The title of this post is quite misleading as I do feel I have quite an active social life, however this post is based on my general observations of full-time work.
I have been in my current job for 9 months and I was pretty lucky to have landed myself in a well-paid graduate job. Read my post A Year after Graduation to find out how I managed that!
However, I have already noticed that there are a few, shall we say, "issues" that a university education does not prepare you for before you enter into the world of work.
Here we go...
1) EVERYONE moans. About how cold it is, how warm it is, this computer doesn't work etc. How do you deal with an office full of moaners? My degree in sociology has not yet helped me to deal with moaners. :/
2) You can get most of your work done in the first couple of hours of being in the office. Well that is what I have found in my line of work. How do I stretch out writing an email for over half an hour...AGGGHHH!
3) Every workplace will have its characters. When I have previously worked in retail it was the customers who were the characters. We laughed behind the stock room door and moaned about how unpolite they were. Now, these characters are everywhere in the office!
4) Office politics........pffft!
5) When is it OK to go on facebook and when is it not?
6) People get obsessed with lunch-time. As a student lunch time was whenever you got up/felt hungry!
7) What do you do if you have done everything! And I mean everything. I've tidied my desk 4 times. I've been to the toilet too many times people now think I have a bladder issue. Tea? Anyone want a cup of tea?
8) Speaking of tea, who buys the milk? This is a real strength of character, who can go the longest without a cup of tea. (However, on reflection this often happened in halls of residence so one lesson which we can all take from the student life - Hurrah!)
9) You can't just go for a nap. Remember the good old days where you could just come from an hours lecture and go into an intense slumber. After a 9am meeting it is all I want to do. Perhaps, university should have ran full 9-5 days....(just a thought...just a thought)
10) Finally, have people forgotten about these wonderful machines called telephones? At any careers event an adviser will tell you that having great communication skills is an asset. Does this just all go out the window when we are faced with e-mail. I think things would be much clearer and more efficient if we phoned people a little bit more often. University never really prepares us for a well communicated email or phone call.
Well blog readers I'm sure you'll have similar scenarios in your work space/office! Please let me know if you feel your university education had not prepared you in the slightest for full-time work...:p
Much love
Steph <3
TELL ME ABOUT THE MOANERS AND THE OFFICE POLITICS! Cannot be done with it. I studied a degree in International Management but decided to work in marketing so it's hard to decide if my degree is practicale haha. Though telephone skills would have been a nice wee module. :P
ReplyDeleteI think telephone skills would have been a handy module for anyone! :P
ReplyDelete