I am 21 and I got my first corporate job this year.
The office is in Damrak and we are not allowed to work from remote: I have to be there every day, five days per week, it feels a real adult thing. I can arrive at the office from 9am till 9.30. Of course, I am always late. 9:40 I’m inside, I grumble ‘morning’ to everyone: some of my colleagues say it back, others keep their eyes on the screens of their laptops. There’s always that one guy who looks at me with a hint of disappointment—I can’t blame him; he’s the first to arrive and the last to leave, while I often seem to be the last to arrive and the first to leave!
Well, that’s not a great start, but whatever, I sit down at my desk, open my laptop to check emails and catch up on Slack messages. This is the procedure.
Five minutes later, at 9:45 a.m., it’s coffee time. I head to the kitchen, contemplating why our multimillionaire company hasn’t invested in a decent coffee machine. A cup, some coffee, soy milk (what’s wrong with normal milk?), and two sweeteners to make the coffee taste better.
Go back to my desk and around 10a.m. I actually start working. I don’t know why some of my colleagues act like they are saving the world: they are always serious, typing something that looks super important on the keyboard of their laptop, being busy every minute of the day. I don’t think they realize they work in a retail company, and nothing is a big deal.
Anyway, my internship in Digital Marketing involves a variety of tasks including writing SEO text and blogs, creating content for social media, giving ideas for new campaigns or looking for influencers who would like to collaborate with us. Occasionally, I’m tasked with creating visual content such as videos or photographs for our brands, which has taken me to places like Ripleys, on canal cruises or exhibitions in Amsterdam. I often find it amusing that creating content for social media is a legitimate job; the idea that people are employed and paid to take pictures and post on Instagram sometimes still surprises me. I might sound like a Boomer right now, but I can’t help but find some aspects of social media quite absurd. On the other hand, I like when they ask me to write some blogs: If you go to the Body World website, you can find a couple of nice blogs that I wrote!
Overall, I think it’s a nice job… I like what I am doing, I learned to enjoy it. Not only the tasks and the job itself, but also the workplace. I enjoy eating with my colleagues, complaining about the boss and his terrible communication skills, texting on slack with the person sitting in front of me just because we don’t feel like speaking. These little things are what I’ve come to appreciate and find humor in.
And, you know, I also believe that this is what sets me apart from all my colleagues: I go to work every day with a more lighthearted attitude that makes me approachable and adaptable. While they may be intensely focused and serious, I bring a sense of humor and a relaxed perspective to the workplace. So that was just my three-month internship as a 21-year-old Gen Z in an office for the first time.
It could have been worse.