by REBECCA SPARROW
The list of things I miss about working in an office is long and varied.
1. There’s the clothing, of course. I miss buttoning up that gorgeous new polka-dot blouse you got on sale at Zara. Zipping up a pencil skirt. Slipping heels onto my feet. Putting on lipstick. BRUSHING MY HAIR. I miss the need, the requirement, to look fabulous rather than how I often look – like a crazy lady who possibly spent the night sleeping in the bushes outside with da possums. Interestingly, when your days are spent negotiating with a 3 year old, nobody cares that you’re wearing ‘on trend’ stockings. Put it this way, I dubbed 2012 “The year of the elasticised waistband”.
What else? 2. I miss the dialogue. The office banter. The 5-minute grabs of conversation with co-workers about The Voice or Bob Katter’s hats or how your boss is doing your head in.
3. I miss the gossip. Tim from Accounts is dating Debra from Marketing. GET. OUT! (It felt good just writing that sentence).
4. I miss the commute. Being in a car ALONE. Reading on the train ALONE. Being in the work bathroom ALONE. I miss typing without the dead weight of a three-year-old on my lap who hits keys at random and blithely announces her bottom is itchy.
5. I miss the Friday afternoon wind-down where people don’t even pretend to work. The impromptu – who feels like sushi? – lunch hours with colleagues. Melbourne Cup (sitting at home in my trakky daks eating a ryvita while I watch the race isn’t as thrilling as it sounds. Weird, I know). Christmas parties. Secret Santa. Pretending to work while you’re trying to Google Michael Buble’s birth date because Tim in Accounts thinks Michael Buble is 45 when he’s so clearly not even over 40. What a moron. (Tim in Accounts. Not you. You’re awesome. Tim from Accounts is a f*ck-knuckle.)
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From reading the article and the comments, it seems to me that people really miss being together, connecting, chatting, contributing and caring about each other. But can we only do this in an office environment? How can we connect more and care more about each other on a day to day level? We used to do this in the past in village environments, but we have become more insular in our homes with drive in garages. I think we crave connection......so what's really stopping us connecting more and caring?
If you think you get cake in an office, try working with nurses. Particularly in community health. Ironically while there is more cake in community health, the staff are generally older, so are on pretend diets: "I'll just have a sliver". Why bother? Just have a piece and adjust the rest of the days food if necessary.
Community health is office based, we just go out a lot. So I would miss (and I worked in an office as a teenager) the regular hours, seeing my friends/colleagues and lunches for special occasions.
There are good aspects to shift work anyway, believe it or not. Being able to shop when most people are at work, the comraderie with other shift workers and the chance to bond with your colleagues over food on night shift.