Five things I learnt from a 9-5 office life

I recently finished a 15-month apprenticeship at a music and technology company. It was not only my first experience in a corporate environment, but also my first proper job. While working there I picked up a few things:

1. Corporate culture is a thing

Office environments and corporate cultures vary greatly. On my first day I walked in all skirted up only to then realise it was perfectly acceptable to parade around in shorts and a vest top. Eventually I realised that swearing was not frowned upon either. This isn’t the case for all offices, so it’s best to be over-dressed for your first day and then you can always work down. Better yet, have a look at what people are wearing when at your interview, or ask your manager before you start.

2. Not everyone is like you

While you should acknowledge this in the world outside of work too, I found it was particularly noticeable while working in the office. While you might have no problem with publicly voicing your opinions on how the office is run, how the company does things or what’s happening in the industry, others may not be as open and confident. I found that a lot of people wanted to share their views anonymously.

Another way that this can affect your time in the office is when cultural and religious practices come in. Some colleagues may need to pray at certain times, not eat certain foods or dress a certain way. One of my colleagues was Greek and ate breakfast around 12pm and lunch around 3pm. At first I thought it was the weirdest thing ever, but towards the end I just got used to that being his routine (although I had no idea how he could go until 12pm without eating).

3. Your emails can and will be used against you (if necessary)

It’s 4:30pm and you’re ploughing through to get the last of your work done before 5pm, you then get an email asking you to do XYZ by the end of the day. They’re taking the mick, but you can’t email back “Are you kidding me? Do it yourself. P*ss take” or anything else along those lines. You’ve got to suck it up, prioritise your tasks and get on with it.

4. Prioritising is key

When working in an office, a new project or piece of work can be thrown at you from all directions at any time. When that happens, you need to be able to assess how important that task is in relation to your other tasks and work on them accordingly.

5. 9-5 is the bare minimum

You can start work at exactly 9am and finish at 5pm on the dot if you insist, but progressing up the ladder requires more than putting in the bare minimum. Sometimes strict deadlines will mean staying a little later some days, especially if the work has suddenly been sprung on you like I mentioned above. In a decent office, this hard work will be recognised and you will be rewarded. The reward may not be financial, but your efforts won’t go unnoticed (if they do, get the hell out of there). Even if you’re not trying to get promoted, not being able to be flexible to meet these deadlines makes you look like a lazy worker.

At the company where I worked, a lot of things needed to coincide with music festivals or other events. However, in some office jobs deadlines are a lot looser and the pressure of getting things done is reduced.

How the office works varies from company to company, but if you’re about to enter the corporate world, I’d bear these things in mind.

Note: You will get some strange looks when people smell the McDonalds or KFC you bring into the office for lunch. 

Photo: Phil Whitehouse / Flickr

Aysh Banaysh

19 year old blogger and digital marketer from London. I like writing more than I like people.