12 Jul The reality of working in an office
As one of leading suppliers of workplace occupancy sensors we distribute to thousands of offices round the world. We know that you can’t measure EVERYTHING in an office. Meeting and breakout room usage is one thing but, what about those things that make working in an office one of the most fun ways to work?
In this blog we take a lighter look at some of the little things that define office culture and make working in an office more fun than you may think.
Once you leave school, often you’ll think that working in an office is the height of sophistication, the rite of passage to true adulthood – team meetings, daily operations briefings and spontaneous ‘catch ups’.
The reality is not quite as simple.
Tea
So much of British office culture revolves around tea! A potential minefield, you need to be careful when using the word ‘tea’ in the office, unless you are willing to spend the next 30 minutes brewing for everyone within earshot.
If you don’t like/drink tea, just stay quiet. You’ll be asked regularly to justify your choices and could even become a social and professional pariah – such is the importance of this typically British beverage.
Holidays
Have you booked somewhere nice to go on holiday this year? If so, keep it quiet – you’re bound to come across at least one person who accuses you of skiving all being the luckiest person alive even though you get the same amount of holiday.
Lunch time
Lunch time in the office is fraught with pitfalls. Many employers allow people to eat at their desks in order to maintain productivity. If you do eat at your desk please consider your colleagues and avoid anything likely to smell. Things to avoid include egg sandwiches, anything with tuna and if you have a microwave in the office avoid reheating fish,
Air Conditioning Wars
Taking passive aggression to new levels – one set of people want it to be warmer, the other wants cooler – therefore the air conditioning gets tampered with constantly with no winner of this climatic ‘cold’ war.
Birthdays
There are two layers to this issue – the cake and the gift. Firstly, the gift. The card and collection comes around for Jan in accounts (who you’ve never spoken to), what do you do? You can’t sign the card and not contribute! You rummage in your drawers for some change and disguise the handful of shrapnel by plunging it deep into the internal envelope.
Next, the cake. Who buys it? Does the person celebrating the birthday bring in cake and invite people to celebrate with them or does the cake come out of the gift kitty? Unfortunately, we don’t have the answer for you so you are on your own.
The points discussed above are on the lighter side of what really goes on in the work place. If you are interested in more measurable statistics for your office occupancy, make sure you get in touch with us via email; you can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for all the latest news.
Photo credit: By wavebreakmedia
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