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

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?

But that's what you are kind of doing about all of your colleagues in the office, no?

OP, if you have two degrees, you will have free access to the careers service at both universities as an alumnus. Go and book an appointment and get them to help you decide what you want to do. In the meantime, you mention the Support Worker role needing you to drive. If you don't drive, look at the current job as a means of paying for driving lessons so you have a motivation to keep on with it.

had an almost unlimited amount of cheese

This has got to be a wind up, surely?

Thanks womb. However I'm not doing an admin job that's beneath me. I'm doing a skilled job that pushes me into the 40% tax bracket and that I've been doing more or less for years but in an unstructured mannor.

I think I've come to the conclusion that the job is OK, its just the structure of it and the mundande office life spending so much time with people I wouldn't socialise with. New office or my own company next.

I'm not trying to be insaulting to the people I work with, they just have different life prioritys and interests. They will find some of mine dull, I will find some of them dull. I still can't bring myself to be interrsted in a cookie jar someone has brought that makes a pig noise every time its opened, but for others this is the best thing since sliced bread and the talk of the office.

No I had almost unlimited cheese, I could take the used rindes home each day and you could still get loads more off them. Still got a freezer full of the stuff.

Spegal

I think it's just called 'having a bit of a laugh'. It is really on on television soaps and dramas that people sit around in work discussing their innermost thoughts and having deep meaningful conversations. In real life people in most workplaces, creative or otherwise, just chit chat, have a bit of friendly banter, discuss what they saw on television last night etc.

I remember when I got my first job after my degree. It was a real shock how mundane and humdrum it was, but what I found most challenging was having to deal with people who hadn't spent years in education and therefore thought they were the bees knees. (The people who had spent years in education, I mean).

I was just 21 though, and I soon came to realise I wasn't the centre of the universe, but I think it's a pretty common reaction in your first job. You don't have to socialise with people you work with, which is more or less what you do at college.

only on television soaps and dramas

You don't need a new job, you need a sense of humour.

I think the reason why people are commenting on your attitude, OP, is that the sort of half throwaway mentions of things you have done or are interested in, and the things your colleagues have done and are interested in, are phrased in such a way as to make it look condescending.

You don't say your colleagues watch TV and you don't, or that they like Italian restaurants and you prefer Japanese. You say that they talk about holidays to the Canary Islands, while you volunteered in Ecuador and Cambodia, and that they like a cookie jar that makes a noise when it opens. That along with the repeated mention of your two degrees. Do you know how many degrees your colleagues have? Do you know what they are in?

The examples you are giving, whether this is deliberately done or not, intrinsically imply that you do think you are better than them, or your interests are more cultured than theirs.

Degrees and cultural experiences do not make people better than anyone else. To me, you are confusing your interests and education with the simple fact that you are not cut out to work in an office - which is fine, lots of people aren't. But it's not down to education. I have a BA and an MA, I still love working in my office.

i have a BA and an MA, have volunteered in ecuador, go to art galleries, and i find the idea of a cookie jar that makes a pig noise quite funny

So do I and I have two degrees and work in a 'creative' job.

I'm a neuroscientist, have hand raised orphan whales and driven dirt bikes in the desert, eaten tons of cheese and not only work in an office...I have the corner office

On the internet, nobody knows you are a dog

I feel like we should have a competition here - who has the most degrees and the most uncultured interests?

BA, MA, chartered professional status, and I am addicted to Catfish: the TV Show and Mills & Boon

Oh, I like that idea! BSc, MSc, MPhil and I'm currently binge watching Alias. Now, THAT would be a fun office to work in.

i have lived and worked in paris, yet i am transfixed by "man vs. food". my face the entire time the show is on is like this -->

A degree, 2 Masters, partway through a PhD, lived for years in Africa, and my main gripe with working in an office is that it stops me watching Bargain Hunt. I swear all that's true.

biblio, I think I was most devastated when returning to work after maternity leave about not being able to watch Homes Under the Hammer every morning

I'm not sure if you have dcs, OP. There's an episode of the Simpsons where Homer has to come crawling back to the nuclear plant because Marge gets pregnant with Maggie. There's a bit at the end where you see why he does it: Maggie's photos and the phrase "Do it for her".

It's really common to think you are meant for better things, and I would always says to someone to reach out and get them if you can. But in the meantime, don't look down on the people around you. Change your situation if that's the right thing to do, but don't big yourself up by putting others down.

Thurlow, daytime property and antique programmes are the crack of the televisual world, I swear.

I have a degree and a pgce and I love man v food AND four in a bed. We have a humorous cookie jar and wind up chattering teeth. Also my cheese of choice is gouda.

Can I have a small prize for being so common?

To be fair I haven't been going on about two degrees, never mentioned it in the op or to start with. I only mentioned it as a direct response to people asking what I had spend my 20s doing.

Its other people here that took the fact I have two degrees and ran wild with it.

Where did I say the job was beneith me? I haven't.

I didn't particularly want it and wasn't expecting to get it as it was the first interview for years. The offered it to me, I said the money was too low and have a much higher figure. They eventually offered pretty near this amount and so was hard to say no.

You didn't explicitly state it was beneath you, but you did imply that the people are dull and take the job too seriously, and that you felt you should really be doing something more creative. You also did it in kind of sweeping 'oh God, office work, how did I end up doing this' way which must be very irritating to the many people who either enjoy office work, or have no choice but to work in one.
Fair enough, you may not have realised you were coming across like that. But perhaps it's the same in RL. You could be coming across to your colleagues as if you think they're not worth bothering about (and could possibly be missing out on some interesting and rewarding friendships as a result).

I am not keen on office jobs. I don't spend all my time in the office anyway, but ideally I'd be looking after sheep or designing clothes, but sadly I don't have the expertise and those jobs don't necessarily pay as well! My pet hate is having to sit down a lot of the time (my colleagues used to laugh when I took phone calls standing up!) because I get all stiff, oh, and the constant stream of cakes.

I should stay stream of cakes and fad diets...