I work for a Fortune 500 company but not google, Meta, Spotify, Venmo, etc. AKA not a cool company lol.
The majority of the people I work with are in manufacturing or supply chain. Most are above 40 years old.
I can’t disclose specific on my immediate team’s work but we are essentially in cross-function of finance and program management.
Lately, I’ve realized that there is really no creativity or collaboration. It’s quite boring, nobody shares anything from their personal life, and the rapport with everyone on my immediate team is just so stilted.
The positives is that it’s pretty laidback and not quote-on-quote “stressful”, but just really old-school.
My own manager doesn’t really provide mentorship at all. He gives me freedom but doesn’t really provide any teaching for my career.
Lastly, I do get paid well. But the thing that bums me out is that I will go to the office 5 days a week, and only talk to my teammates face-to-face once a week as we are all spread across the campus.
My biggest grievance is why don’t we encourage more remote work? It’s not like our current culture invites the type of collaboration where people just walk to each other’s desks to talk. I honestly have no need to interact with my coworkers, so why don’t we all just work remotely? Or maybe management should seat us all in the same wing to encourage collaboration and establish our rapport? Idk.
I worked at a smaller start up before this job and we all worked in the same wing and were constantly assisting each other and got to genuinely know each other. I’m not saying all workplaces should function like this, but I guess I’m just starting the discussion that why don’t we encourage collaboration?
TL;DR: When you work at an average, large company, at what point should you start thinking to yourself, what am I really getting out of here besides a paycheck? Is there any shame in having a job just because you need a job? Should you constantly be trying to challenge yourself or make connections, or can you just coast by for years on end with no consequence?