Slice of Life: Offices
It’s an office. And it’s the thing you forget, wherever you are – it’s an office. Essentially, these places are all the same. If you’re a journalist, or work in communications, it’s the same thing, all the time: research something. Write it up in an appropriate fashion. My first ‘proper’ writing job was working in a business to business publishing house. I was an editor when I left, but nothing changed, the whole time I was there. Research some stuff, write it up. Perhaps have a better grasp of spelling and grammar than most for subbing purposes. But that’s basically it.
Today I’m in the Guardian office, on work experience. “You’re already a journalist,” said the lady in charge of my section. “Why do you need to do work experience?”
It’s a reasonable question. I’ve written two stories and done some research. But essentially, there’s nothing much for me to do. But I have been complimented on my punctuation. It is the highlight of my editorial career thus far.
Yesterday there was a fatality on a railway line near Finsbury Park. When the train pulled passed the accident into the station, all the passengers leaned into the windows taking pictures of the bodybag on the stretcher on their mobile phones.
Today some colleagues I don’t really know are talking about it. Shocking, they say. What have we become. Vultures.
On the desk next to me sits a man. He doesn’t get up for lunch, just stays at his desk, drinks coffee and periodically picks at sweets from a huge jar. He crunches them all day. I imagine parts of his teeth crumbling off, crunching with the sugar. It makes me feel nauseous.
There is nothing for me to do. I’m eager but a spare part, a tool. The Guardian offices are vast, friendly, but it’s like being invited for Christmas dinner with a huge family when your parents are divorced and you have no-where else to go. You revel in the atmosphere, receive hugs as if they belong to you, but at the end of the day, you fall back into oblivion.
Tomorrow I will keep more quiet. More quiet. And observe people smoking.
2 years ago • Notes