Going, going ...

Today has been a big day.

I have been feeling fidgety and dissatisfied with my working life for a while. A lot of it is itchy feet, pure and simple. Some of it is more irksome.

It's a strange thing, is the "9 til 5", when you think about it. I don't think my office is any different to any other. It's a strangely false environment.

I spend more hours in the office, than I have waking hours at home each day.

I sit at a desk with three close colleagues within six feet of me. Honestly ... if three people spent the day in my house, within six feet of me, I'd be jumping up and down shouting "get away, get away, get away!" within half an hour. But in the office it has to be OK. Because that's the way it is.

The only thing that we all have in common that we're all hired to do the same job. There is no personality test. There is no prerequisite that we are all friends. There is no requirement that we all have the same sense of humour. And yet, if we don't see eye to eye, we take it personally and are vexed by it.

I work in a company of 30 people which means that there's always something going on that no-one is meant to know about, but everyone actually does. The politics are enough to make Betty Boothroyd squirm.

And the love triangles! My life! Is every firm like this? There's always someone secretly chasing / flirting with / sleeping with / dating someone. Again, no-one is meant to know about these things, but everyone always does.

Recently, it's all just felt a bit like ... well ... school. Cliques galore and being picked last for netball. Really. I'm surprised I've not had an onset of adult acne to complete the experience.

But sometimes all these things resolve themselves without your really trying. I've had a couple of casual chats recently with another firm, and today they offered me a job! Hooray for me!

When I handed in my notice this afternoon, I was shaking. Now, I feel like with world is my oyster.

By Christmas I'll be working in a new office with new people. There will be new bits of top secret gossip, scandal and rumour. There will be new office politics, and new oddly familiar relationships with people I hardly know. And I can't wait!