Please could you give me your views on office based work?

[losingmymindiam]

I am trying to decide whether to leave teaching and go for a research office type job. I am struggling with the decision and currently have another thread about it! Please could you tell me what working in an office is like as teaching is all I've ever known! I'm worried I may be thinking the grass is greener but my mental health has taken a battering from all the demands of teaching and I can't face being a performing monkey anymore!

I've been in office work all my life, I love it. It can be kinda lazy compared to retail or manual work - my brain and my hands/arms are active, but my bum gets numb after an hour!

Don't think you'll escape being a performing monkey though. There are just different hoops to jump through depending on the office environment - performance reviews, office politics, etc. The grass is probably not that much greener.

I've swapped teaching for office work. I'll never go back.

I work predominantly in an office.

Things that are positive compared (I imagine!) to teaching:

• I can eat/drink at my desk as I wish
• If I fancy a breath of fresh air I can head outside
• I can use the toilet at any time.
• I can do a certain amount of life admin throughout the day: need to call the doctor/ arrange an appointment / call my mum, all done from the office.

If I don't fancy writing a particular report between 12-1 I can do something else during that time and do the report earlier/later. I assume if you have science 12-1 that's what you have!

Thanks for your replies. @EggysMom I literally feel like I'm a performing monkey though - have to put on a show on an hourly basis for my students (and anyone else who happens to be watching). It is utterly exhausting.
@MiraculousMarinette What do you do now? If you don't mind me asking! And why did you leave?

Admin job in HE sector, pays as much as my teaching job would have done had I carried on. But I skip out of office at the end of a day without a care in the world and don't think about work until I walk through the office door! Plus flexi time and all that jazz. It's heaven!

I only did Schools Direct PGCE and NQT year. The whole experience was horrid and I didn't enjoy any of it. In particular the lack of work-life balance and rigidity of working in school. Basically too much pressure and high expectations but not nearly enough remuneration. Additionally, I don't agree with quite a few rules being enforced in schools so couldn't effectively make pupils follows them as I don't believe in them myself.

Depends completely on the type of office job. I guess you’ll want to be sure that the day to day job is something that will stimulate you intellectually. You’ll also want to think about the culture of the company. Some office jobs might involve unpaid overtime but others may just be your contractual hours. You’ll lose the school holidays though if you leave teaching so perhaps think about how that will feel - it can be hard if you have a full time job with just the standard 4 weeks holiday. Again, some employers are more generous.

I went back into an office job recently after 7 years in a non office, field based role (lots of travelling and working from home in-between) and from day one I absolutely hated it so just be sure what you're getting in to!

Personally I couldn't stand being in a big open plan thing with what felt like 100 people staring at me. I also couldn't hack the monotony of sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day, I tend to work in fits and starts and in some office jobs it can be 8 hours of just sitting and doing stuff... obviously a lot depends on the job content, what you're used to and what kind of office it is. But I felt like a battery hen and left after 2 weeks to go back to a similar role/environment to the one I'd left.

I would say consider whether sitting down most of the day, likely in front of a computer, would appeal to you.

You might enjoy work that has a mix of admin and more 'active' responsibilities. This is why I enjoy library work and gave up a job where I was sat in front of a PC aaaall day.

After running around with 3 kids for almost 10 years, I feel very happy to "sit" for 8 hours a day.

I don't know what's everyone's day like, I get up to the toilet, tea break very hour and get out for lunch. I sometimes go to client sites but only few times a year. I definitely enjoy doing "office" jobs at my age of mid 40s!

It can be tedious but rewarding!

Office job can be great and terrible I've experienced both, its important to know what you want.
I don't like working in large offices with loads of people although the socialising side of it was fun the office politics were not!
I work for a big company now but at small site and I have a small office mostly to myself but I like my own company and to plan my own day without a manager breathing down my neck. Basically as long as I get all my work done I'm left to my own devices which suits me perfectly. Plus I do get to go out and pick paperwork etc up from other sites quite regularly so I'm not staring at a computer all day.
The best thing about an office job is when I shut the office door I don't even think about work until I sit at my desk the next day.
Best advice I can give is if you decide to go for it find a the right job don't rush into anything.

If going to change to office, suggest look at

No sick pay for year one ?

How much holiday per year

Pension contributions

Can you work some days from home

Does company allow time off for doctors, dentist, family emergency

Hours of work, shifts ?

Commute

Training & progression prospects

Will this new job get relocated, possibly offshore ?

Meeting your targets/ job requirements

Added extras like charity days, first aid, flexible working, training new people

I left teaching, not for an office job though.
I am still a performing monkey and so it is not actually a drastic change.
It is the long holidays that I miss and now I have to book annual leave a month in advance, not sure I will ever get used to that. Do you have children and would you have flexibility? That would majorly affect my decision to move out of teaching. At the end of the day every job comes with its stresses and pressure.