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That has been my experience as well. Yep, a bunch of fake, uptight people who are playing a game. The conversation topics are always very, very bland and superficial, just a bunch of inane chatter. I'm definitely with you on that one. Then there is the outright plotting against people who are disliked for one reason or another. At all three of the office jobs I have held since graduating from college, there are maybe two or three people who I feel are down to Earth, genuinely kind, and REAL. The rest are crap for the most part.
One thing I've learned is to never trust ANY of your co-workers and you damned sure don't let them know anything about your personal life. I can't tell you how many co-workers I have encountered who are nice in a cheesy way to your face, doing the fake "hi, how was your weekend?" thing with a big ole fake smile and then trash you to the boss or another co-worker the next minute. Funny how well sound carries in offices.
They do it to the boss all the time too. When I'm auditing a company and the boss isn't with us, all sorts of rude, nasty comments are said about him. Some are justified and some are not, but as soon as he joins us, all of a sudden everyone is super friendly with him. It makes me sick.
Then you have the young guys who act like they are God's gift to the world of accounting and act like they know everything. They think they are smarter than everyone else and think their s*** doesn't stink.
The over the top egos and materialism are nauseating. Most of my co-workers are blowhards and love to think of themselves as high class when really they are only middle class. A lot of them have their nose stuck up in the air and like to think they are more sophisticated than others. They love to brag about their cars, vacations, McMansions, etc. However, one thing you will NEVER EVER hear them talk about is investing. That has always amazed me considering that we are accountants. The emphasis is always on spending, a pathetic kind of chest pounding.
I'm of two minds on this, because there are so many people who seem to have this experience in an office setting:
1) The average person is innocent enough, well-intentioned and just wants to go to work, make money, and go home. The problem comes when you work with a few sociopaths( many of whom always seem to wind up in positions of authority) who have an over-inflated sense of self- importance. They identify those just like them, and they set out to create this environment where its literally survival of the fittest. In order to protect your own standing you're reduced to backstabbing, fingerpointing, passive-aggressive behavior, withholding info and so forth.
It makes for a toxic environment.....directives come via vaguely worded emails where the primary purpose is to create an e-paper trail, not to actually make it easy for someone to follow instructions. Nobody wants to help, they're all too busy figuring out their own vague instructions, bloated methodologies of redundant assignments and surfing the web and getting up walking about in an attempt to look busy. Training? That consists of 'figure it out yourself, when you screw up we"ll scold you condensendingly like a 5 year old so you'll know not to do it next time'. Despite all this, you are expected to be prompt, courteous, gracious,flexible, toe the company line and effectively be a mindless drone. Don't dare show any hint of individuality or resistance to the status quo of how things are done.
2) Perhaps many people are cold and calculating by nature and working in an office allows for all forms of underhanded, treacherous, conniving behavior to take place in the name of moving up the corporate ladder, so you can have your Mcmansion, fancy cars, updated wardrobe and bi-annual cellphone purchases. All with a smile, of course..... Really what is it for at the end of the day? What's 'really' being accomplished in all this?
Training? That consists of 'figure it out yourself, when you screw up we"ll scold you condensendingly like a 5 year old so you'll know not to do it next time'.
^^ THIS. Also, I've always gotten the impression that many of your co-workers WANT you to fail. There is no real teamwork. Everyone does their own assignments themselves and if you aren't understanding something because you are new and you haven't seen it before, well that is just too damn bad. It means you are an idiot! Ask someone a question and you usually get "I'm busy" with a mean glare.
At my job that I have now, it took me about 6 months to really figure out what I was doing. I had no help whatsoever and "getting it" was mainly a result of screwing up and getting fussed at until I got it right. I was handed a laptop and told to figure it out. Nobody EVER sat down with me and walked me through any of the procedures.
^^ THIS. Also, I've always gotten the impression that many of your co-workers WANT you to fail. There is no real teamwork. Everyone does their own assignments themselves and if you aren't understanding something because you are new and you haven't seen it before, well that is just too damn bad. It means you are an idiot! Ask someone a question and you usually get "I'm busy" with a mean glare.
At my job that I have now, it took me about 6 months to really figure out what I was doing. I had no help whatsoever and "getting it" was mainly a result of screwing up and getting fussed at until I got it right. I was handed a laptop and told to figure it out. Nobody EVER sat down with me and walked me through any of the procedures.
If every job you've ever had has been like this, you've either not been working for good employers or haven't given anyone a reason to want to have you as part of their team.
Let me explain. I am 53 and 2 years ago my mother had a bad stroke. I quit a good full time job, put my belongings in storage and drove back to take care of my mother. She is in a nursing home sitting in a wheelchair and speaks unintelligibly do to her stroke. I became her legal guardian and take care of everything! From her home, finances, clothes, dentist, hair salon, shopping, staying on top of the aides and nurses, etc.! Anyone who has been this situation, knows exactly what I'm talking about.
It's emotional exhausting and stressful!
My one goal I do have, is to find a job in Florida and move back and take mother with me. At this point in my life, I do not nor need added responsibilities in my life. I have no desire to work into a leadership position and take on more work. My plate is full enough!
So what do I say when asked "what are my goals for the next 5 years"? How do I answer that with out coming across as a person with no motivation? I don't want to tell them about my personal responsibilities and problems, they don't want to hear it. At this point, my career goal is to be a simple humble hard working grunt worker. Perhaps after mother passes, I might want to excel myself, but I won't know that until that time comes. Is there anything wrong with not having career aspirations and just do your job and go home?
Hopefully some HR people can help me with this. Thanks
A few years ago I was faced with a similar situation and I did not get the job (I think) because I was simply honest with them about my just wanting a "job" without having to worry about busting my arse trying to "climb the ladder of success".
I would avoid doing this.
Play the game. Tell them what they want to hear. Leave your personal life out of the discussion. Make them believe whatever it takes to get the job.
Right now you are emotionally and physically tired and it makes it hard to feign enthusiasm for the job. Fake it.
People in the medical field have a different disposition. We or most, have a fun sense of humor. We have to!! Most of us are generally real and down to earth.
For one, we like each other, we joke and play practical jokes, we party together and if anyone knows anything about medical people is that we party HARD!! We meet up for drinks, go to each others home, hit the beach ( when I lived in Key West), snorkel, Kayak, 2 hour sunset booze cruises, then belly up to a tiki bar afterwards for more drinks and food. If someone had a boat, we would ride to a sand bar with beer and brats and hang out all day. Sometimes the night shift, after getting off at 7am, would meet for breakfast and bloodmarys and mimosas! AND occasionally the ER doctor would join us! One time a hand full of us went on a 3 day road trip!!
The fun and sense of humor is the best part. During working hours, there was always something said or done that makes it enjoyable. If we are not carrying on about our lives , we entertain ourselves with hospital nylon tape and the things you can do with it!! Use your imagination! One time a male tech was sitting on a rolling chair, me and another tech decided how fun it would be to tape him to it. So with tape in hand we causally came up from behind, as I held him, the other tech quickly rolled the tape around him and the chair. After he was good and secure, we rolled him down the hallway and pushed him into an elevator and hit the button to go down!! Ha We knew he had a great sense of humor and was a good sport about it. We would write on unused left over supplies and tape it to the computer or the ceiling or the wall or each other like, "todd's pleasure paddle". I would xray random things and all would guess on what it was. Ever see the inside of a baseball? No one got that one.
Everyplace nowadays has a dry eraser board. In the OR, there was one, and some one in authority wrote in big bold letters, " do not write on this board"! The next day, there were funny comments written all over it. " why, are you the eraser board police"?, or "okay, I won't write anything on here".
We have to have a sense of humor!! We NEED stress relief!! We see the human body at it's worse. Blood, broken bones, gun shots to the head, brains, guts. You name it, I've seen it, xrayed it and touched it! I would come home with blood on my scrubs. Once a guy came into trauma with a chain saw to the face. He was split all the way down, still alive and talking. I told him once he's all stitched up, he'll sport a manly scar, and be a "chick magnet". I saw a little smile from him.
It's not all fun and games, but it does help in our environment. When multi traumas roll thru the door, it's.... go time! We might get our A** handed to us for hours! After everything settles down, it's, " who wants pizza and wheres that tape"!
I work now in an Ortho office and yes, it's a bit similar to yours. I'm like.... "what is wrong with you people"? Doesn't anyone have any personality or sense of humor? Don't you guys go out together? NO, no and no! So I made it my mission to change things. Yes, I've seen a difference since I've been there.
I think one has to have some sense of humor to survive the fakers in an office. Sounds to me, they are afraid to show their real selves and swim down stream with the rest. Need to PC!!
I would offer for those of you in that fake office environment, to break the ice and show a little bit of fun. Start small, and before you know it, the office mood will lighten up. It won't be great, but bearable. BUT, there are those that are so bland , ( I think born without emotions) that no matter what you do, you can't penetrate their boring, fake, emotionless brain!
Let me explain. I am 53 and 2 years ago my mother had a bad stroke. I quit a good full time job, put my belongings in storage and drove back to take care of my mother. She is in a nursing home sitting in a wheelchair and speaks unintelligibly do to her stroke. I became her legal guardian and take care of everything! From her home, finances, clothes, dentist, hair salon, shopping, staying on top of the aides and nurses, etc.! Anyone who has been this situation, knows exactly what I'm talking about.
It's emotional exhausting and stressful!
My one goal I do have, is to find a job in Florida and move back and take mother with me. At this point in my life, I do not nor need added responsibilities in my life. I have no desire to work into a leadership position and take on more work. My plate is full enough!
So what do I say when asked "what are my goals for the next 5 years"? How do I answer that with out coming across as a person with no motivation? I don't want to tell them about my personal responsibilities and problems, they don't want to hear it. At this point, my career goal is to be a simple humble hard working grunt worker. Perhaps after mother passes, I might want to excel myself, but I won't know that until that time comes. Is there anything wrong with not having career aspirations and just do your job and go home?
Hopefully some HR people can help me with this. Thanks
I don't see anything wrong with that career goal. Everyone has times in their life where they don't really want or need or could handle some big career challenge.
In fact one of the worst things would be to tell a potential supervisor that you really only want his or her job. Sometimes they are actually looking for someone who would be happy in a particular position for some length of time and will stay in it.
It's perfectly fine to say that your career goal would be to get this job and learn how to do it very well. Or that you really enjoy this kind of work, you are good at it, etc, etc.
Keep in mind that question can be one of those semi-trick questions to see if you really even want the job in question.
A few years ago I was faced with a similar situation and I did not get the job (I think) because I was simply honest with them about my just wanting a "job" without having to worry about busting my arse trying to "climb the ladder of success".
I would avoid doing this.
Play the game. Tell them what they want to hear. Leave your personal life out of the discussion. Make them believe whatever it takes to get the job.
Right now you are emotionally and physically tired and it makes it hard to feign enthusiasm for the job. Fake it.
20yrsinBranson
Well that was just putting it all wrong. You don't say it that way even if it's mostly true. You say you like working in that position, have always liked doing the front lines kind of work.
Or you say you want to learn things from the bench up if you want to let them know up front that you might want to move up sometime later.
Or you say that you know how stressful it can be to be a supervisor and it's not right for you at this time, that you might have skills that would let you help the one who supervises but at this point you would not like to be the one who supervises. That way you can just go for the job and get on good terms with the supervisor off the bat. They love to hear how you understand how stressful it can be to supervise and that someone would just like to assist or fill in if needed.
In the stuck world of healthcare technicians (like credentialed RNs, X-ray people, etc.) there usually is no "up," but as one person pointed out, you can always want to advance your skills right where you are. In my job, it's important to become adept at the new electronic medical records system (always a work in progress, because it's basically not very good) and to be able to be a "go-to" person for co-workers on the system. There is nowhere to go in the hierarchy, certainly without the rigid requirements for a master's (used to be a bachelor's, but it got inflated like so many other jobs).
Maybe in more progressive healthcare environments, there are more places to move, but I think they'd still require advanced degrees. Hey, someone has to work nights and in nursing homes and stuff- would you really want to keep hiring people who want to be the manager?
I realize this not like an office environment. I worked in office environments for about three years total and felt my skin crawling all day with boredom and annoyance. "Did not compute..."
I simply lie. Sometimes I throw the phrase "team player" around which lets them know I want to be a reliable solid part of the team, but what I'm actually saying is that I don't want to be in a supervisory role, in any way shape or form.
I recently began a new job, which is below my qualifications (and $$ - but what can you do, I'm glad to be working) and I have to laugh when I see young co-workers who are dying to show management how ambitious they are so they can start climbing the corporate ladder. They are just itching for more responsibility and stress and would love to have one of those jobs where they're expected to have a blackberry and a laptop with them at all times. I just want to tell them, "In 20 years you'll kill for a job where your work day ends when you leave the building!"
Interviews are stupid. They're such BS. The guy who comes in and kisses the biggest arse will get the job usually.
Personally, if I were a boss, I wouldn't want some whipper snapper go-getter who is going to kiss arse, gun for my job, and throw me under the bus at the first opportunity. I want a quiet little grunt with a good work ethic who does his work and whose real passion is competitive frisbee or making antique furniture on the weekend or something.
There's usually no other way to screen people out though. GPA if you are younger.
On a few interviews I have been more honest. Something along the lines of "I'm not that ambitious, I don't want to do project management, but I'm a real hard worker." Sufficient to say, I never got those jobs.
In cases of 2 different people who didn't make it past the final interview, they both were able to dig deep and figure out what went wrong. One of them was told that she did fine on previous interviews, but for some reason, got nervous and messed up her last one. That turned them off.
In another case, the final interview included a high level exec. That high level exec purposes shot her down because he was afraid she was too good, and that she would one day take over his job. So yeah, fancy that... it's possible to not only bomb an interview, but interview too well
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