What's changed in the world of office work in the last 16 years?

[NineTwoFive]

I gave up my career 18 years ago when I had children and needed to become a carer for a relative not long after, and have been doing work-at-home stuff or manual work to fit around being a single mum/carer until now.

I am starting a new job in a couple of weeks, it's office-based and I am just feeling a bit apprehensive about starting again in my 50s.

The office attire is more casual than smart, I think I'd prefer to lean in to being a bit smarter than too casual, not least because I raise the age average by quite a lot and I want to make the effort.

Other than that, has much changed in office culture that I need to be aware of? It's a tech startup and most of the team are young guys who looked between 25-35. Two other women maybe a tiny bit older, I didn't see them at my interview though so didn't get a vibe for the how people dress there if female.

I am feeling really apprehensive in general that I can even do the work, too - tips for giving my ego a soothe/boost welcome too.

Sneakers!

The office is quiet, lots of people WFH on any given day. It's not really a social place anymore. People come in under sufferance, do their hours and go home.

As for the rest, fake it til you make it! Ask questions instead of feeling you have to have all the answers yourself. Good luck, you will be fine

AI use obvs, the extent of which will vary from company to company.

In my office at least, the tea round has never really been a thing since I've worked there. People just make their own cups and chat in the kitchen to whoever they come across who is also there. They leave sweet treats in the kitchen for everyone with a Teams msg to help themselves, rather than passing round the tin.

Signed cards/donations are not passed round but instead again left in a place for those who wish to to participate.

Probably a lot more headphone use and diplomatically interrupting others at their desk is a fine art.

Congratulations on your new job and hope you enjoy!

If it’s a start up I’d imagine it’s very casual op

i worked in a tech start up for a good few years and everyone was in jeans and trainers.

apps for everything - I literally sign into about 4 different apps as well as my emails at work

we are paperless as well - so everything saved and shared digitally (Google docs/ sheets etc) Very very rare we’d print anything

On a practical level, so much more is done electronically these days. I used to spend 2 days a week putting paper invoices into envelopes and posting them out to customers. Nowadays it all goes by email and I just spend half an hour a week posting invoices to the very few customers who don’t have email. Also receive many more email enquiries when they would have been phone calls before.

Office collections and cards circulated/signed/donated electronically using online portals

Thank you all.

Do people tend to lunch together or not? I know I'll get a feel for this when I get there, just trying to see if there is a norm, especially when the ratio is mostly younger men.

Everything is much, much faster. And beauracracy has ramped up.

And you have to do more stuff yourself (e.g. Self-service HR)

The amount of times I started speaking to people and didn't realise they were on a teams call and I was interrupting them.

I found it really lacks the same kind of cameraderie that there used to be in an office. Most offices now are so quiet and you feel like you can't speak without everyone hearing due to it being open plan.

Definitely more casual and that is not a bad thing.

Not really, I am in a big office and a few people lunch together but most people just suit themselves.

Ok, thank you.

Microsoft Teams! Turn off notifications or you’ll never get any work done. And video calls, hopefully you’ve done these in private life?

Hot desking. But beware those who have an unspoken claim to a particular desk.

The biggest change in our office is Teams calls/meetings.The office used to have a "hum" and go quiet at 10am and at 2pm when people went to meetings. Now people have back to back teams meetings so you get a half-empty office which is dead quiet with 3 or 4 voices going on and on for an hour at a time.

People on the phone naturally drop their voice but people on headphones shout. I've been unlucky enough to be stuck near people who spend literally all day on the phone. One call ends and into the next one. I do wonder what they actually do, because you can't get any actual work done.

The post. Nobody sends any documents by post any more, for you to put in your in-tray and deal with at your convenience. Oh no, now they all come by email demanding your immediate attention. Stuff that. Don't allow yourself to be trapped into thinking you have to respond straight away to it all. Most of it can wait until you are ready to get around to it in due course. If you are doing something else and not actively looking at emails, log out. Otherwise you will be perpetually interrupted by new ones and lose your train of thought. Just check them every hour or so, or in between other tasks.

Nobody speaks to anyone. They text. Teamwork doesn't exist. I feel sad for youngsters in jobs like this. They should be having the time of their lives.

The office attire is more casual than smart, I think I'd prefer to lean in to being a bit smarter than too casual, not least because I raise the age average by quite a lot and I want to make the effort

if it’s a tech start up it will trainers and jeans. By dressing smartly you’re just going to be singling yourself out as ‘different.’ And as an older female, sadly you do not want that.

Not loads, but enough that it's not a totally alien thing.

Also, I’d gen up on using AI as would assume a tech start up will heavily lean on it.

To add to all of the above, no-one prints anything any more and I am one of the only people in my team who uses a notepad and pen to take notes in meetings.

Don’t go even slightly smart to a tech startup office you’ll feel very overdressed

Yes, this is actually what I was wondering about. I mean, it might not be like that everywhere, here's hoping my new place has a good balance.

A lot has changed. Teams, SharePoint, Shared Drives, Jira, Boomi, Multi level Authorisation apps for signing into everything, AI.

I’ve just started a new job and I need access to 18 different systems.

Communication via emoji or meme

Ok, that is probably great advice and kind of what I was asking. I do need to find the right balance. I don't really want to do jeans.
At the same time, should my age factor in to this at all - I feel I am old enough to be everyone's mother, though I do generally dress young day to day, I feel like I'd like to look well put together for work. But also not dressed too young for my age, like I am trying too hard to look younger.

Are you joking?