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I've never worked in an office environment.

TurtleCrusher

TurtleCrusher

Lifer
I've only worked day labor, service, grocery and retail so I just want to know what it's like in an office environment.

Are office politics a real big deal? Is everybody just one big giant asshole?

Or are people in your workplace more like people on the TV show, The Office? You know, like funny?
 
Um, it depends?

I've worked at offices where it was a ton of office politics and other places where everyones really laid back.

 
Generally you have to pick up on everybody's motive and watch out for castle building and power plays. You can never have a place with no politics, just degrees of how bad it is. The people being nice to you are the first place to be suspicious.

You'll soon learn the meaning of the word "blamestorming session".
 
I have never lasted in an office job. I prefer blue collar outdoor "my boss is 10 miles away" kind of work.
 
Depends on the industry and also the size of the office.

Based on offices I've worked in and the experiences of others I've talked to, smaller offices are more laid back with fewer politics than larger ones, and more casual offices (e.g. software development) have fewer politics/games than more formal offices (e.g. govt/regulatory).
 
It was really nice. We had meetings, and birthday lunches, and some parties.

I liked being on the road a lot though because they comped my meals. 🙂

Everyone knew they'd see me every day so no one was a dick when I did IT stuff for them.

One of the regional offices had a heavy handed kind of manager but I was nice to her and she started making me coffee when I came.
 
I've been working in office jobs for about eight years now.

If the crowed is young enough, it's just like highschool.

If the crowed is older, it's still just like highschool.

Just keep your eye on the sluts, do your work well and ignore everything else; the problems will elude you if you abide by this rule.
 
Originally posted by: InflatableBuddha
Depends on the industry and also the size of the office.

Based on offices I've worked in and the experiences of others I've talked to, smaller offices are more laid back with fewer politics than larger ones, and more casual offices (e.g. software development) have fewer politics/games than more formal offices (e.g. govt/regulatory).
Click to expand...

Exactly - I work in a small office full of programmers, designers, photographers, assorted media people, most of whom run their own businesses. You can snort coke off your desk at the end of the day and nobody cares.
 
Fortunately, my division of my company is very laid back and I have some good bosses and I have a good staff. However, there are politics but many times politics has nothing to do about people being assholes, but rather who wants what and how to get it to him/her quickly.
 
Originally posted by: TruePaige
It was really nice. We had meetings, and birthday lunches, and some parties.

I liked being on the road a lot though because they comped my meals. 🙂

Everyone knew they'd see me every day so no one was a dick when I did IT stuff for them.

One of the regional offices had a heavy handed kind of manager but I was nice to her and she started making me coffee when I came.
Click to expand...

Did you use the JD50 method (learned from linux) .... Is that because you said "sudo make me coffee"?
 
It's always been a mixture of both for me. Some people are assholes, some are passive, some are hilarious, other are lazy and/or clueless. In any real-life instance, however, it won't be nearly as entertaining as a sitcom...in fact, it's rarely ever entertaining at all. 🙁

There are always politics.
 
Originally posted by: spidey07
Generally you have to pick up on everybody's motive and watch out for castle building and power plays. You can never have a place with no politics, just degrees of how bad it is. The people being nice to you are the first place to be suspicious.

You'll soon learn the meaning of the word "blamestorming session".
Click to expand...

castle building? never heard that term before.

generally speaking, it depends on the company and the office. my current company is currently staffed by nearly all males outside of HR, legal, and two secretaries. office politics are pretty subdued for the most part, but still, everyone always covers their ass and that's something you should do no matter what your office is like.

of course, every so often something will blow up (like a year ago when I actively worked to get a coworker and my boss fired :evil🙂 and it's always a good thing to have coworkers who are willing to stand by you if something goes down (had a situation in my last job where I was nearly fired, but my boss was willing to stand up to her boss for me and kept me employed; if I was just random joe worker #712, she probably wouldn't have bothered going out on a limb for me)
 
My only office-type job was as a union business agent...and I did my best to be in the field as much as possible...😛


Now, with my brand-new (but slightly dusty) AS degrees in Accounting, Business Administration, and Bookkeeping, I might just end up working in an office...:eek;

I H-A-T-E office politics...but, every job has it, even non-office jobs...There's always a group of suck-asses who try to make everyone else look bad to make themselves look good, a group that just hates everyone else, and a group who just does their job and goes home...They're usually the targets of the first two groups.

Fortunately, MOST managers, superintendents, foremen, etc., know who is in what group...and deals with them accordingly. (but sadly, some succumb to the ass-kissers methods...and promote the ones who deserve it the least)
 
Even if your office is laid back, depending on the company there could be plenty of politics between departments. My office is great, but everyone always tries to blame us (We be IT) for everything!
 
Originally posted by: spidey07
Generally you have to pick up on everybody's motive and watch out for castle building and power plays. You can never have a place with no politics, just degrees of how bad it is. The people being nice to you are the first place to be suspicious.

You'll soon learn the meaning of the word "blamestorming session".
Click to expand...

this is more or less true of the places I've worked at.

Do your job and do it well. Document EVERYTHING. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer 😉

 
I'd say your best bet is to go with the television portrayal of a working office.

Just remember though, that there are some office tv shows that were never picked up so you won't be able to use them as reference.
 
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