Office Culture

At my office, my initial impression was that there is not very much interaction between the employees mostly due to the fact that they all had their own offices with doors that were closed most of the time, but I soon came to realize that not only are my coworkers social within our own department, but also throughout the whole building. One of the ways I saw this was during the elevator rides I take every day. For example, on my second day working there, I was having a bit of a hard time using the key card to operate the elevator when I just so happened to be the one closest to the buttons (I later realized that this is a huge mistake when you’re new and don’t yet know the weird temperamental things the elevator does). I was very obviously a bit frazzled after having to be reminded by one of the men in the elevator that you have to scan the badge after every floor the elevator stops at (which I previously had no knowledge of), and I knew they must notice so I nervously try to make light of the situation by saying that it’s only my second day, but instead of just giving a polite chuckle and ignoring me, he actually started asking questions about what department I was in and my position. Having a nice relaxed interaction like that where someone treated me like any other coworker was a really nice way to start my day. I started realizing some other things about the elevator too, like how almost everyone recognizes each other and exchanges greetings by name which is impressive when you think about the vast number of people who work there. When I first started seeing this I always wondered how all of these people could possibly know so many of their coworkers that they can recognize them by name 90% of the time. I finally put it together after people would introduce themselves to me because they didn’t recognize me (similar to that first time I had to work the elevator myself) and I really started to realize how much this office building is more like a community than just people cohabitating a building.