Crushing It Without the Drama: The Cool Air of the Office Chill

You stroll into the office ten minutes early wearing shorts and a Mets baseball jersey. It’s casual Friday, meaning your teammates will spend more time choosing clothes than normal, in a painstaking effort to look like they don’t give a shit.

You recline in the massage chair of the corporate wellness room and get your thoughts on the same page with your schedule. You’ve killed it all week and ready for more. It’s good being you: Crushing it without the drama.

Heads Up Prairie Dogs

The CEO, Thomas, drops in unexpectedly at 9:30, creating tension as teammates drop their phones and bound out of their chairs to smile and chat. But not you. Not the office chill. You wait for him to stop by your desk and glance up with a “What’s happening, Thomas?”

He knows that you know that he knows that you’re killing it, but all he says is “Nice shirt.”

Let’s Do Lunch

At lunchtime, Sheri, the super cool accountant who’s been here 30 years, strolls past saying she’s heading to the burger truck across the street.

“Let’s do it,” you respond. Forgoing the office-wide impulse to hunker down and look busy, you lean back, smile, and wonder aloud how good a chocolate shake will taste. This follows a tense morning after Thomas addressed the team with news about the bad fiscal quarter.

“It’s not that bad,” Sheri confirms. “If he’d get rid of the HR team, he’d be fine.”

Pizza Friday

Just another day for the office chill. You don’t stop when someone walks in with ten boxes of fresh pizza. “How can I do this better?” you ask yourself, opening another browser tab.

“Come on, help yourself!” a teammate calls, as the masses flock around the table of pies. Since everyone has gathered around, there is now a waiting line for lunch. Not for you. You put in your buds and listen to chill hop. It’s all good.

As you stumble upon a solution that will make a project work, a dozen teammates gorge themselves. They didn’t want it, but since it’s free it tastes better. And what’s better for company culture than free pizza?

They secretly resent you not joining their reindeer games, but the office chill doesn’t care.

Zoom Call

Friday’s 1pm Zoom call begins like Thursday’s, with a 15-minute progress report from sales manager Josh, in New Orleans for a convention. His camera is off with only his avatar visible because he’s “been sick since Wednesday.”

“Feel better Josh!” someone comments before a “thanks for being a trooper” from another followed by a “there’s a lot of that going around.”

Then it’s your turn. You stare straight into the camera with a twinkle in your eye, delivering a 45-second synopsis of your market research for the app that the company’s been re-developing for two years.

“It works for our customers now,” you conclude with confidence. “There’s no reason we need it to be everything to everyone.”

The jaded designers and engineers subscribe to your simple approach with a thinly veiled acknowledgement that their years of work have not gone for naught.

Crushing It Without the Drama

It’s been a good Friday. After lunch, the hired consultant reviewed his findings and delivered his suggestions before catching his flight back to Austin. Following his comments, the marketing VP called out IT to be more responsive. They retorted that marketing does not follow proper protocol.

Tempers flared and accusations made, but not by the office chill. You set the tone, remaining calm, plotting solutions and lowering blood pressure by your mere presence.

Friday is Monday

Your week is through but you’re already at work on Monday. You’ve eliminated your Friday list and set Monday’s schedule. You’ll do some learning on the weekend and jot down an idea, but focus on the sun’s glimmer off the beach water you’ll be swimming in.

It’s good being you: The cool air of the office chill.

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