The Unspoken Rules of the Office

Working is so different to studying. And not only in the fact that you are earning money, rather than giving it away.

From my two years of experience in the corporate world, I learnt that you always have to think twice before you say something, three times before you whinge and never even think about bitching.

In the office you are not the same as everyone else (like you are in the classroom). You never know when the colleague at the desk next to you will become your boss.

I've been very careful about the way I act at my current job, having learnt how easy it is to get on someone's bad side.

My biggest challenge is to not make myself look better than anybody else. Doing your best is not always the best way to win approval from fellow workers as some of them might have issues and get jealous (as in the case of Renee).

I was doing pretty well here until yesterday. A person who recently became manager of one of the departments asked me to redesign a newsletter that they send out. She got the people who used to do it and me together to brainstorm some ideas.

The manager agreed with everything that I said and didn't pay much attention to the other people. I recognised the face of envy on one woman's face immediately. This is the woman who only a few months earlier kept saying to me for several weeks, "Sky, you're my new best friend!" when I helped her out with something.

I redesigned the newsletter today and the manager was so happy with it she told me that she really hoped my contract would get extended, along with many other nice things. She asked me to show the people who would do the newsletter how to use my template.

I emailed the two women asking if Monday was ok. The annoyed woman replied, "No, I'm away on Monday". Since she didn't give me an alternative, I suggested Tuesday. She sent another blunt response about how she was unavailable.

I went to her office and asked her when she could do it. She said she didn't know but could try end of next week.

I really hope I was imagining but I swear I could feel the tension.