Office life?

Let me take you today for a swim in my life at work.

From the very first day, I’m really excited for the ‘hot-desk’ office policy where NO ONE in the office has their own personal office that includes people in the admins, juniors up until the partners themselves! Can you imagine that? If this is still a bit confusing to you, this policy basically means everyone doesn’t have their own office!

There are a lot of desks with computers with/without standing tables, discussion area, meeting areas and soundproof rooms and etc where everyone could randomly sit every day. It’s an open environment where there are no walls in the whole office that separates ANYONE or any department. Isn’t that amazing? I think Auckland office has the same thing as well but the Christchurch office is very small. So everyone in the office meets everyone every day.

In the beginning, I was really uncomfortable and scared, to be honest. Because you know, even if I’m shy, I still have to work in the open area where managers and partners are walking around me. AND it gets scarier knowing that every lucky day, there could be a partner sitting NEXT or IN FRONT of me. OMG, if you’re an Asian, you’d know what I meant by scary about this fact haha. Especially when both executive directors and partners are just in front of you, that’s super extra.

As weeks/month went by, I’m starting to feel more confident and comfortable with the policy. I love how this open desk policy treats everyone to be respectful to one another and how transparent everyone is in the office because you can’t hide.

There’s a funny incident actually that happened last few weeks……..

I went to the printing room to print something and I saw one of my team partners was on the phone in the room as well. When the printer was done, I went and scan in my ID to print and I somehow had that gut feeling to turn and look at my partner whether he was holding his card A.K.A queueing as well. And guess what? HE WASSSS!!!! If you didn’t get what is going on – I BASICALLY JUST CUT MY PARTNER’S Q in the printing room!!!!!! OMG that’s definitely è  #thingsnotodointheoffice hhahahahah I was so embarrassed by that so straight away I sign off and told him how sorry he was. bcs I genuinely thought he was on the phone lol. This is what happened when everyone in the office shares the same facility and partners doesn’t have their own office.

I remember on my first week, one my EDs told us grads that “Here, we are all the same. So don’t be scared to ask questions or anything” – I’m starting to embrace that by now.

Moving on, my tax team (business tax advisory) is pretty small – there’s only like the 20 of us so I could say that we are a pretty close team in sense of communication and etc. Me, being the only grad for 2018 (what an honour alhamdulillah), it was pretty scary in the beginning because I didn’t have a peer/another grad to refer to. I felt so bad to bug with a lot of questions to my very kind buddy, seniors and managers. bcs I remember when I was doing my intern 2016, I never talked to the managers straight. Here, I NEED to because they’re basically my next person to ask.

So, to avoid disturbing them too much etc, I self-taught myself wherever possible and I'm actually quite surprised of what I’m cable of. But still, when I’m stuck, I’m so happy with how helpful everyone can be despite the workload they have – they WILL make time to help me.

Next, let's talk about being ‘A-w-k-w-a-r-d’. Getting a job in NZ doesn’t mean that I’m not awkward in making conversation and etc anymore. I STILL am awkward at some point! To all the awkward Hellosss and Goodbyesss - thank you for teaching me on how to converse better and avoid them happening again and again with the same person lol. I actually made a lot of moves to reduce my awkwardness such as:  (some may sound ridiculous but it’s the truth)

1.     1. Observing how others reply to daily Qs like “How are you” – trust me, I always find it weird and very shy replying to this question bcs idk if what I say really matters. But, I’ve realised that this is a very normal thing to do and it actually helps to improve your relationships with others. Initially, I’d just say “Good good” and smile away. But I realised that people actually say more than just that such as “Good, thank you. How about you?..How’s your break etc…..” It seems like a casual conversation but it actually lifts up my mood every morning when I learnt to adapt to it. I find it really uplifting when someone just greets me and just having that small chat.

2.    2.  Googling ‘What to say when someone greets you…’ – This is probably ‘conversation for dummies’ alternative. It’s when you’re too shy to ask but you really want to do something. Surprisingly this alternative helped me quite a lot too in a sense of giving me ideas of what to expect in a conversation!

3   3.  Try my best approach the same person until it gets less awkward and ask them how to improve – I did this a lot of times. When I’m comfortable with that person I will ask them what to say when someone asks this etc and it helps a lot too!

So there, that’s how I reduce my awkward-ness. Despite that I look very confident most of the time, trust me, I’m a mess sometimes when I start talking! LOL Back then when it was all new, I’d just go back home early when I go to events because it was too overwhelming/too much. But I know, I need to get used to it because it’s something that helps me grow.

From today’s post, I could say that theirs is a lot to take in –

1.    Everyone is the same – respect each other
2.    Confidence is key BUT check first don’t just cut Qs lol
3.    If something helps you grow, don’t give up. Keep pushing yourself slowly

That’s it for today!

Bye guys, Be kind.

Regards,

Liyana