Georgina Fuller, after over 15 years of working from home, returns to the office to update her skills. She quickly realizes that the office environment is a far cry from her usual routine and struggles to adapt. From awkward interactions with colleagues to the pressure of presenteeism, her experience highlights the challenges of navigating the modern workplace.
Georgina Fuller tried a stint back in the office to brush up her skills. She says it was distracting and inefficient - and presenteeism is alive and kicking. The night before I went back into an office for the first time in over 15 years I hardly slept. It did feel lonely at times and I missed the sociable side of working in an office.
So when a kind colleague said they were looking for someone to help out on a short-term basis at her media company, I saw it as a chance to update my skills, and jumped at the chance. I hadn’t realised how daunting it would be though. What if I make some catastrophic error like deleting the hard drive on the PC I’m using? What if they all think I’m hopeless and tell me not to come back? I agonised over what to wear, knowing my usual look – jogging pants, jumper and minimal make up – wouldn’t cut it. As I’m in the grip of the menopause, I settled on a shirt and tank top that could be taken off in the case of a hot flush. After struggling to find a seat on a packed commuter train (I usually get the later ones which are much cheaper and less busy) and Tube, I finally arrived at the office, somewhat flustered. I found my way to my desk but everyone was frantically busy and preparing for a meeting I wasn’t going to. Everyone seemed quite friendly but I didn’t want to overstep the mark or hound them for work. I hung around awkwardly trying to strike a balance between keen and approachable and, of course, efficaciously busy, waiting for someone to give me something to do. I’m not usually very good at small talk so I was grateful when the friendly office manager started chatting and enjoyed our water cooler conversation about her weekend and the weather. I quickly realised my first mistake, however – not bringing my own mug to use. I felt like the new girl at school turning up with the wrong uniform on. After spending what felt like hours trying to sort out my log-in with a very patient IT guy, I struggled to get to grips with the content management system in the new office. It quickly dawned on me that my colleagues were much younger –I was there on a trial period, so didn’t want to mess things up. But still, as the week progressed, I found myself asking the most basic questions (“So, when you say ‘click’ to save it do you mean afterwards or during?”). Embarrassingly, even using Google Docs was something of a struggle for me, after years of good old Word. I felt like a dinosaur. During my second week, my line manager asked me to work on something with a tight deadline. I quickly realised that I was so used to the calm quiet of working from home that I couldn’t drown out the chats going on around me and felt awkward and self-conscious with my screen in view. Also, having used the same now ancient MacBook for at least a decade, I couldn’t type nearly as quickly on the keyboard and PC screen in front of me so, used to working to my own rhythm, I quietly took myself off to one of the tables in the breakout area and plugged my headphones in to drown out the noise. It’s somehow easier to concentrate listening to The Cure (Gen X cliché that I am) on full blast. Lost in my work, I felt mortified when my manager came over to ask me why I had taken myself off on my own. “We need you on the desk with everyone else,” she admonished. I tried to explain that, after being so used to working alone, I was struggling to concentrate but she didn’t seem to take that on board. I realised it sounded like a feeble excuse, so I shuffled back to my desk. It became abundantly clear that the culture of presenteeism is still alive and kicking. Never mind whether or not they were actually being productive or not, employees were expected to be at their desks – a lot. It was made clear to me that they wanted me there, and visible, pretty much non-stop from 9am to at least 6pm. Never mind that I had, in fact, been working on the train, researching and sending emails, since 7.45am. I was also expected to pick up anything urgent (which turned out to be more than I’d anticipated) again on the train home. I thought I could do with an update but what I realised is that my routine at home, a flurry of activity in the morning post dog walk, a brief respite for lunch then sporadic bursts of productivity for the rest of the day before picking things up again in the evening when I’ve fed the children, has worked effectively for over a decade
Work Presenteeism Remote Work Office Culture Productivity Technology Generations Work-Life Balance
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