I was doing electronic service all my working life and always worked in a "shop". And with the hierarchy of my job (hospitals) meant that I was always in the basement. In my last job I was 4 stories underground.
So I never worked in a "cubicle" style office and I am genuinely interested in the experience. All I know is what I see on TV so some reality would be nice. What do office people do? What are the daily tasks like? My first job was in a medium sized hospital (500 beds) and the last one was bigger (1500 beds). Big differences in attitude of the ownership. So what's your office day like?
Life in a "cubicle", or open plan office, is appalling.
An open plan office is the spawn of Satan, to my mind.
In any case, I have found it hateful, horrid, and exhausting.
There is no privacy, and worse, no silence (which is what you need - well, what I need, if I am writing, or compiling, or composing, or crafting, an important report or piece).
In essence, it is an assault - a sustained assault - on the senses: Electric light (in a shared, communal space) tends to be of the irritating overhead variety (I am able to see the damned flicker, and can sometimes hear it 'buzzing'; thus, not only is it exceedingly irritating, but it can set off a migraine).
Noise - colleagues talking, taking phone calls, - cannot be excluded (unless you wear headphones), making it difficult to concentrate, or focus, on what you wish to write, and next to impossible to think.
Others have already written about aromas (if the workplace does not provide a canteen, or, one cannot escape to nearby places in which to eat lunch, - which is increasingly common in work places in the outer suburbs, rather than city centres which tend to be amply supplied with decent spots to eat, one must consume food in the office, or in the cubby hole designated as the space for a fridge, electric kettle, and, possibly a microwave, meaning that yes, you know exactly what your colleagues have just eaten) - food aromas, and worse, sometimes personal aromas (strong perfumes or aftershave; and yes, actual body odour) can assault your olfactory senses.
While these are all annoying - and infuriating - and exhausting, and, yes, sometimes stressful, the real issue is that, in an open plan office, you cannot escape them, you have absolutely nowhere to go if a colleague's charming little personal habits are driving you insane.
And then there are issues - and arguments - around preferred temperatures; windows that cannot be opened are a nightmare, as is a/c.
Indoors, with a/c, I am always attired in a jacket (coat, to Our Transatlantic Cousins), and a turtleneck (polo-neck), and remain mystified that some colleagues can sit in such an environment in short sleeves.
And that is all quite apart from the endless horrors of office politics.
