the STORY of the (UN)REAL LIFE at the OFFICE - LOL GUARANTEED
In previous articles, I informed you about the new assignment I took onboard, an assignment making me an employee rather than being my own boss, a position I have a lot of experience with, a role classified as solution consultant by my employer although I would classify it as pre sales, a technical/commercial role.
The company I work for is in the Internet space, hosting solutions, security solutions, private and public cloud solutions; With customers ranging from small companies to the biggest we have in the country, including several local and national governmental departments and other governmental-ish institutions like police, fire brigades, unemployment office, tax office and so on.
Seven working days into my new job, it is time to evaluate my first impressions. To structure my mind, what is better than writing? And by publishing the results to the Steem blockchain I may even humour you as well :)
the Story of the Father Figure
In the sessions I had leading to the assignment/job approval, I was already told the company had a 9-to-5 mentality. A mentality of hard work, but a strong culture the hard work will be done between about nine-ish in the morning till five thirty-ish in the late afternoon. Something I was never accustomed to; I like to work when I'm most productive; This could be during daytime, but could sometimes also be evening or night time.
Although I'm allowed to work from home, all my direct colleagues and manager do like me to work from the office most of the time (unless I'm outside with some prospect or customer). Not to try to go against existing culture too much, I've been working in the office every single day for the last 7 days.
And every single day, I've been hearing similar statements from my colleagues when they prepare to leave the office for home in the afternoon. "Ed, you are allowed to go home!"
One of my direct colleagues is quite repetitive in his statement: "Ed, the most important thing in office life is the balance between work and social time; You have to go home in time; We will look out for you when you don't; We don't want you to get a burn out". This guy tells me this several times a day. He sounds almost like a father! :)
I never ever in my whole life experienced such work environment! On one hand this is great! I'm more or less forced to not work 60 hours a week. But it somehow also feels a little bit too much to me.
The good thing is, I'll have more time to spend in our Steemit community. I can continue my time-consuming curation for IINC (@illuminati-inc). I can continue to spend time on building IINC activities. I can continue to spend time to advise some other Steemit projects, such as SMA (@smacommunity). I can continue to spend time to become better as a writer. I can continue to spend time engaging with you boys and girls! How cool is that?! Ah well, maybe it is not so cool for you, but whatever; You can always ignore me :)
the Story of Accessories Agreements
On my third working day I received an email with the question to come to the HR office to sign some agreements for the - by my employer - provided laptop and smartphone. I didn't act on this request immediately, which resulted in someone from HR approaching me in person, several hours after I received the email. "Ed, can you please come with me to my desk and read and sign the agreements I emailed you about?". Ok, I don't want to be difficult, so I decided to leave my tasks at hand and followed the lady to her desk.
At the HR office I was offered not only a chair, but also coffee, tea or water; Super Service and Really Nice! But I immediately thought: "I have to put my signature onto two agreements, it'll take me 10 seconds, why do I need to sit down"? Too my surprise, I was asked to read the agreements from A to Z. I couldn't resist asking the question: "Are these agreements negotiable?" to which the HR lady answered: "Well, you already got the tools, so no, they are not negotiable". It didn't help anything when I stated the fact in the case these agreements are not negotiable, and I would like to keep using the tools I already got, a simple signature would be sufficient regardless of the content. I had to read them, wasting at least 20 minutes of my time.
I had a BIG LAUGH! Afterwards, outside the direct viewing and hearing distance of HR of course, since I do want to be respectful to others. But still, what an event! Something I'll never forget in my entire life, for sure! :)
the Story of the Unfinished Tool
Being new to the team, I try to keep my opinions about the "how" to myself; Most of the time. But, I'm also someone who don't like to be too considerate towards colleagues. In the end we all work - as good as we can - to fill that single pot of gold from which we all getting paid. Political behaviour is for moments we are with prospects, customers or suppliers; Not when we are amongst colleagues.
During my first day, I managed to upset one of my colleagues! Not that she showed it too much, but still. I made a comment on some important tool we use to draw network diagrams with some in house developed configuration layer on top of a standard network drawing tool. It seems, a lot of work has been spend to develop this extra layer, but as I quickly discovered while using the tool, it was never finished; Resulting in a tool with too many restrictions, and the need to manually adjust the exported tables and other files.
WTF!?
So, I made a comment on the lines of: "When using tools it shall add value to what we do, therefore I would think we either finish the tool ASAP, or we stop using the tool!"... Well, she didn't like that comment too much and stated something on the lines of: "Well, we use this tool, it is mandatory! It has some flaws still, but you can correct them in the exported files". As it turns out, the team inherited the tool from previous team members who already left the company, and she has been working on extending the tool as long as she works for the company, which is two years.
Ok, ok, I deal with this! I'll not further upset my colleagues regarding this topic, not for the coming couple of weeks at least! :) Last Friday, I couldn't resist to advise my line manager to consider to either task someone to finish the tool, or task the team to come up with a new tool and/or way of work. Lets see what this will lead to :)
the Story of TBD
I have several more jaw moving events, but I will leave this for a next post to allow me not to steal too much of our time reading.
Sounds like you're keeping a sense of humour about it! Just keep an eye out for the first time you refer to the company as 'we', then you know you've drank the koolaid. : )
Humour is the best way to deal with stuff we don't like; I'm most of the time a master in accepting the difficulties I encounter, using humour. Sure, I can be negative and critical, but in the end I know I better deal with it, otherwise it'll cause too much unnecessary stress.
The 9-5 culture is almost (but not quite) as bad as the long hours culture. What if you are highly productive and you can complete your work in 5 or 6 hours? You should be able to go and do whatever you like, but there is always more work to do. 9-5 feels like slavery to me, which is why I opted to start my own business. OK so I'm no successful yet, but I choose when I work and how much I do and that feels like freedom. Sometimes I work late into the night, other times I take a day off and go for a coffee. I love it. I just need to make some money now ;)
I know the self employed life as well :) Although it seems to have freedom, the freedom stops when making commitments, with eg a customer, or a supplier, or with partners. Therefore I always say, being self employed may give a feeling of freedom, this feeling is a perceived feeling that in reality is a falls feeling.
Whatever this culture is I'm in at the office, I think I will be able to create my rules, when to work and when to be in the office, but not in my first week, or month(s). They first need to discover I'll always deliver and I'll always take on more work then expected. Once managers and colleagues know this, I'm pretty sure I can create my own culture. And when not, well, I always can enjoy the fact I dont have to work more than 40 hours a week (throughout my whole life I worked more hours per week, therefore having less social time then I will have now).
Comparing work, any work, regardless being an employee or self employed, or whatever form with slavery, I find way too far from the truth. Slavery is a very heavy word, and I don't like to us this in comparison with work. In the end, work is far from slavery, since work is paid, usually providing sufficient income to have a life. Slavery is about physical punishments for breaking rules, even when they mean nothing; I never seen an employer physically abusing an employee, without getting punished themselves. Slavery is about following order, while work is about delivering your work at a certain quality. Actually I have almost complete freedom in how I carry out my work, what I pick up, what tasks I care out today etc etc. Sure not all is free, since when the customer wants to see me, I need to agree to that in case I want to sell something :) But I hope you getting where I'm coming from. Nothing in the world is black and white, everything is grey, everything has its good sides and not so goods sides :)
Some good points. Yes indeed slavery is a strong word depending on your definition, but I just see it as the opposite of freedom, although even being free we have to feed ourselves, find shelter and clothes and achieve some sort of self actualisation, otherwise we'd be on the streets. I guess the problem I have with corporate culture is that they will almost always attempt to push you harder and harder to the point where you are punished, maybe not physically in the moment, but psychologically and mentally through manipulation and exhaustion. In the long run this leads to disease and early death. I've see so many of my corporate 'successful' colleagues and friends become unhealthy and suffer premature ageing as a consequence of spending too long in the rat race.
I guess we have to find a balance, as you seem to be doing, by finding meaningful work that pays without the burden of stress, but also having time for ourselves that allows deeper spiritual development.
I do agree with balance. As everything in life, balance is in the end a good thing. You paint a very negative picture of corporate life. Although I'm sure their are extreme cases, the majority is not like that, not in the Netherlands at least, the little country I live in. In the end, as an employee one doesn't have to stay with the company when it doesn't do someone well. Also I've seen people not being able to deal with the stress; But in the end, almost any job will cause stress. Even when one doesn't like what he/she does, causes stress for sure. I know people who are stress out by doing nothing. Another person I know, stresses at work (own company) to be ready quicker to be able to spend more free time, and then the free time is so booked out, it causes double stress.
Best is one find something to do what makes one happy, most of the time. I do know some of us will never have the chance to find how the clock ticks, or not able to reach what they like to get to for whatever reason. That is a shame; I simply hope all of us on planet earth are able to find the best ways if living life, including work, free time etc.
I've worked in Sweden and the US and I must say I find Swedish work culture much more friendly and a bit like a small family atmosphere within teams. It's very different in the UK and US where the culture is highly competitive and aggressive. I'm guessing the Netherlands is more similar to Sweden than the UK/US in terms of work culture.
Yep, your guess is correct. Dutch work culture is quite different to the competitiveness of UK and USA. I never worked in Sweden, or for a Swedish company, but I have some experience with Norwegian companies. What you describe about Swedish culture is very similar to Norwegian culture, and I think Dutch culture is closely related to it as well. Working for a company with a Dutch culture is quite pleasant! :)
I see your adopting fast with your new role.. It'll make the work easy with time. And having some time for steemit is a great joy to hear. People give excuses of their commitments at work not to steemit. This should be an inspiration to them.
Hahahaha, Not sure if I'm adapting fast, I do my best :) I never posted an article this early in the morning; Also there I'm adjusting, I have to since in half an hour it is driving to the office time again.
this great story I appreciate your writing thanks for sharing this post..
Thanks. I also appreciate I write :)
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Super!