You freshly graduate from college hoping to do something great and finally being able to do what you want but suddenly all your dreams are shattered as soon as you step foot into your professional life.

Congratulations aap ke sabar ka imtehan ab se shuru hota hai.  Slowly you start to miss the good old days where your biggest concern was attendance and making fun of juniors. Well, the same thing happened to me. You know all that stuff that every desi parent tells you all your life to learn because aglay ghar ja k kya karo ge? Your first job will make you learn EVERYTHING. I guarantee it. Who needs a saas when you have a boss, right?

So. here are the lessons that I learned from my first job:

1. You cannot punch someone, no matter how much you want to

If your boss is a pain in the neck or you have incredibly annoying colleagues, you know what I mean. Your first job will teach you that you have got to keep it together no matter how much they are testing you. Because this will happen many times in a day.

2. Patience is the key to survival

Because if you’re not, you won’t even last a day there. People will say and do mean stuff to you and guess what, you’ll just have to learn to take it awkwardly. You never understand why the boss would want you to do the same thing over and over again just because they’re having a bad day but what can you do, the boss is always right.

3. You have to pretend to like some people

Even if you can’t stand their presence for a minute, you have to spend the whole working day with them. Don’t you just hate it when they keep poking you just to tell you stories about their love life? Um no I’m not interested, please let me work, for the love of God. And don’t bring me chocolates.

4. You have to keep yourself together on bad days

When all you want to do is crawl into your bed and not talk to anyone, you have to constantly make an effort to not snap at people for asking you if you’re okay. Can’t I have an off day? Insan hu yaar, Give me a break.

5. You’ll have to learn to cover for people

You’ll have to cover for someone every once in a while just because you might need the same in the future. So kabhi kabhi free ka extra kaam will help you in earning special points so that you can use them in case of an emergency or if you just feel like ditching work.

6. Understand work politics

If people think ke politics sirf mulk aur khandaan me he hoti hain then they haven’t been to a workplace. Phuppo yahan bhi hoti hain, just in a different form and they enjoy taunting you or letting you down. What’s more annoying is that there will always be someone trying to stay close to the boss and you just hate it.

7. You have to get used to multitasking

The same person who couldn’t even text while watching TV now learns to do a bunch of tasks all at the same time like a boss.

8. You have to look presentable every day

For someone who wouldn’t brush their hair for days, this is the hardest one. Because no one will talk to a chirya ka ghonsla. The same people who tell you that you’re wearing too much make up will make your day miserable by asking aaj beemar ho kya, koi tension hai? Especially when you’re not wearing make-up.

9. Learn to say no. (The nice way)

For the kind of person who is so polite that they could never say no to anyone. Seriously, get them a job, and look at how they become a pro at it.

10. And before you know it, you’re one of them

No matter how much you don’t want to, you will become one of them and actually have fun.

11. Eventually, you learn to love your insane work environment

Because that’s where you spend most of your day. So for survival, you slowly adjust to all the mess and even start to like it. Your colleagues are like your family and before you know it, you can’t go without them even for a day. So if you survived here, you can do it anywhere.

Tell us what are the lessons that you learned from your job?

After Moving To Lahore From Jeddah For A Job, Here’s Everything I’ve Struggled With

I Moved To America To Find A Job And Holy Shit, It’s Been A Huge Struggle

Cover image via ShowSha by MangoBaaz/YouTube