Where can I find a very traditional office environment?

[FloorWipes]

I used to love my job but I’m about to lose it with our hybrid flexible system and everyone doing their own thing and some people taking the p. Fine for them, live your best life, whatever, but absolutely not working for me on any level and I am so so over it. I want a traditional 9 to 5 where we all come in and everyone has their own desk. What industry is my best bet for that in 2023?

Anyone? I feel like I’m actually about to lose my mind in my current situation. Maybe it’s unusual but I can’t be the only one.

Maybe an admin job at the council or in a bank?

It's not quite 'office' but anything where the product or service has to be delivered in person - so healthcare, wellbeing and beauty, retail, education, construction, possibly barrister's chambers?

Some of the big banks and smaller finance houses/hedge funds have been emphatic about expecting staff to be in the office most days but you may not get 9-5.

Education, legal, banking and council sound potential. It doesn't have to be strictly the hours of 9-5 but it just needs to have that kind of vibe and level of regularity.

Travel agent on high street

Receptionist in office

Anything poorly paid and public-facing really

Our local council has central office staff working hybrid, I'm afraid, to save on office space.

Also hotdesking and nothing allowed to be left out.

Small private professional firms like accountants, solicitors, estate agents, surveyors, etc., that have relatively few staff, so fewer WFH at a few always need to be in the office, and also for client meetings, etc.

Bigger firms will usually have embraced more modern working patterns such as hot desking, more extensive wfh, etc.

I don’t really have any suggestions but I feel your pain OP, I hate the new way of working!

I wouldn’t say banking, unless in a branch, then it’s more customer facing tasks than traditional admin.

Everyone I know who works for banks is fully WFH or hybrid.

I think the old-school office environment is dead for almost all industries now, except anything that has to be client facing (and even then it's gone hybrid, the woman who helped me with my mortgage stuff recently was very clearly sat in her home office in our Zoom meetings)

My office now Vs the office I temped in as a teen are so different. On my very infrequent office days everyone is dossing about in trackies and crocs or board shorts and sandals. I do miss the old atmosphere, the formality and the routine, the clear divide between work and home... But I also love dossing about in trackies and crocs so I suppose I'm part of the problem!

I would rule out legal too, unless it is very small with a branch open to the public. Most legal firms I work with nowadays are hybrid.

Food manufacturers, they have all the usual departments, HR, finance etc but tend to work in the office as all the production staff are in, so it’s “fair”

Not sure what kind of "office work" you are looking for.
I work in an Oxbridge College and as far as I can tell most of the administrative staff work 9-5 at their own desks with colleagues nearby, with some flexibility for a little bit of working at home if needed.

NHS Ward Clerk

School

I feel your pain!
School office?

Where in the country are you? It May be quite different if you’re in a small down v London.

In London some of bigger banks and law firms are mandating a larger number of days in the office often between 3-5 for most roles. But you’d need to look firm by firm to see what their process is.

Agree. Dh is in banking. Mostly wfh or hybrid... and branch staff isn't great pay

Not Big 4. They are very much wfh/hybrid.

My local council is WFH. What do you actually do OP as a profession? Sorry if I missed it but I’m not sure

School office sounds your kind of thing. No flexibility at all though.

Estate Agent office?

I feel the same. I moved jobs last year and I really struggle with the lack of interaction.
I think a lot of the hospital jobs are office working - I am in finance but the finance jobs I have looked at in hospitals look to be office working. My friend works for an Education Trust and they are all office based because whilst they don't strictly need to be in the office to do their work the teachers do so they reflect their work pattern.

Admin/finance staff for businesses such as manufacturing, science, workshops, anywhere that the majority of the staff are onsite doing non-office work. I work in such a role and although we are rapidly going paperless none of us have any desire to WFH or even go hybrid and are all still happily fully site-based alongside our non-office colleagues.