You GUYS, what the even heck!? April 13 marks the official one year anniversary for Life of an Office Worker (LOW)! HAPPY ONE YEAR!!!!
A year ago, I started Life of an Office Worker. It was born out of a lot of things – frustration at work, a realization of how small the things I started to care about at work were, and the feeling of being incredibly alone in the situation I found myself.
And as I began to reflect, post and share, it quickly became clear that I wasn’t alone. That there are lots of people who, like me, are frustrated and a touch disoriented when it comes to the workplace.
And here, at the one year anniversary of the blog, it only seems right to put to paper why I started Life of an Office Worker and what I hope it means.
This blog is meant to be a place for you to come and feel heard. To feel like you aren’t alone. To realize someone else is equally (if not more) frustrated about the same things you are and to have a safe space for you to rant like a mad man (or woman, because workplace equality) about it.
Life of an Office Worker is a place to affirm that you, even if you don’t LOVE the field or type of work you do, want to come and do as good a job as you can and you become frustrated by the stupid things that get in the way. And that you, like any reasonable member of society, are more than over Carol and her stupid cat stories (Carol, take a hint, girl).
There would be no greater sign of success for me with this blog than to know that you came here and felt heard, understood and empathized with. Without ever having met me or me having met you. That even though we don’t know each other personally, in some way, we do know each other (Because our work experiences have both been insane).
Oh, and because we share bitterness and a desire for biting sarcasm. Always that as well.
(and PS, if you aren’t about that sarcasm life, let me show you a quick demonstration of how to navigate away from this blog…).
I know that many of you have connected with what’s here from the work stories you’ve shared, from the snapchats you’ve sent and from the times you’ve told me about sending one post or another to a friend. Hearing from you about the ways this blog has impacted you for the better has been life-giving for me. I absolutely LOVE hearing how Life of an Office Worker has become a part of your lives.
So, my friends, as we move into year two of the Life of an Office Worker, I urge you to stay strong. Continue to be honest with yourself and those around you about your frustrations. Know you aren’t alone, and stay fiercely true to who you are and encourage your companies to do the same.
Because in the face of a technological future full of things like AI, our workplaces are going to change in huge ways. And it’s going to change fast. And when the technological aspects of your job or company are gone, the only thing that’s going to inform your direction for the future is your core – who you are, what’s important to you, and why you think other people should feel the same (the same goes for you company too).
When we as humans aren’t spending our time on the transactional and objective parts of our job because some computer has learned how, the experience and feeling of you and your company, how it acts, behaves and conducts itself is going to be what’s left.
Like Simon Sinek’s famous TED talk that led to the creation of his empire, people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. And when the ‘what’ you do is changing, the only thing that will be left to point you in a new direction is the ‘why’. Because ‘why’ can always find a new way to express itself, a new ‘what.’. Only having ‘what’, though, will leave you empty when things change.
So here’s to another great year, full of good stories, fresh posts and new things to come. And as always…
Yours in professionalism,
A Fellow Office Worker
Life of an Office Worker 