Dear LPG

 My family and I keep in touch by telephone, and the more we talk, the more I have to discuss with each of them.

Of course, other members of the family and what they are up to are passed on, but we also tend to talk about their work quite often.  I am sometimes quite surprised about the political aspect of those conversations.  The generation just below mine all seem to have niggly little problems that originate at work.   They all use me as an agony aunt when it comes to the second most popular topic of conversation. 

For instance, although what my nephew does for a living is I T-based and goes right over my head most of the time, politics are frighteningly easy to understand when he gets to the subject.  Recently he told me that he has a new colleague and, after just one week of working together, they appear to be getting on quite well although my nephew knows that the new person is supposed to be better qualified than him, the new man seems to be very reluctant to get stuck in.  My nephew tells me that he still seems to have to take the initiative and finds that his workload has not eased much, while the other team member is somewhat complacent. 

It took me back. I remember the annual review of the office workers when I was working in one, but they only seemed to happen once a year back then, which was harrowing enough. From what I am being told, today's workers are much more likely to undergo weekly video one-to-one performance evaluations on days when they work from home, where performance and personality seem to be much more critical aspects of getting on at work.

As I said, I know very little about what he actually does, but politics seem to be major. From his version of events, each member of the staff appears to worry about how they come across, which forces them to focus on how everything they do is perceived. 

I know it was a while ago, but I spent quite a bit of time working in an office, although I can’t remember the dog-eat-dog aspect of surviving each working day being that hard or ever feeling threatened by the politics involved.  

It was a while ago, and so my recollections have dulled somewhat. Although 21st-century working women appear to be much more ambitious in their work, there were marked differences in why most women went to work at the end of the last century.  Once, I got married and had a couple of children. I went to work for the money but also to get away from the other pressures of life.   I was more interested in fitting it in with my housework, family, and especially my children.  Getting a salary increase was essential, but I wanted a promotion for my husband rather than me.  I suspect my life was complicated enough without all that work-related pressure.

The other thing is that back in the 1980s, if you lost your job on Friday, you were much more likely to have found another job by Monday morning, meaning employers were more considerate and understanding. We also lived in a world where you only needed qualifications for particular jobs. Willingness to work was as important as a CV for many more jobs back then.   

I feel lucky that my working days are long behind me now because I don’t think I could have coped with the competitively harsh environment that so many workers who still have jobs seem to have to deal with today if my nephew’s continual analysis of work politics is what all workers have to cope with on top of the job itself. 

LF, Croydon