engineering etc) rather than a degree in a humanities subject (say English Language).

I still feel like I'm a bit of a fraud pretending I'm interested in working hard

Fucking hell, im glad you're not working for me. What an attitude to have

£24 per hour and unlimited cheese? This is my dream job!

Play fair though. If you start a thread which implies you're so much better than the drones, you need to demonstrate your superiority. And specifically saying you cba with accuracy but expecting to be paid is a red rag to the pedantry bull.

My standard of writing remains the same, here or lecture hall.

god mine doesn't, i'm terribly lazy typing on social media!

i don't tend to make grammatical mistakes though, just often don't bother going back to correct typos or bother with capitals!

my work documents are impeccable

.....had an almost unlimited amount of cheese

This is a brilliant job perk, I wonder if I can put in a demand at work for this instead of a pay rise

Ahh x-posted with JustPassingThru

Hey lets split the difference, you can have the £24/hr, I'll have the almost unlimited cheese

OP - I think you do need to be a bit careful at how your attitude comes across, yes of course some of your co-workers may have their noses put of joint but don't be so naive to think management won't be forming their own opinions as well.

I manage junior members of staff in roles which are kind of seen as stepping stones to more senior positions with more responsibility. A few years ago we had one member of staff with a first from Cambridge who everyone thought would be a bit up herself when she started as the role was quite junior but she was absolutely lovely and got stuck in to everything. She never made it appear as though doing a bit of photocopying was beneath her, her intelligence far outweighed parts of the job she was required to do but she got on with it quietly, never moaned and was a pleasure to work with. I have given her glowing references for every role she has moved on to since.

When she left her replacement was like night and day, bog standard degree from a bog standard university but her attitude absolutely stank. She made it clear that she was destined for much more interesting and important things in life and every task was greeted with a tut and a sigh. She was a pita and I was so relieved when she took her stinky attitude to some other lucky workplace.

Just saying, don't be so eager to show your self-appointed superiority, it won't do you any favours.

You are never too old to adjust to something - it is whether you want to.
I would stick it for a while for your CV- think about what you really want to do and change.

Guitargirl, you make very good points and have vocalised better than
I could have, hence I had desisted from posting too much!

My belief is we all wake up in the morning and choose our attitude

People with a string of qualifications to their name can flounder in an organisation if their attitude is sullen, superior and no-can-do. Conversely, people like your Cambridge Grad have it made, their bright, willing motivation sees them accelerate up the organisation, they show they can get on with people and deal with the mundane and the exciting with equal gusto!

Guitar thanks useful stuff. But I'm really not snobbish about having two degones, I only mentioned it as people asked what I spent my twenties doing. Its a pretty normal thing to do in Germany. One was in dance and visual arts, I bet that will get the trolls here going, but intend not to mention that one despite it being a lot of fun.

I still reserve the right to find their conversations dull about cars and the food they ate at the hotel while on holidays in the canary's. Just as they have the right to find my stories about disturbing supplies to school children in Cambodia or working in a monkey sanctuary in Ecuador boring.

I never said I was better, we are just all different. My life does seam to have brought out the green eyed bitch from a few here.

Haha distributing I mean

i'm sorry op but after your most recent post i've got

OP is a special snowflake

"Paul Harvey, a University of New Hampshire professor and GYPSY expert, has researched this, finding that Gen Y has “unrealistic expectations and a strong resistance toward accepting negative feedback,” and “an inflated view of oneself.” He says that “a great source of frustration for people with a strong sense of entitlement is unmet expectations. They often feel entitled to a level of respect and rewards that aren’t in line with their actual ability and effort levels, and so they might not get the level of respect and rewards they are expecting.”

Its easier to just be condisending, be agist and tar everyone of the same age with the same brush and pass the blame a whole generation rather than just talking about the issue at hand eh?

Because, the advice in your link is quite apt for OP:

"Stop thinking that youre special. The fact is, right now, youre not special. Youre another completely inexperienced young person who doesnt have all that much to offer yet. You can become special by working really hard for a long time."

tbh that link is quite british-culture specific - i don't think you could necessarily apply that to someone who was brought up in germany (as i think the op was?) as they had different experiences post-second world war

(also, i'm 28, so the GYPSY stuff presumably applies to me too )

i mean, the advice is fine (stop thinking you're special, work hard etc), but the reasoning not necessarily correct in the op's case

Where did j say I was special? Who are you to judge me on my abilities and skills?

I'm lucky enough to have done a lot of charity work that I found very rewarding and taught me lots of life lessons. That makes me entitled?

OP, doesn't all this just really come back to whether you want to do an admin job or not?

If you were, say, co-ordinating delivery of overseas food aid from an office would you find that more rewarding than co-ordinating delivery of car parts to garages in the UK?

Or is it that you want a job where your environment is varied and you are not at a desk?

Once you know the answer to that you can point yourself in the direction of something that will make you happy.

Maybe it was the way you worded your first post OP but you did come across as if you're sitting there disdainfully thinking how boring and dull everyone is.
And I'm not sure why you think you've brought out the 'Green Eyed Monster' in posters. Genuine question, but what are we supposed to be envious of?