{"id":5722,"date":"2016-03-04T06:06:53","date_gmt":"2016-03-04T00:36:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=5722"},"modified":"2016-03-04T06:06:53","modified_gmt":"2016-03-04T00:36:53","slug":"corporate-culture-cool-office-is-a-myth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=5722","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Fall for the Bean Bag! The \u201cCool Office\u201d is a Myth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A<\/span>mong fresh-faced recent graduates and jobseekers there\u2019s a legend: The Legend of the Cool Office. If you\u2019re in your 20s or younger, chances are that you\u2019ve heard of it. Lore says that it is a land where there are no bosses, only friends. A land where coffee and hot chocolate flow freely while people indulge in fun activities like ping-pong, carrom, and believe it or not, beanbag-sitting. In this holy land, the demon entity named <\/span>Corporate Culture<\/span><\/a> has been vanquished, and there is freedom from dress codes and the nine-to-five grind.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A fresh graduate, I spent two months job-hunting for a workplace like this, and two years before that fantasising about it in college \u2013 I always wanted to take up meaningful work in an office filled with people who are woke. I had set my sights on a workplace I had caught glimpses of in movies and TV shows. I\u2019d gone online and zeroed in on job applications that contained all the dreamy buzzwords I could find: flat hierarchy, fun Fridays, flexi hours, and of course, start-up culture<\/span><\/a>. Working in an open office, what a dream. After a fair bit of searching, I found myself at my first job, wide-eyed and ready to sup from the holy communion of \u201cstart-up culture\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It took just a couple of months for reality to dawn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a child, I\u2019ve believed in every ridiculous fantasy you could throw at me. Doggy heaven, purple dinosaurs, talking animals, superheroes \u2014 I fell for it all. Still, I never imagined that long after learning the truth about <\/span>Santa Claus<\/span><\/a> and the Tooth Fairy, I would be getting taken for a ride by imaginary conceits.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like my childhood myths, I realised that start-up culture was nowhere near the work paradise I had envisioned it to be. Understaffed and overworked, the only things here more deflated than people\u2019s spirits were the damn beanbags. Apparently, the only flexibility \u201cflexi hours\u201d accommodate is the type where you bend over backwards to meet fresh deadlines, attend pointless meetings, and tend to always-last-minute client feedback. <\/span>Fun <\/span>Fridays<\/span><\/a> was just a weekly competition of who could roll their eyes the hardest, and the no dress code policy just offered the office gossips more material. As for flat hierarchy, it is described best in an opinion <\/span>piece<\/span><\/a> for The Guardian titled <\/span>The Truth Behind The \u201cFlat Hierarchy\u201d Facade<\/span><\/i>:<\/span> \u201cThe lack of formal rules and hierarchy masks a vicious informal power structure. But unlike good old-fashioned hierarchies, there are few checks and balances in place\u2026 so powerful \u2018barons\u2019 pursue their caprices with few limitations\u201d.<\/span>

Fun Fridays was just a weekly competition of who could roll their eyes the hardest, and the no dress code policy just offered the office gossips more material.<\/blockquote>
I didn\u2019t realise this all at once. After my fascination with the coffee machine wore off, I found comfort in a whole new set of fantasies. I foolishly believed that my appraisals would be fair, even as I laughed at the intern who was in awe of the \u201cLit AF boss\u201d who did not sit in a cabin and bought us beers. I mocked my friends with \u201cboring\u201d jobs and showed them pictures of those two raggedy beanbags at my <\/span>workplace<\/span><\/a> to make myself feel better. I thumbed my nose at friends who had to be at work at 9 am every day, but ignored the warning signs that my \u201ccool\u201d workplace was actually leaving me broke, tired, and exploited.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years, however, as my eyes opened up to these modern myths, I wondered how I had been duped. Frustrated conversations revealed that co-workers<\/span><\/a> and friends had found themselves similarly betrayed by the expectations of the \u201ccool office\u201d. How had we all bought into these ideas of work paradise?<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An article<\/span><\/a> titled \u201cHow Millennials Became The <\/span>Burnout<\/span><\/a> Generation\u201d goes over how our<\/span> generation has unknowingly \u201cinternalised the need to find employment that reflects well on their parents (steady, decently paying, recognizable as a \u201cgood job\u201d), is impressive to their peers (at a \u201ccool\u201d company), and fulfills the end goal of\u2026 doing work that you\u2019re passionate about\u201d. <\/span>Maybe the generations before us knew the doom they were signing up for: find a job, attach your suckers to it, and cling on for dear life until it\u2019s time to retire. But our generation was raised to hope for more. We were raised to believe that we had somehow lucked out, and that the world had opened up shiny new careers and work environments that had never existed for generations before us.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this work paradise, this Legend of the Cool Office, is and has always been an impossible dream, a juvenile fantasy. And by the virtue of multiple rewatchings of Wake Up, Sid<\/span><\/i><\/a>, I have desperately believed it to be true.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, the new girl in the office expressed her delight at the fact that unlike the nine-to-five<\/span><\/a> at her father\u2019s boring, corporate workplace, she was going to enjoy our start-up\u2019s \u201cflexible hours\u201d. I didn\u2019t feel like bursting her bubble, so I settled with giving her an awkward thumbs up. I do sincerely wish she snaps out of her fantasy sooner than later.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lore says that there\u2019s a land where there are no bosses, only friends. A land where coffee and hot chocolate flow freely. In this holy land, the demon entity named Corporate Culture has been vanquished. It sounds a lot like a start-up, but don\u2019t fall for it. Because like purple dinosaurs and superheroes, the \u201ccool workplace\u201d is just a figment of your imagination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":329,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[3429,9160,9655,6990,8468,9656,4727,7690,9657,9658,4729],"class_list":["post-5722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pov","tag-boss","tag-co-workers","tag-cool-office","tag-corporate-culture","tag-employee","tag-fun-fridays","tag-office","tag-sid","tag-start-up-culture","tag-wake-up","tag-workplace"],"yoast_head":"\nDon\u2019t Fall for the Bean Bag! 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