Corporate Working Life

From my rather small level of experience with the office life, I've decided to write a little about it. The office is a contrast from what I've always been used to. There are of course always the perks that come from being with bunch of people for long hours and weeks at a time. That is, the relatively high level of gossiping about peoples' private lives and goings on. Other things are different.

One of the best things about working is that when you get home after a long day, chances are you won't have to think about work any more until the morning. That leave s you free to watch TV all night or whatever you want. Studying and working at the same time sucks, as when you get home, you realise that you still have that huge assignment thats due tomorrow and you haven't finished yet. Although it does give you a little incentive to start early on those.

In contrast to previous things such as school and uni, the type of gossiping is quite different too. I guess this in part comes from the vast difference in age and siginificance of the gossip. For example, a romantic relationship in the office is usually of more significance than one with people studying the same subject at university. If, God forbid, you happen to get into one of these with someone in a higher position than you, it can work well, or if it turns out bad, could be disasterous for your career. So for many people, its not a road they're usually willing to go down. For others, its an oppurtunity to move up the food chain.

I guess that leads on to politics in the office. Somehow, its remarkably similar to school life. Theres a few situational things which make it so. Firstly, you don't get to choose who you're with. School classes were set for the whole year, so when you get into a job, the people that you work with won't change until somebody either leaves or gets hired. Its a little different from uni where you have more of a chance to pick your friends and the people you hang around. So basically, if you're working with somebody you don't like, its probably a good idea to just get used to it. Talking about them behind their back normally doesn't really help the situation, because in an office, rumours spread like wildfire. Trust me.

Another thing is that there will be some manager person who has authority over you. In school, this was your teacher. If you got along well with them, you'd probably do well. Otherwise, you weren't going to get anywhere. Take for example a certain Mr. Geography/History teacher at my high school. For the whole year, he didn't even know my name. In the end, I got 50 for the subject. To his credit, I'll admit that I can't colour in very well, but my geography is probably better than your average person. I think he decided that it would be harsh to fail anyone he didn't know, but it wouldn't do to have them do really well either. I guess thats what happens when your manager doesn't know who you are either. Performance reviews probably aren't going to be glowing.

So people who want to move up in the company suck up to the managers. They get noticed, and then they get promoted. It sucks how that works (or how it doesn't). Politics is just something you have to deal with if you're in the office. Although this is probably a lot less prevelant in a smaller organisation. There aren't that many people to suck up to, and less people to do it.

Although probably not specific to an office working environment, an organisation's culture is also important to a job. I'm not talking country culture here. We'd normally be used to the culture of a country we're in, and if we're not, that'd be a whole other blog post. We're talking about the culture specific to a company. A supporting culture is probably a lot better than one which is focused on individuals and ambition. At least for the comfort of the employees. Its a pretty big topic, but if we just have the idea that its important, that will do :)

Anyhoo. Thats all I've got for now. Anyone else?