To ask if anyone else struggles in offices?

[ElegantGreenWasp]

I've handed in my notice to move to a community-based role and I have no intention of working in an office again.
Our office days were increased last year from 2 to 3 which made things even worse, things like having no control over the temperature, somebody wants every single window wide open in winter so tough, put your coat on.

We have to sit in our teams, I really struggle having to sit next to the same people 3 times a week. I'm a quiet, introverted person and we have a very high workload, I was put into an established team alone with highly extroverted people and I've struggled. I've had multiple comments about how quiet I am, despite trying to make conversation which unfortunately has made me even more anxious and withdrawn. My manager labelled me as quiet in front of the whole team, I know it's not meant badly but it wasn't nice.
Not supposed to listen to music- if you do put earphones you'll have to take them out multiple times anyway. No concept of quietly working, if someone on the next desk wants to screech loudly with laughter then so be it, nobody seems to say anything. But don't you dare listen to your own music.

Uncomfortable seating, micromanagement, and so on. Maybe I've just been unlucky, does anyone enjoy the office? I feel so much better working at home, I can't see myself ever doing an office role again unless it were just once a week or something.

No, because I’m an adult.

OK?

My bad, I wasn't aware that part of being an adult was loving working in offices. It's almost like non-office roles don't exist.

I do get where you’re coming from - I worked in an open plan 200+ person office for over 13 years and as an introvert I regularly struggled to maintain my social energy battery.
But to be honest that was nothing compared to direct customer facing shop work. I would take office work over than hellscape any day of the week!

I wouldn’t care at all about sitting next to the same people all the time. People have allocated desks, that’s very normal. I’m not even sure what problem sitting next to the same people each day would cause?

I would push back on the “quiet” comments and ask your manager specifically if being quiet is a negative and impacting on your performance in your role. If it isn’t then I’d ask that it not be mentioned as a negative again, because it’s not.

Listening to music via headphones hasn’t ever been standard in an office, not in most places I’d have thought.

Micromanagement is an issue with your particular management and surely would happen if you were working from home as well. Uncomfortable seating, well, they should be providing proper office chairs. If they’re not then speak to HR.

To be fair, I prefer working from home, but I’ve never had a horrible office environment either.

I used to be done with it, now it does my head in. My work has DND work areas which are silent, pods for calls and then normal desk areas. The DND areas are jolly helpful. Would that be something your workplace might consider?

I hated working in an office Found it boring and samey

Much prefer being out and about in different places

Id hate WFH doing office stuff even more thiygh

What does being an adult have to do with liking to work in an office?

I know what you mean, I don’t like being in an office full time. I have adhd so really struggle with most of it. I couldn't do 3 days a week in an office and would probably leave also. Do what feels right for you! I much prefer when I worked by myself out on the road visiting clients.

Although I can understand that office life is not for everyone I do wonder when normal social interaction, team working and average human noise became a thing that people can’t cope with.

Office work only became the “norm” incredibly recently - it’s not like it’s something we’ve done for hundreds of years!

Thank you. It's not that people can't cope with normal noise and interaction, most jobs involve interaction but it could be community-based, working with different staff, and so on. Maybe it is a me problem but everyone is different. I'm often in the middle of something and my manager calls on teams with no warning so just expected to drop everything. Or decides to do our weekly team meeting an hour earlier with 2 minutes' notice. Stuff like that gets annoying.

Thank you, it doesn't have an impact on my work AFAIK because we talk to customers all day on live chat, email and so on and I communicate with my manager when required. It's more about my position within the team, I did find it hard being put into an established team, in my previous job I started with other people and we were put into teams together, it's just life though I guess.

Do you really think that people who work in non office jobs don't have social interaction, and the rest of it? How strange

Are you neurodivergent?

if so, have you had an OH assessment?

I'm not that I'm aware of. My partner left office work to work in a trade as he also hated the culture, he is NT.

I think it's just the constant live monitoring of our work too, again I know this isn't in every job. Constant pop-up teams messages: 'elegant, you've got 10 cases left, reckon those will be done by 5pm?" Even though I've never failed to get them done.
It's likely just management style but I prefer to just be getting on with stuff. I did previously enjoy my community role a few years back so I'm pleased to be returning.

I get you OP. I do almost no work on my office days because I feel so watched and on edge. My office is open plan with loads of people shoved in a small space and it’s so loud. Often I’m sat jammed in between two people on calls all day. Then can’t hear my own calls over them when I have them. So many reasons it’s hard to relax and focus on a task.

Also, I find office environments so bleak and demotivating. I’ve spent years making my house gorgeous and I love being there so it seems mad to spend money and time trekking to somewhere so much less pleasant.

Them’s the rules though 😔

This is now specific to my management but it's one rule for them and another for us. He doesn't meet the 60% requirement we constantly get told we're being 'monitored' on. He leaves at lunchtime then logs on at home which we're told we're 'not allowed to do', just stuff like that.

LOL as if only neurodivergent people struggle with offices!

There was even a hit comedy show once about how depressing offices are… if only I could remember the name…

I've had the comments about being quiet, it makes me feel so uncomfortable. I'm quiet when I'm feeling anxious and being told I'm quiet just makes that anxiety worse. Luckily I'm with the best team I've worked with right now, no one made comments about me being quiet and it's become the team I feel most comfortable with and I've had some really good chats with them.
Still not a fan of the office. I find it really hard to get stuck back in to my work when someone starts talking, I sometimes wonder how some people get any work done there. The lights are too bright. We have to make calls and are in close proximity so people just get louder to drown out the person next to them. The moods of certain people seem to be contagious, if a couple of people are stressed the whole team ends up feeling stressed.

What a shitty comment! Have you not noticed in your 18+ years on this Earth that people are different and what might enable one person to be their most productive isn't the same as what works for another? I think it's pretty short sighted of businesses to mandate a one size fits all way of working if they don't have to.

Yes it does doesn't it, they think that commenting on you being quiet will suddenly make you louder. I know they think they're being helpful but it's just made me retreat even more with the 'You never shut up do you!'
A woman told me I 'always look scared' when I was literally just looking at my PC.

If you’ve already handed in your notice then I’d probably just not care about listening to music via headphones or being quiet. I’d not answer teams calls if it’s inconvenient and I think I’d start pushing back on micromanagement too.

I put up with office life for a decade and now you'd have to pry remote working out of my cold, dead hands. On the rare occasion I go into the office, the irritations start right away... crap chair, uncomfortable temperature, loud people, monitors too close to my eyes and no way to move them back, going into the toilet and some woman has left the sink full of hair (this week's example)... ugh.

Oh, and no fewer than FIVE road closures on my commute home.