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

Clearly OP despite your belief that you are not a 9-6 person and are a very special snowflake, you haven't been able to secure that lifestyle have you? So maybe you are just a normal pleb like the rest of us. As an office manager, I wouldn't employ someone with your attitude, whatever your educational attainments. I'd rather have someone keen with a proven track record of reliability and efficiency. You sound like a clueless dreamer.

"So maybe you are just a normal pleb like the rest of us."

Arf!

But TWO DEGREES!

do what you please. It really doesn't matter.

if you aren't happy, find something else. someone else will take your office job. There are plenty of jobs I would hate to do and plenty I would be totally shit at. I'd give them a good go though if it was that or starve!

It's really no big deal to anyone if you don't like your job and don't want to do it, just look for something else. If you need the money then stay where you are until you do find something more suited to you, if money is not a problem for you, then give your notice and do what the hell you want.

Just be a grown up about it either way.

OP, I'm not surprised you're getting flamed, but I do get it. Not everyone can deal with offices. My husband can't, I'm not that great at it either. We both work extremely hard and have good work ethics but find long-term office work kind of soul-destroying (we are both introverts which I think accounts for much of it).

I think where you're going wrong though is putting the blame on your age or on your coworkers. You might another office job more interesting (temping is a great idea). Otherwise figure out what you do like and go for that. Did you like the cheese job? Can you work in a nice cheese shop somewhere? Do you desperately need money or can you invest in starting your own business?

Don't make excuses, be more positive and find something you like more.

Running your own business means you get to do all the jobs. Not just the lovely, soul-warming, creative ones, but all the crappy stuff that you hate and don't think you're any good at either.

If your motivation for working for yourself is to be creative, do a couple of hours a day of work, and then go off and do "nice things" - then you may be able to scrape along for a bit, but it's unlikely to become a successful business unless you're absolutely passionate about doing the shitty boring difficult stuff too.

actually OP hang on a sec - so you have 2 degrees but have spent your twenties diddling around studying/internships etc...

Do you actually NEED the money? (sounds as if you don't really). Reality check or what. Having said that my inlaws' family are/were similar but now BIL teaches. He has to. due to finances.

I do agree sort of that it could be hard to adjust. If you really don't think you can adjust then you need rethink your career and fast. You're not getting any younger if you're in your 30s and will become less and less employable if you don't retrain. You can do it later but it's harder.

OP - if you have enough money (£15K or so or even less) you can buy a franchise.

dog walking, delivering fake flowers (we have them in our offices) etc - whatever suits you. I envisage this would be better for you but is more along the running your own business line which has its own set of problems.

I have two degrees. I work in an office. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else, the work is exciting.

What are your degrees in OP? Mine are in economics, which led to a career in behind the scenes politics.

IMO, it's all about the work. What does the company you are working for do? If I was selling office supplies I'd feel the same as you do.

Can you choose which cheese you hand out for the 12ph job?

I wouldnt like those smelly french cheeses but i could do 12hours shifts with Mature Irish Cheese!
Or halloumi!
I would like to hand out some olives with that though. For an extra 6ph .

How did you support yourself and how you will pay billsif you start your own bussiness?

To be honest, OP, if you're bursting with creativity and good ideas why have you just been selling cheese up until now?
I think the shock of real life has hit you and it's easy to escape into an 'oh I'm a creative type. I'm really not meant for this' mind set as a distraction. But in your thirties you really should have moved on from that and be either trying to put your money where your mouth is, or accepting the fact that you haven't landed your dream job and will just have to make the best of it for now.

Are either of your degrees in a vocational subject - law, PGCE, nursing etc? What attracted you to the job you have now - there must have been something that made you want to attend the interview.

To be fair, I think some people do struggle in an office environment. My DH could never really cope in an office. He retrained as a teacher & loves his job now - but he is not in a 'traditional' secondary school set up, he works in a specialist environment with young people with very diverse & challenging needs. I would hate it, he loves it. I am happy going into the office most days. It takes all sorts.

tbh the op does have my sympathy - working in a job that you hate is utterly soul-destroying and i am in that position at the moment. i really do dread monday morning and come home each night exhausted and fed up. i am working on getting another job and doing the best i can with my current one.

Well if I didn't need money to, you know, pay the bills and stuff, I'd quite happily go and work in a zoo. Unfortunately I do have to pay the bills, so my very boring office job allows me to do that.

Actually I quite like my job. My colleagues are intelligent, funny and very international. I have also worked in an office job that I absolutely hated. It depends on the job and the office.

Try to find something in a field you're actually interested in. Or at least where you can learn something new.

I was all ready to sympathise and say how much I hated office jobs even from my teens.

But I think you would feel the same about any job you do because you sound like you don't actually want to work at all.

Petula I agree that it is utterly miserable to have to trudge into a job every day where you are deeply unhappy and feel like a square peg in a round hole. However, there is something a bit annoying about someone working for a few weeks in one office job and kind of dismissing all office work as boring and full of people having dull conversations.

I also agree that some people find the structured nature of 9-5 style jobs harder to conform to than others, but some people seem to use the expression 'I'm not really an office person' in a way that implies they think they're faaar more interesting than all those drones plodding in to their boring old jobs every day.

I don't know why, but for some reason, the OP doesn't sound genuine to me. Just a feeling, you understand.

(Presume the op is doing some actual office work now rather than being on MN. Bloody office jobs eh ?)

oh yy vintagejazz, see my first two posts on this thread ^^

Ken I am waiting for the next post... I think the creativity is fantastic!

Oh I hated working in an office, too. But I didn't delude myself that it was because I was a stifled artistic genius being held down by being a wage slave.

My younger sister can't stand office work and she actually is very creative.... so she works her arse off as a chef creating lovely food for people. It's a very tough lifestyle with late hours, little stability, and she's on her feet all the time.

Do you think you could handle working really hard at something else like that, OP? Or do you just want to get rich quick selling cupcakes? Whether YABU depends on your answer to that question, really.

I don't think there are too many people who get great satisfaction out of filing, photocopying and typing up standard letters. But that's only one tiny side of office life.

People with a bit of vision, intelligence, ambition or imagination will often manage to move eventually into more interesting, challenging, varied and yes, even creative, positions within the organisation.

For others, work is just a way to pay the bills and they have busy interesting lives outside of work and don't really care that much what they do in their job as long as the hours are okay and the crowd are nice.

Offices aren't just full of non-creative types without the imagination or vision to do anything else.

Shamelessly marking my place. Being a boring, petty office person I can't help by admire the creative special snowflake that OP claims to be!

"But admire"