I wrote this blog post a while ago, I never could quite finish it because I didn’t know how to end it but recently it just came to me.
I’m sitting at my desk peacefully with two of my colleagues working opposite me. The radio is humming along in the background, the window open, skies grey and the sound of whooshing cars in the rain speeding past is a comforting sound.
This morning we have been sat in the office quietly getting on with our respective tasks and chit chatting here and there. But the air of relaxation and quietness really hit me today and I really appreciated the amount of concentration that I could dedicate to my job. Our office tends to a be very busy place, with people always rushing in and out, dumping things on our desks, phones ringing, messages and tasks being pinged through the computer and a mountain of paperwork to complete on a daily basis. It can sometimes be a stressful environment – but today I appreciate the rare silence. The three of us here today are confident in what we do and don’t mind just getting on with it, we work well together and are the more senior members of staff, we are the go to girls. And that’s a nice title to have.
Many of my best friends I met in school or at university, but out of all of the friends that I consider ‘my best’ one of them I met at work. We always felt that we were very similar when we first met and very different to the others in our building. We had similar upbringings, family life and morals and noticed that we had many things in common. We got on from day one, and even though we both ended up being very unhappy in our place of employment – when we both left our friendship grew even stronger because we didn’t need to complain about work!
I’ve worked in places where people get on because they have to, and places where there’s an air of bitchiness around every corner. Every workplace is different though. I’m happy enough where I am right now but it’s not a forever job for me. I’m still not on the hunt for my dream job.
Spending time together outside of work creates better relationships and it creates a more positive and strong bond when we’re in work too. With our office, we enjoy hanging out together. We span each age bracket, ranging from 25 to 63, but It makes a difference getting on well with the people you work closely with. Having experienced a variety of different work colleagues since finishing Uni 4 years ago, I can say that this is my favourite bunch of people.
Recently I applied for a perfect part time with the possibility (or something more I hoped.) I was unsuccessful with that but I told my close knit group of colleagues and they were all so supportive. They wished me well, were eager and nervous for me and they all acted like really great friends throughout the process. We spend so much time together in work we’re like a small family, and although I didn’t want to ‘let them down’ by leaving, they all knew it was the perfect job for me, it was a job I wanted… and I was even told by the boss that my talents are currently wasted in this office job. They were so supportive even when it didn’t go my way.
Even though I was disappointed about losing out on this ideal job, I felt comforted to know that I had a lovely caring team to go back to. They know I not be there forever but we’re grateful to have such a successful team day to day. They know I’ll probably be job hunting again soon but this experience really showed me how much they valued me as a friend and colleague.
A blog by Amy 