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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

For being jealous of office workers?

83 replies

liverpool122 · 31/01/2022 22:30

I know that office jobs aren’t easy jobs by any means!!!

But I work as a health worker around schools. I’m constantly seeing students back to back every single day. I liaise with staff members, parents, professionals non stop until I clock out.

I love my job but sometimes I do feel jealous of those that can sit at a desk and not have to speak to anyone. Some mornings I just don’t have the energy to speak to people, I just wish I could sit at a desk (or better still, work from my sofa!) and just do some work by myself. I do find myself getting jealous of my friends who can drag themselves into the office and just do computer work, or work from home.
I think I’m just exhausted from it and I know I’m lucky to have the job I do, but does anyone else share my view?

OP posts:
chaosrabbitland · 01/02/2022 06:59

nope have never felt envious , sitting at a desk just looking at emails and answering phones and typing ,attending meeting where you have people droning on for ages sounds boring as fuck .

i have to be moving and doing things all the time ,which is why retail has suited me all these years

TheOrigRights · 01/02/2022 07:03

@chaosrabbitland

nope have never felt envious , sitting at a desk just looking at emails and answering phones and typing ,attending meeting where you have people droning on for ages sounds boring as fuck .

i have to be moving and doing things all the time ,which is why retail has suited me all these years

Not of the subject of the emails, meetings etc interest you.
Gilly12345 · 01/02/2022 07:10

Life is short, look for a new job.
Do you have any annual leave, it sounds like some time off sounds good?

Office jobs generally involve social interaction, colleagues and telephone.

MrsLargeEmbodied · 01/02/2022 07:37

my job can be stressful, it is in an office,
but the clients who call can be stress inducing, as can colleagues and bosses,
otoh it can also be very very boring and tedious, which is worse!

Puffthemagicdragongoestobed · 01/02/2022 07:59

I have been doing office jobs throughout my career and I am jealous of people who have different types of jobs! Working in an office means:

  1. listening to other peoples banter all day - can be entertaining, but also annoying especially if you are on the introvert side
  2. you have to force yourself to move around every so often, it is very sedentary
  3. during my first proper job I developed terrible back, neck and shoulder issues which have never properly gone away. You have to be so careful to sit in an ergonomic position and move around. The job that I had was so stressful and we were under a lot of pressure, which meant it was very constant with barely any breaks.

WFH obviously helps immensely in addressing point 1, but I do sometimes miss the social side of it.

CounsellorTroi · 01/02/2022 08:10

There are offices and offices. I’ve worked in huge open plan offices the size of a football field. Too far away from windows to see what the weather is doing. That was horrible. On the other hand I’ve worked in much smaller open plan areas with windows I could see out of and waterfront views. That was much better.

RudeAF · 01/02/2022 08:18

I’m a nurse and had that feeling if I can’t bear to talk or be talked to for another second…it was because I was burnt out and under extreme stress. Is everything ok?

Londonlassy · 01/02/2022 08:31

Used to be a registered nurse now office based regulatory role I would never go back to nursing, dealing with the public and their expectations against the reality of the health system was utterly exhausting. I can’t explain the joy of working in an office and being able to go to the toilet as soon as I get the urge, unlike nursing where it would take several hours to find minutes to escape to the loo

Camomila · 01/02/2022 08:37

I have an office job - half WFH/half in the office.

I make a few phone calls a day, send lots of emails, and do lots of data input.

I'm an introvert and really like it. It's a lovely break from the small DC and DH who are constantly chatting/jumping on me etc.

IntermittentParps · 01/02/2022 08:44

I hear you, OP. Something like health work, seeing people and being 'on' all the time, would exhaust me.

I work at home and sit at a desk and my job hardly ever involves having to speak to anyone.
Most of the time I love it, and I do often think of people doing different work and how lucky I am that I get to do this.
I would say, though, that it has its downsides too: I get physically very fidgety and twitchy, and have ongoing shoulder/neck issues from sitting/keyboarding/peering at a screen. I have to try to be strict with myself about taking breaks and stretching etc.
I'm not very sociable and I do love sitting working alone, but even I do go a bit stir-crazy sometimes. I suspect I often talk the ear off the rest of my household over dinner at night because I've basically sat in silence all day Grin
So, basically, the grass is always greener!
(but again, I do hear you and I think your kind of work takes a kind of energy and focus that I admire and do NOT possess myself).

TabithaTittlemouse · 01/02/2022 08:47

I’m a nurse and think that I already spend too much time in the office rather than with my patients. I couldn’t bare it!

justustwoandmoo · 01/02/2022 08:50

@chaosrabbitland

nope have never felt envious , sitting at a desk just looking at emails and answering phones and typing ,attending meeting where you have people droning on for ages sounds boring as fuck .

i have to be moving and doing things all the time ,which is why retail has suited me all these years

It's good that we are all different i think. I did retail for a while and it really wasn't for me at all.

I agree with you though OP. Being face to face with people all the time can be exhausting. I work in Learning and Development (training). Some days like to day i have a full day of delivering to a classroom full of people. By the end of it i am very very glad to not have to speak to anyone for a while and to know that i have an 'office' day tomorrow xx

MissTrip82 · 01/02/2022 08:51

Oh - no.

Lockdown really illustrated to me how many people had pointless meaningless ‘answer emails and have zoom meetings’ office jobs.

I was so so glad to have meaningful work.

TheSoapyFrog · 01/02/2022 08:56

I have to admit that I loved working in an office. Although the job did require me to work in a non office setting sometimes so I got the best of both worlds.

Oblomov22 · 01/02/2022 09:15

I love my job. I do accounts, in an office, one day wfh. I speak to a few people occasionally, no meetings, no zoom calls for 8 hours a day. I just go in, process stuff, have a few chats, go home. Fabulous.

StillMedusa · 01/02/2022 09:39

I sometimes feel the same way (WFH envy!!!) but then realise I'd probably be crippled with back pain if I was sitting all day!
I work as a TA in Special School so am constantly on the move..chasing kids, hoisting, changing them etc etc and sometimes when I get home I'm so tired of PEOPLE I just want to hide...I need an hour of silence to get on with the evening!

But.. the thought of being in constant meetings.. nope! I wish I could find a job where Iwas active a few days a week and on my own the rest!

Dilbertian · 01/02/2022 09:50

Totally get you. I have a similar job. I have had office-based jobs in the past that were also very full-on with personal interactions and deadline pressures. (I worked with an insane advertising sales team, though I myself was not in sales, and they were truly insane. Probably stoned while I was sober .) But this is different. Somehow more personal, more involved. I feel so much more invested in the lives of the people I work with, so aware that my actions have a direct bearing on their lives, rather than on a business's profits.

I would never go back to an office job now, no matter how exciting or calm, nor glamorous.

Do you take time to decompress? Can you go for a walk at lunchtime? Even just 10minutes eating my sandwich alone in a park makes a difference. When you go home, are you plunged straight into home-duties? If you are, can you take a longer route home so that you can decompress on the way? Or go straight back out for a jog, if that's your thing?

Comefromaway · 01/02/2022 09:53

I work in an office. I'm one of the only women in a company full of men. It's OK but I much preferred when I worked in an education setting with young people.

RoseMartha · 01/02/2022 13:52

I am now wfh indefinitely (part time).Its mainly computer based job. I have a work phone that hardly ever rings. I call the directors if I need to or go and collect or drop work to them about once a fortnight. Mainly we communicate by email. It is a mundane job also. While I like being at home it is also lonely tbh.

I have 2 teens one with SN. Neither talk to me, rather at me instead. So all in all I feel pretty isolated.

Before covid job was office based.

Percyprod · 01/02/2022 13:57

I'm retired, but spent my life working in the Lake District for a utility company. Had to visit our offices sometimes, full of back biting and moaning. Much prefer being mostly 9n my own touring the countryside, meeting customers, drinking coffee! Ah those were the days!

User135644 · 01/02/2022 13:59

I've had various jobs but I need a desk job where I can just get on with my work and not have to deal with customers/the public. I find it overwhelming just sitting an open plan office though at times.

ToykotoLosAngeles · 01/02/2022 14:03

YANBU. I show up, crack on with admin and drink a lot of coffee. No meetings. Maybe I would feel differently if I were full time but it is my lovely break from parenting 3 days a week.

Drinkingallthewine · 01/02/2022 14:04

I work in an office for 15 years now, before that I worked in retail and hospitality and call centers so it was all shift work with evenings and weekends and seasonal times, and honestly, I would not swap back to shift work again.

The one downside is that very often because my job is so sedentary my activity levels are pathetic. I used to go out running at lunch time but covid shut down our shower rooms.

And there are a couple of unsufferable twats here but proportionally compared to other workplaces it's pretty good.

We worked from home for 18 months during the pandemic and it was bliss - did not miss the office at all! I'd love to do a hybrid working week but that's not a runner just yet - working on it though!

MajorCarolDanvers · 01/02/2022 14:10

All the 'office' jobs I know involve talking in back to back in person or online meetings.

By the end of the day I'm entirely talked and screened out.

Blackbirdblue30 · 01/02/2022 14:11

I'm in an office. It's for the long-term greater good. I'm lucky that I can walk to work and don't have to deal with the general public. However, I think the artificial light is damaging my eyes. I can't bear sitting down in a chair all day. The phones make a terrible noise. A colleague goes on and on and on and on and on about her kids. Another one sits like a blob and needs supervision for the bare basic. The work is repetitive and dull. I feel like my good well-educated, creative brain is rotting half the time. Also, I sit here for 7.5 hours every day and the actual work could be done in 3. The waste of my time in pointless presenteeism is maddening.
What I actually want to do doesn't earn reliable money and I don't have financial support. So I'm here to work up enough to go part time or take shorter working year. Its very safe and secure but it's not all that enviable.