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working in an office

2

Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,769 ✭✭✭Pinch Flat


    jimgoose wrote: »
    Umm, our out-of-town business park is nicely located, with top-floor views of the surrounding countryside, is impeccably landscaped, nicely finished and generally quite pleasant. I go home for lunch every day - takes about twelve minutes each way - and I have zero traffic problems. It is quiet, comfortable and productive in an odd sort of way. We are Borg. :cool:

    The idea of working in the very centre of Dublin, or in some crumbling old former house with no proper facilities and a weird smell, or being stuck with a bunch of wannabe Segway-riding Californian twits in some Googley place, gives me quite a migraine.

    I've worked in a few offices - almost all of the above in some shape or form - and up to recently was in city west.absolutely hated it. Nothing to do. Everything became a chore - going to the bank, post office, buying gifts, new underpants etc.

    The cycle there and back was the only thing I looked forward to. One of my colleagues had worked with the same company 20 years in the same place with the same ham and cheese roll and tomato soup for his lunch every day. That's going to send anyone dolally.

    Now in town off merrion square in and old Georgian building - decent enough with good facilities and the boss is even thinking of putting in a shower - much better. Everything on my door step - shops, nice coffee and the city centre Grafton St / Stephens green area a 5 minute walk. Nice pubs nearby for a pint after work.

    My job is as a project manager for a lot of different type of projects, including the fitout of offices - so we've done a lot of tech company fitouts. Some off the stuff you see is hilarious - when I see someone my age (mid-40s) coming to work on an adult sized scooter, I'm happy I don't work there.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,187 ✭✭✭✭jimgoose


    Pinch Flat wrote: »
    ...when I see someone my age (mid-40s) coming to work on an adult sized scooter, I'm happy I don't work there.

    This is exactly what I'm talking about. I'd never get tired a' batin' 'em. :pac:


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 20,297 ✭✭✭✭Jawgap


    I do miss the social aspect of working in an office.

    Working from home, has it's advantages - 30 second commute, you save a fortune on lunches but waste it on heat - but it lacks the personal contact.

    On the plus side I only need to put a shirt on when I'm teleconferencing and even then I can sit there in just my jocks and no one is any the wiser.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,783 ✭✭✭Aglomerado


    Those American companies with their faux-jolly working environments make me cringe.
    I have some friends who worked for a call-centre using this business model, and they had a team of people working in there dreaming up stupid things like dressing up as the Easter Bunny and walking around dropping Easter eggs on people's desks.

    But the work was shít and the targets were unattainable (commission-based), and the "team leaders" were mini-Hitlers. They also had wanky "clean desk policies".

    As much as I complain about my job, it's heaven compared with that nonsense.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,187 ✭✭✭✭jimgoose


    Aglomerado wrote: »
    Those American companies with their faux-jolly working environments make me cringe...

    Not all American outfits are like that. To be honest I think all that carry-on is mostly a function of the crappy industry/work they're involved in, and not necessarily because they're Yanks.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,910 ✭✭✭OneArt


    I would actually strangle a newborn child for an office job.

    I do one day a week at an Internet company in Cologne (not at all bad pay for eight hours a week either). They're a small but growing company and I will be switching to a full-time contract shortly, but in the meantime I have to subsidize it with another crappy job.

    Give me five days in an office with a salary that doesn't change because there aren't enough hours.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,362 ✭✭✭K4t


    jimgoose wrote: »
    Not all American outfits are like that. To be honest I think all that carry-on is mostly a function of the crappy industry/work they're involved in, and not necessarily because they're Yanks.
    That's not patronising at all..


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,187 ✭✭✭✭jimgoose


    K4t wrote: »
    That's not patronising at all..

    No, it isn't. Believe you me, I know Americans and they're big boys'n'gals. On those occasions where I actually patronise one of them they fcuk me off quare lively. :D


  • Site Banned Posts: 2,922 ✭✭✭Egginacup


    This is exactly it. There's various levels of "office" that you have to take into consideration:

    1. The out-of-town business park
    So we're talking Citywest, Parkwest, anything with "west" in the name basically. This is a souless existence. While you might work in a modern office with a nice desk and computer, you are stuck with the same food choices every day and virtually nothing to do on your lunch break. You have to drive to work so you start stressing about the evening commute about an hour before you leave. You see one part of the world and that's it. A barren landscape surrounds you, with empty office buildings a reminder that nothing is permanent.

    2. The D4 / D2 old townhouse
    This is slightly better; there's a lot of these around Rathmines, Leeson Street, and around the Baggot Street area where the Georgian houses are all offices. This is slightly better than option 1, but depends on how close to town you are. The disadvantage is that the office will be old, damp, creaky, windy, and probably has one toilet for 30 people.

    I worked in Parkwest for 1.5 years and you are spot on. Most people drove to work but I luckily lived in the City Centre and took the shuttle bus. It was still crap out there though. Imagine being on first name terms with the entire staff of a Spar! Fridays were depressing as hell. I would see one or two mothers wheeling their buggies/prams around the empty office buildings. They and their partners had obviously bought an apt. there during the boom and are now effectively stuck in a half-empty block where there are no facilities and no hope of selling. I couldn't wait to get into town to get sloshed.

    Also worked in the monument building...in the basement. IT was a private bank and I was a IT guy. Job was dull as hell and the office was cold. Work colleagues were bores too. Location was fab though and the pay was great.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,549 ✭✭✭cml387


    There are only offices in Dublin, apparently.

    I don't know what us in the shticks work in.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 498 ✭✭Green Mile


    I have the option to work from home or the office. I have only worked from home once when I was as sick as a plane to Lourdes. I don’t think I’d like to work from home, I like routine and I think if I worked from home, my right biceps would be larger than they are now and tissue expenses would skyrocket.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,328 ✭✭✭Magico Gonzalez


    Working in an office when you are busy enough to fill the hours in your day with a task that isn't too repetitive is OK.

    If you haven't enough to do the internet starts to suck the life out of you and you end up spending your days online arguing with strangers and dreaming about impractical path to poverty entrepreneurial schemes.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,785 ✭✭✭KungPao


    It's nice in the winter, all warm and supping a nice cup of tea while the cold rain lashes off the window.

    However, all the collections and silly celebrations and forced fun is tedious. As is the obliged 'good morning' or 'hi' every time you pass someone.

    The worst is when you are having a smoke or preparing your tea/coffee, and somebody starts chatting to you about dull work stuff.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,797 ✭✭✭ChopShop


    MadsL wrote: »
    The days pass in a blur of boards, facebook, reddit and staring out the window.

    You'll love it.

    You have a view?

    All there is out my window is a sea of breezeblock and pebbledash .


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 25,775 ✭✭✭✭kfallon


    KungPao wrote: »
    It's nice in the winter, all warm and supping a nice cup of tea while the cold rain lashes off the window.

    However, all the collections and silly celebrations and forced fun is tedious. As is the obliged 'good morning' or 'hi' every time you pass someone.

    The worst is when you are having a smoke or preparing your tea/coffee, and somebody starts chatting to you about dull work stuff.

    Don't forget people bringing in their newborn babies too.....like I give a fúck :rolleyes:

    You mostly end up working with twats and geebags, the kind of people you'd have nothing to do with in the 'real' world. However, if you worked in an office of 200 people you will invariably find 4 or 5 'gems' of people that you will remain friends with for a long, long time. For that, it's worth the facade of having to put up with the cúnts who do your head in!


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  • Registered Users Posts: 2,328 ✭✭✭Magico Gonzalez


    KungPao wrote: »
    However, all the collections and silly celebrations and forced fun is tedious. As is the obliged 'good morning' or 'hi' every time you pass someone.
    .

    Where I am at the minute (obviously not Ireland) there can be HR issues if you don't formally greet people in the morning with the customary kiss/air peck on the cheek. I've seen it happen.

    I play the Jonny Foreigner card and ignore them.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 25,775 ✭✭✭✭kfallon


    Where I am at the minute (obviously not Ireland) there can be HR issues if you don't formally greet people in the morning with the customary kiss/air peck on the cheek. I've seen it happen.

    I play the Jonny Foreigner card and ignore them.

    Try to 'introduce' a finger in their hole while you are at it, they won't ask you to do the whole 'kiss cheek' thing again!

    Then again you'll prob get the sack too....but worth the risk!


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    kfallon wrote: »
    Don't forget people bringing in their newborn babies too.....like I give a fúck :rolleyes:

    You mostly end up working with twats and geebags, the kind of people you'd have nothing to do with in the 'real' world. However, if you worked in an office of 200 people you will invariably find 4 or 5 'gems' of people that you will remain friends with for a long, long time. For that, it's worth the facade of having to put up with the cúnts who do your head in!

    Sound very like secondary school!


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,328 ✭✭✭Magico Gonzalez


    kfallon wrote: »
    Try to 'introduce' a finger in their hole while you are at it, they won't ask you to do the whole 'kiss cheek' thing again!

    Then again you'll prob get the sack too....but worth the risk!

    I've absented myself from the whole tradition by refusing at the first fence on day one. First person leant in for a nosh of my cheek and i ducked them like Muhammed Ali.

    I'm the weird foreigner in the office, stared at and ignored mostly !


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,785 ✭✭✭KungPao


    kfallon wrote: »
    Don't forget people bringing in their newborn babies too.....like I give a fúck :rolleyes:

    You mostly end up working with twats and geebags, the kind of people you'd have nothing to do with in the 'real' world. However, if you worked in an office of 200 people you will invariably find 4 or 5 'gems' of people that you will remain friends with for a long, long time. For that, it's worth the facade of having to put up with the cúnts who do your head in!
    Or the oddball jobsworth who comes into the office on his ****ing time off to have a chat! **** off! Is this place your entire life?


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 25,775 ✭✭✭✭kfallon


    mariaalice wrote: »
    Sound very like secondary school!

    Without the wedgies :pac:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,978 ✭✭✭WesternZulu


    I like working in an office but I have slowly realised that everyone and anyone annoys me when I am trying to get work done or hold concentration.

    I dream of the day where I have an office of my own.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 20,297 ✭✭✭✭Jawgap


    kfallon wrote: »
    Don't forget people bringing in their newborn babies too.....like I give a fúck :rolleyes:

    A former colleague - and still good friend of mine - used to refuse to put in to the collections that went around when someone had a kid.......


    ......her logic was that it was just congratulating them for having sex!


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,823 ✭✭✭Dr.Winston O'Boogie


    Just on the point of working out in the sticks. I commute outside of Dublin each day, about a half hour drive, now its against the rush hour traffic as you are heading out of town so only takes about half an hour, which is at least half the time I would be sitting on a manky sweaty bus stuck in traffic with all the other drones if I was heading into town. I blare the tunes in my warm car going in and out of work, having a great old time. Park right outside the offfice so never have to worry about weather. So in that respect its far better than town.

    I agree options for lunch are very limited, but you can look on this as a money saver. To be honest I don’t mind that much, just make my own lunch and read a book or something. Flying through loads of books I have always wanted to read right now, whereas when in town I used to just waste entire lunch breaks in shops etc. I did used to work in town up until recently and the option to get stuff done as you are close to everything is what I miss the most. Other than that to me it’s all pretty much the same.

    The social life actually is another now I think of it, but I am at the stage now in my life where that would have been on the backburner anyway having become a father recently.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,115 ✭✭✭eviltimeban


    If you ignore all the birthdays and collections you can have a happy office life.

    Or signing birthday cards. A boss I used to have would always write "ignore them all" on someone's birthday card (responding perhaps to the usual "now you're old ha ha ha" comments that people would write). One card went around so I wrote "ignore them all" on it before the boss could. I don't know what his reaction was.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,115 ✭✭✭eviltimeban


    The social life actually is another now I think of it, but I am at the stage now in my life where that would have been on the backburner anyway having become a father recently.

    Congrats. Julian or Sean?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 27,833 ✭✭✭✭ThisRegard


    Jawgap wrote: »
    I do miss the social aspect of working in an office.

    Working from home, has it's advantages - 30 second commute, you save a fortune on lunches but waste it on heat - but it lacks the personal contact.

    On the plus side I only need to put a shirt on when I'm teleconferencing and even then I can sit there in just my jocks and no one is any the wiser.

    Same as myself, but our office is pretty barren anyway so might as well be at home alone than in an office alone. The lack of effort getting dressed in the mornings does make you feel like a bit of a scruff bag during the morning and evening school runs though when everyone else are wearing business attire.

    Summer was fantastic though, open up the doors into the garden, every day wearing shorts and feeling like I'm working outside.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,058 ✭✭✭✭Dial Hard


    kfallon wrote: »
    You mostly end up working with twats and geebags, the kind of people you'd have nothing to do with in the 'real' world.

    That's not limited to office jobs, though.

    Seriously, anyone moaning about working in an office should read Cries of Retail and then get down on their knees and kiss the carpet tiles upon which their swivel-chair sits.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,320 ✭✭✭The Mulk


    You're lucky alright, and I agree with the second paragraph. I wasn't rating them in order of preference, just listing them.

    The best in fairness, is probably the IFSC / Quays option.

    I'm down past the IFSC on the North Quays, it must be the biggest Sh1t hole around, we were originally just off Stephens Green and it was great.
    There's one shop and one pub, although you could walk up to Mayor Square in about 20 mins.
    It's amazing what you take for granted.
    I worked on sites for 10 years and one great thing was if you were working in a bad location or the commute was a killer you knew it would change in about 6 months, now it's the prospect of being stuck here for the next 30 years:mad:
    I'd prefer to be out in Citywest or Parkwest and gladly never work in the city centre again but that's solely due to commuting


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 20,297 ✭✭✭✭Jawgap


    ThisRegard wrote: »
    Same as myself, but our office is pretty barren anyway so might as well be at home alone than in an office alone. The lack of effort getting dressed in the mornings does make you feel like a bit of a scruff bag during the morning and evening school runs though when everyone else are wearing business attire.

    Summer was fantastic though, open up the doors into the garden, every day wearing shorts and feeling like I'm working outside.

    One of the things I always (well nearly always :D) do is shower shave and get dressed for work - even if it's jeans and a sweatshirt - just to get my head in the zone for working.

    Only started from home last September, so I've yet to have the summer experience. My wife has done it for a number of years and she's already made it quite clear which bit of the garden will be hers when the summer rolls around.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,115 ✭✭✭eviltimeban


    The Mulk wrote: »
    I'm down past the IFSC on the North Quays, it must be the biggest Sh1t hole around, we were originally just off Stephens Green and it was great.
    There's one shop and one pub, although you could walk up to Mayor Square in about 20 mins.
    It's amazing what you take for granted.
    I worked on sites for 10 years and one great thing was if you were working in a bad location or the commute was a killer you knew it would change in about 6 months, now it's the prospect of being stuck here for the next 30 years:mad:
    I'd prefer to be out in Citywest or Parkwest and gladly never work in the city centre again but that's solely due to commuting

    Yeah if you go past the IFSC that's pretty bad, but around the Docklands / IFSC is pretty good. I'm lucky that I'm 3 mins from the Dart station and equally close on the other end so commuting is a breeze. I get up to Grafton street easily and can go across to the IFSC to meet people for lunch.

    I've worked in Parkwest / East Point / Walkinstown / but I would always choose city centre, D2 area now. The more variety around you, the better.

    So, what do you look for in an office? Open plan? Groups of four desks together or single desks? Large office space, or smaller?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,017 ✭✭✭✭_Kaiser_


    So true about the big office parks. I worked in Ballycoolin way back when and there was nothing around it except more bloody offices - not even a shop! Hope it's improved at this stage.

    Eastpoint wasn't quite as bad in that there was a decent pub in the middle that served nice food at lunchtime and even better drinks on Fridays :)

    Sandyford is another one of those half-finished jobs with little in it but there is a coffee place and shop at least


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 27,833 ✭✭✭✭ThisRegard


    The Mulk wrote: »
    It's amazing what you take for granted.

    Indeed. I worked in the city centre ranging from Grafton Street to along the canal since the early 90s and only recently we moved to one of those small business parks in which is basically in the suburbs. Jeesus, depressing with nowhere just to walk to during lunch or after work, unless you have a penchant for Spar, Mace and builders providers.

    I can now see the attraction of people going into "town" on a weekend just to take a stroll around.
    Jawgap wrote: »
    One of the things I always (well nearly always :D) do is shower shave and get dressed for work - even if it's jeans and a sweatshirt - just to get my head in the zone for working.

    I sacrifice that time for an extra few minutes in bed, or usually getting the kids ready as my wife would have left the house at that stage. I used to do all that stuff at lunch after a run but too busy these days so more often than not it happens in the evenings.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,017 ✭✭✭✭_Kaiser_


    So, what do you look for in an office? Open plan? Groups of four desks together or single desks? Large office space, or smaller?

    I hate open plan. Our other office moved to that layout 2 years ago and it'd drive me mad sitting there all day with people walking by and being able to read over your shoulder (not that I'd be at anything but even still..). Plus the place is as lively as a morgue as everyone sits silently tapping away on their keyboards

    Our current setup is the cube farms you mentioned but at least you can have a bit of craicv with the people you're beside (usually)

    Me I have my own office which is nice when you need to take a call without everyone else overhearing or worrying about talking too loudly. Plus I have a great view of a lake :)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,320 ✭✭✭The Mulk


    The building we're in is brand new, all open plan, generally 6 to a bay, it's very nice. We have parking because the majority of us drive for work so it's dealing with the quays and city centre for the majority of us.
    At the moment it's very under developed but supposedly it will all change and the transport links aren't too bad.

    I remember working in Ballycoolin when it was all a building site, a women used to come around in a van selling rolls she made at home, the a chip van set up and put her out of business. Although his cans of coke were always covered in grease and tasted like last weeks chips. Happy Days.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,115 ✭✭✭eviltimeban


    _Kaiser_ wrote: »
    Eastpoint wasn't quite as bad in that there was a decent pub in the middle that served nice food at lunchtime and even better drinks on Fridays :)

    I quite liked East Point actually. Something to do with being beside the sea I guess. Also it was quite close to my house so the commute was fine. My job at the time was field sales so I had to drive around and only go into the office when I wasn't doing meetings. Had a parking space so that was handy enough.

    I remember the Red Cow during the bad times. One evening it took an hour to just cross the roundabout. It was awful.

    Also, I think its funny when people on trains are referred to as "drones" - by people sitting in their cars in a row of traffic! :)


  • Registered Users Posts: 286 ✭✭dx22


    Gongoozler wrote: »
    For me it's a battle against your weight, as everybodies birthday, leaving, engagement, pregnancy, returning from holiday etc are celebrated with cake, biscuits, sweets, popcorn and chocolate. And then there's the random "we haven't had a birthday to celebrate in a week" sustenance boxes of roses.



  • Site Banned Posts: 2,922 ✭✭✭Egginacup


    Green Mile wrote: »
    I have the option to work from home or the office. I have only worked from home once when I was as sick as a plane to Lourdes. I don’t think I’d like to work from home, I like routine and I think if I worked from home, my right biceps would be larger than they are now and tissue expenses would skyrocket.

    I "worked" from home for a while when I had a contract in Dusseldorf. This was my routine:

    1. Wake up at 9, turn on laptop, start up email client, and messenger. Set status to "online".

    2. Go back to bed

    3. Wake up again at 10:30, check laptop for messenger alerts for requests to do something. If there were any, send back an acknowledgement that "I'm on it".

    4. Get dressed at 11:00, packup laptop, head out to the bierkeller

    5. Get to bierkeller find table in back where power socket is. Setup laptop, connect to wifi, launch vpn client and get back "online". Light cigarette.

    6. 11:30 order first beer, read usual selection of online blogs, newspapers, boards, etc

    7. Acknowledge a few emails.

    8. Chat with barmaid.

    9. 17:30, pissed as a newt, turn off laptop, go sit at bar and chat to Cristiana or Dee for a couple more hours.

    10. Go home locked, go to bed, rinse, repeat.


    Sounds great right? Fucking nearly killed me.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,115 ✭✭✭eviltimeban


    Its a dangerous one alright. I used to do the same (without the beer or German girls). The trick would be to get in there early, and send your boss an email or leave him a VM BEFORE he got in - so it looked like you were on it early. So, you'd send something about 8am, then head back to bed, and maybe then by the time you get up he's replied. Buys you a bit of time in the morning!


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,210 ✭✭✭nelly17


    Its bollox and its not the work that makes it bollox its the 'personalities', I've started working from home a lot more now and I'm way more productive and happier


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,750 ✭✭✭iDave


    Gotta love the email hard men that will send some smarmy email to you if you send them a file using the wrong version or excel (or some other bull****) and CC as many people as possible. Then when you actually go upstairs and talk to them face to face they quickly pipe down.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,691 ✭✭✭Lia_lia


    Gongoozler wrote: »
    For me it's a battle against your weight, as everybodies birthday, leaving, engagement, pregnancy, returning from holiday etc are celebrated with cake, biscuits, sweets, popcorn and chocolate. And then there's the random "we haven't had a birthday to celebrate in a week" sustenance boxes of roses.

    This. I have put on so much weight since working in an office...most of it from Toblerones that people bring back from airport duty free :(


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,637 ✭✭✭veryangryman


    I like it. Steady-ish job and income, indoors, can do as much or little as you feel most days. If your ambitious, you can go far. Pus you (generally) do it in social hours and unlimited free coffee.

    Could do with a better ratio of chicks to dudes, but it keeps the mind on the business ;)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,377 ✭✭✭Warper


    Its soul destroying - no other way of putting it - don't do it if you can


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,743 ✭✭✭Wanderer2010


    It really does depend on where, and more importantly who you are working with. Being an office doesnt exclude the usual suspects of bullies, egos, incompetent managers, oddballs and plain old irritating people as your workmates. Im in an office close to 8 years now and the routine really does suit me, Im quite sure at this stage the company has rid me of any initiative or desire to change whatsoever. As a young and eager office staffer I wanted to change things I saw were wrong, improve procedures I thought were lacking etc but I now see that management dont encourage any free thinking or ideas so I basically do the bare minimum like so many around me and if they can get away with it, then the fcuk i cant too!

    On the plus side, the office is always warm and comfy, the technology is reliable and the money is good. :P


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,226 ✭✭✭boobar


    I work in an office...

    My old man said once you've a great job, in out of the cold.

    He's right...I'm not breaking rocks...out in the cold. So I like it.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 20,297 ✭✭✭✭Jawgap


    What I really miss about working in an office are the affairs!!

    Not so much here but when I was working in the UK as a wide eyed innocent it was like a live soap opera! Especially when a more senior staff member was shagging an underling......the gossip was brilliant!!

    Leaving aside the odd guy getting filled in while crossing the car park, or the bit hair pulling that happened on some nights out, it was an education.


  • Site Banned Posts: 2,922 ✭✭✭Egginacup


    Jawgap wrote: »
    What I really miss about working in an office are the affairs!!

    Not so much here but when I was working in the UK as a wide eyed innocent it was like a live soap opera! Especially when a more senior staff member was shagging an underling......the gossip was brilliant!!

    Leaving aside the odd guy getting filled in while crossing the car park, or the bit hair pulling that happened on some nights out, it was an education.

    Haha, fab. I worked in a large publishing company in new York as an IT support guy which basically meant it was full of females and my job meant I could go all over the building (15 floors) flirting.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 20,297 ✭✭✭✭Jawgap


    Egginacup wrote: »
    Haha, fab. I worked in a large publishing company in new York as an IT support guy which basically meant it was full of females and my job meant I could go all over the building (15 floors) flirting.

    Actually, that's another boring thing I've noticed about offices here - far too feckin PC. Some of the conversations and banter I had working in London would get you fired here!!

    I should probably clarify that my only experience of offices here was in the public services, so I'm not sure if private sector offices are so uptight!!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,258 ✭✭✭✭Eoin


    1. The out-of-town business park
    So we're talking Citywest, Parkwest, anything with "west" in the name basically. This is a souless existence. While you might work in a modern office with a nice desk and computer, you are stuck with the same food choices every day and virtually nothing to do on your lunch break. You have to drive to work so you start stressing about the evening commute about an hour before you leave. You see one part of the world and that's it. A barren landscape surrounds you, with empty office buildings a reminder that nothing is permanent.

    I have to agree with most of this - it's mostly nothing but dodgy used car dealers and tire shops in the Citywest area.

    But I don't look at it that I have to drive to work; I get to drive to work. It might be 20 miles away from my house, but it's only a 30-35 minute drive with free parking and not having to rely on our awful public transport. Enough lunch options if you don't mind a 5 minute drive.

    If I were to work in the city centre again, I'd probably lose over 90 mins a day commuting. I'll take the bleak existence out in the middle of nowhere over that.
    _Kaiser_ wrote: »
    I hate open plan. Our other office moved to that layout 2 years ago and it'd drive me mad sitting there all day with people walking by and being able to read over your shoulder (not that I'd be at anything but even still..). Plus the place is as lively as a morgue as everyone sits silently tapping away on their keyboards

    We had open plan until recently and they've just made it even-opener plan on some whim. They took down the partitions between our desks (which were only chest height to begin with), so now it's just pretty much a really long desk with 6 people at it. It sucks. The only saving grace is that we all have dual monitors which helps keep some sort of border.


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