Some people just aren't office 9-6 people

[Mcdotii]

I went straight from uni into office work. I never really liked it but I carried on doing it for over ten years.

Ive recently gone back after an 18 month break and I really can't stand it. Ive been back a few months and half of the days I just think about quitting there and then.

I earn a good wage (over twice the national average) but could survive on less. But I'm totally at a loss at what to do next. I know I couldn't do any customer facing role either.

Aibu to just quit it as I'm not an office person?

Yabu - if you don't like it just leave and do something that doesn't make you miserable - moaning about it just makes you a bit of a whinger.

Offices aren't all like this at all. Mine isn't. I work flexible hours - usually 8.30 - 4.30, I sit right next to a window for air (although I am often freezing so I usually have it shut, but I get the natural light), I can get up and go for a walk when I want to, I like the vast majority of my colleagues, particularly my line manager and the other PA, and the ones I don't are the ones everyone else finds annoying too.

I have worked in some crap offices, but I love the one I work in now. But there are lots of reasons why being in an 'office' suits me - I am perfectly happy sitting down in one place all day, I like having set hours, I'm an introvert so I like the fact I can choose to join in the social chitchat or not depending on how I'm feeling, etc etc.

I would say it's the job you do that makes more difference rather than the office, but that's only my experience.

I'd agree that you need to figure out what specifically is the issue for you. I really hate being indoors all the time, especially in summer. That doesn't preclude an 'office type' job - I've done research work where I spent a lot of time travelling around conducting interviews, for example.

Equally - is it working for someone else that is the issue? I've now been self employed or effectively so (co-owner of company with a couple of others) for 20 years, and it suits me very well. In fact I have trouble getting my head around the fact that some people actively prefer to work for others, although intellectually I can see there are advantages.

Do you have any interest or engagement in what your organisation is trying to achieve, be it sale of lots of products, efficient administration of public services, creating something entertaining etc? It sounds like this is more the problem than your physical environment. Are you tied to a specific field/industry?

Oh also don't be fooled by the trendy creative places like Google etc - I'm not going to name any names but a few years ago I was temping for a year in various places like these - the culture is awful. Massive egos and insanely long hours. You get extra perks because they know the working culture is shitty.

I love my job. I hate our office. It's a huge council building. There are a couple of hundred in my office space alone. We hot desk. You get to a desk and spend 10 mins sourcing a mouse and keyboard or you plug in your laptop and find the plug socket that you reported 6 months ago is still fucked, so you can't use your charger. Oh and that's if you can even find a desk as they keep moving more and more people in but not adding desks. It's hot, the lights are harsh. The printer is often not working, so you walk ages to stand in a 15 minute printer queue. When I think 'office', I think what we have. Fortunately, we work remotely and see clients. I'm hardly in the office, sometimes I can go days without going there. I think you'd be hard pushed to find any job that doesn't have an office base.

No I'm not tied to an industry. I have deliberately not worked for a finance company (despite being able to earn significantly more if I did) and I work for a company that I like. I just hate the environment. If it had a state of the art office I would feel differently however I now live rurualy and my options for traveling to work have been significantly reduced.

I've seen work for 30% of what I currently earn that I probably would like, but I'm kind of stuck with this job with my outgoings.

If you like and believe in the company why are your conversations with your colleagues boring? Why can't you just get stuck in, overcome your feelings about the environment and raise some enthusiasm?

Working in an office is unnatural, and unhealthy - there is increasing evidence that sitting still for ages in the same posture is bad for your long-term health and life expectancy. So it's not surprising that many people don't like it.

It's reality for most of us, though, so worth thinking about how you can tolerate it. I go for a walk at lunchtime and try to set up meetings out of the office whenever possible.

I really enjoy working in offices, I like the security of it.

That said, I think it really does depend on what industry you get into. I use to work at mum's work (office) as a teenager doing archiving, filing etc being a office junior and it was tedious, in the holidays I use to do almost full days and by the end of the day I was bored shitless.

Mum was an accountant and found it boring towards the end of her career as she was basically doing similar things month after month and by the time she was mid 50s she went temping as she was that over it, she enjoyed it at first but the longer she did accountancy the more boring it got.

Now I work in teams, create and organise, meet clients etc, I really enjoy it.

I don't really understand why people get so weird about their office environments over what the job actually entails

For eg, when I was temping, I did a 3 month stint an an asset management place in central London. Office was super modern, everyone had macs, iphones, ipads, nespresso machine, fancy teas and biscuits etc, on-site chef to do lunch 3 days a week, plenty of extra perks if you were permanent.

But the work was mind-numbingly, soul-destroyingly dull and everyone there was a total tosser.

My current office is quite old and dingy - although we do have natural light - and because we're a university we don't have the world's best computers, although they do the job fine, but the work is infinitely more interesting and the people infinitely nicer. That's what matters, surely?

maybebabybee Absolutely.
I'm working on a new project from three different office bases. One if them in terms of facilities and logistics is really frustrating but the staff are great and there's a real team spirit.
I believe in my company and what it does and so do the cast majority of my colleagues. One if the other bases has better facilities but morale is dragged down by moaners and whingers some if whom are going through the motions and don't want to be there. I've no time for people like that and management need to address it.

Not everyone who doesn't like office work is a special little snowflake. Some people would hate to do the stuff I do but I would hate to do what they do. One friend hated when she had to take a job as a greeter in a shop, which I would have no problem in doing yet loves the fact she now has a job in a finance office, my idea of Hell.

If you really hate office work I suggest you get a plan together to go and do something you really want to do. If it is your outgoings that means you cannot take a job on less money I would start to look at ways and means to cut down your outgoings. Then look at getting an evening job that you can do if you move to the lesser paying job. How would the figures add up. Life is too short to waste your time doing something you hate without a plan of how to get out.

I agree with you.

DS1(20) is very bright, he has all A*s and As at GCSE and AAB at Alevel. He hated being cooped up at school and he worked in a shop part time and hated being cooped up in there. He had a place at uni to do History and Politics but the night before his A level results he said he wasn't going.

He joined the Army, which was his dream, and absolutely loves it. He loves sleeping in a hole, he loves running for miles, he loves driving his vehicle about. He's got a spark and enthusiasm that we'd not seen for ages. When he finishes in the Army he plans to be a PE teacher so he can still be outside a lot.

That's great, FairyCaravan :) Good for him to resist the 'everyone's doing it' pressure.

I agree, I don't think the fact that I'd rather be outside than indoors makes me a special little snowflake. There's loads of jobs out there that don't involve spending 5 days a week in an office, and plenty of them are perfectly well paid.

After I was made redundant, I faced the same issue than you.
I spent a LONG time thinking about what I liked doing, not in terms of job, but more like enjoying being with people, being outdoor etc.
I also did a few tests online to try and see what would best for me.

I found out that my job as such wasn't the issue but the environment was. And that there was no way I would find a company that would work for me where I live (there wasn't a lot in my area).
So I decided to retrain. I spent again a lot of time looking at what would match my criteria, the feasibility etc but I now have a job that I love AND that fits with my work-life balance.

The bottom line is, ime, that looking at jobs isn't the right to go. You need to look at what you can do, what you enjoy and see whiich jobs fit that description instead.
Oh and leave your mind open to all possibilities. What I'm doing now isn't something I would have ever contemplated when I first looked.

That's great for your son!

Sadly my outgoings are mainly on my house, and no way to reduce them.

Mouse purely because I'm nosey what is your new job?

I fancy being a tree surgeon for what its worth.

My contracted hours are 9-6. I think that is very standard for London, for anyone wondering.

nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/advice/planning/jobprofiles/Pages/treesurgeon.aspx

YANBU at all. The thing is, a lot of office jobs are pointless bullshit in the first place. We live in a weird culture of worshipping 'work' ie doing something boring, unpleasant and ultimately not very necessary in order to earn money is a moral goal in itself. Many office workers could do their required tasks in about a third of the time they are expected to Be In The Office, so they spend hours farting about, gazing blankly at their screens or wandering down to the coffee shop and back just to have something to do with themselves.
Think about your skills, OP and how else they could be used. Could you, for instance, do what you do on a freelance basis and therefore pick and choose your hours and do some of your work from home/sitting in a nice park?

But an office is simply the building where you work - I think it's the job that's the problem possibly not the actual four walls within which you do that job. Plus work colleagues can make a huge difference.

YANBU at all.

I would suggest you hire a good career coach, or do lots of reading and analysis games, to try to figure out your values and needs in work. Everyone's are different.

For example, I hate office work when I am isolated, and when I don't believe that the tasks I am performing are useful, or call upon my skills. But, I thrive in any job - whether it's in an office setting or somewhere more zany - if I have a team of people to exchange ideas with, am able to be somewhat creative, and see some social purpose to my work. I have been happy as a clam working in a stodgy bureaucratic office, because the team was right and the project was too. So now I know those are the ingredients I need to look for in any position.

Your own needs will be personal to you, and there will be plenty of settings - whether in an office, or outside it - where you can feel in line with your own values. Unless your values really include contact with nature, in which case office work just won't do it for you. Ask yourself what is really behind your attraction to tree surgery: it could have nothing to do with trees and everything to do with, say, greater independence and autonomy.

Anyone so disengaged with the workplace and other people needs more proactive supervision otherwise they're at best poor value for money or at worst a potentially toxic influence in the office.