I've been a bit quiet as of late, sorry chaps. One of the reasons being that I spent the beginning part of this year thinking about graduating out of my old job into a proper 'grown-up' job and then 3 weeks ago I started my proper 'grown-up' job.
This led to me writing down some of my observations regarding the differences between my previous jobs and this one, which naturally turned into a bit of a list. Everyone loves a good list, right? I know I do! So...here goes.
25 Signs You Have a Grown-up Job
1) You attend meetings. Lots of meetings. And you actually speak in them rather than just doodling on your notepad.
2) You have a workplace meta-language that extends beyond
the names of the local greasy spoon and your usual postman/courier.
3) Your boss asks you to work on a project because of your
'expertise', which prompts you to frantically try to remember who you are and
what the hell you do.
4) When someone calls you it’s because they want to speak to
you and not just because they want to shout at someone. (Although
the two are not always mutually exclusive).
5) You no longer have to wear a name badge at all times.
6) You’ve finally managed to drop the ‘assistant’ from your
job title.
7) You have a pension scheme. And you signed up to it before
auto-enrollment kicked in.
8) You get to decide when and where you have your lunch break.
9) You’ve been shown how to claim for things on
expenses...so that you may never do it.
10) Some of your meetings may involve you travelling across
the country or even the WORLD! *gasp*
11) You delete an email and when you look away for just 5 minutes, 9 more have taken its place.
12) If you don’t do something, it will have serious consequences
for you and other people.
13) When it gets to 10pm, you start thinking about heading
home for the night as you don’t want to have to overdose on coffee just to get
through the next morning.
14) You volunteer yourself for tasks that are long and
thankless, because you think it might be good for your career in the long term.
15) You think about the long term. And not
just the fantasy where you’ve won the lottery and you’re asleep in a hammock
with a cocktail on your face at 3pm.
16) You finally understand networking and you’re doing it
all by yourself!
17) When clothes shopping, you stop to consider whether an
item will be suitable for work or not. If it is, you can justify the purchase
to add to your ‘work wardrobe’.
18) You have a ‘work wardrobe’.
19) You have to make decisions beyond what to have for
lunch. (Although this is the most agonising of all).
20) When you tell people your job title, they raise their
eyebrows and say “aah ” or “ooh” or some variation of that noise.
21) You have the ability to, on occasion, work from home.
22) You sometimes have to work late not because your boss tells you to, but because you have a deadline and you have to get shit done.
23) You plan your annual leave around work commitments.
24) You're finally in charge of your own workload and not being micromanaged within an inch of your life. You got this!
25) You finally get paid enough to live. You may not be rich, but with any luck, you might just be able to pay off your debt, squeeze in a holiday here and there and buy a posh bit of cheese from time to time.
Living the dream, folks. Living the dream.
