Feeling Threatened in an Office Environment

I don't know about anyone else, but I have always felt threatened in an office environment. Not just because of the culture here (that's another story), but of what these office environments represent to me. I have had to work in many offices in my day. I sometimes felt like my common sense and intelligence were going to be sucked right out of my soul if I stay in the environment too long, like more than a week or so. I will be a zombie just like everyone else here. And to this day, that is why I do contract and freelance work.

I have recently been hired on at many different companies in a somewhat of a trainer/mentor position. While on the job, I have seen grown men practically in tears and swearing at me, when they found out that they can't use an orange highlighter any more. I have seen grown women walk off the job when we sat down just to talk about where the new office water cooler will be located (I had only been in the building 10 minutes, so I'm thinking this was not about my training techniques). I have many more stories, but you get the picture. These people are not suffering from any "new fangled" training or machinery, these people have all been stressed to the max trying to make things work; that probably shouldn't work! I feel their pain.

Every office I have ever been in has its own culture. They have developed their own rules and regulations. Except that "these rules and regs" are all alike in other companies, too. They were born out of holes in their own systems. That is not a positive. As a stranger to them I feel these vibes more, because I am not plugged into to being a part of their inadequate strategy solutions. And you can even say I am "the enemy" when it comes to keeping up a dead system that needs to go.

I find that offices are more prone to make-work-projects and inefficient work habits because the people and their jobs here are politically driven. It is usually more important to "get along and go along with the team" than to produce 100 widgets on a machine or to take care of a customer in front of you. It is also more important that the boss is right, than the fact that his report does not make any sense and his numbers don't add up.

I enjoy producing work. At times, I still have to play politics with some of my colleagues but not on a 40 to 50 hour a week basis. I still have friends who are in offices and when they tell me the new happenings of the week at their companies, I just shake my head and laugh.