Working an office job can be exhausting. There are so many rules to adhere to. Unwritten expectations and behaviors to follow. Communication rules—certain ways to message your co-workers and your supervisor. Everything has an asterisk. A seemingly universally understood way to be in the office without anyone ever explicitly expressing it. Small stipulations for every encounter, like I before E except after C. However, these particularities in operations apply to everything from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Even how to speak during particular times of the day.
Being a recent graduate and starting a full-time corporate job immediately after was jarring. The lax world of college, full of casual greetings and interactions, abruptly came to an end. And in its place: a job.
From nine in the morning to five in the afternoon, I was a different person. I had to abide by foreign rules I had never heard anything about. New vocabulary, like ‘Scrum meeting,’ was introduced and utilized daily.
Daily 11 a.m. team meetings differed from the bi-weekly squad meetings, which differed from the weekly one-on-one checkins which differed from the monthly department-wide meeting with the head of the whole office. Slack was now a serious platform I had to continuously remember to check, not something used for silly clubs and student organizations on campus.
My email response etiquette was much different than the acronyms and shorthand texting I use with my friends. While I was emailing professors with a level of professionalism during my academic career, corporate emailing was a bit daunting to me. I didn’t know what was applicable and acceptable. My team was pretty relaxed; by no means was I working in a pantsuit-only office. Which confused me even more. Am I allowed to say “LOL” in this Slack message? The first few weeks I was working there, I responded to a team leader with ‘word’ multiple times and physically cringed every time.
I know now that being in a corporate environment is not a difficult thing once you have all the nuances down. Knowing how to respond to a specific email during certain hours of the day is imperative. Having your script ready for the 11 a.m. scrum update is instrumental to a good day at work.
But talking isn’t everything. There is still so much more to work life than having the right verbiage down and signing off your email the right way.
How to not lose yourself in work
When it comes to employment, our understanding is that we must go above and beyond, especially in the beginning, to prove our worth and dedication. Overworking, taking on an extra workload, and managing multiple projects; these are all symptoms of losing yourself in your work. Our paycheck becomes the thing we live for, day in and day out.
Our identity conflates with the individuals we become at work. Because we spend an absurd amount of time in the office compared to the rest of the day, who we are at our desks starts to feel like who we are, period.
We step out of the four walls we are confined to for eight hours and into the real world, and want nothing more than to relax. To do absolutely nothing. We are drained. Tired. The day is basically all gone anyway.
And we still need to make dinner. And get ready for tomorrow. The last thing we want is to use our brains even more. But that’s how we get stuck in the cycle of despair.
We have to actively fight against this complacency.
Outlets to Let Ourselves in
My first few weeks were a battle. I kept asking myself: How to not lose yourself in work? I resented the routine of waking up early, going to work, stepping into Corporate me, then going home, attempting to cook something, and sitting on my phone until I fall asleep.
You have to remember that work is not your life. You are not the Corporate version of yourself.
Disconnecting from your Slack and Outlook when the day ends is crucial to maintaining your identity. Find things you enjoy doing, even if they are low-commitment. Doing a puzzle, going to the library, and grabbing a book or two, going to the gym, and cooking new meals- these are all fabulous ways to stay steady in yourself, and not lose yourself in work.
It’s too easy to tie ourselves- and our sense of self- to our work and our performance. Corporate life after graduation is intimidating. We only know to pour our whole selves in, sparing no expense to prove our worth and success. While wanting to put in your all, and impress your team is an admirable thing to do, it’s still important to remember to hold on to who we are, and not get sucked into the quicksand that is corporate America.
Do you have a corporate job? Let us know how it is in the comments below!
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