The Career Clusters in an office

February 9, 2023

This Workplace Spotlight will take you through the experience of working in an office.

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Offices are an incredibly common working environment. But have you ever wondered exactly what it’s like to work in one?

In an office, teams of people work together to run a business. People in offices perform a huge variety of roles, from taking sales calls and tracking finances, to writing articles and coming up with new product designs. Offices can vary greatly in size, with some having only a handful of workers to huge offices filled with hundreds of people.

Every office is different, but here are some things you can expect:

A professional environment – many offices are considered “white collar” working places, where you’ll be expected to dress and act professionally.
Consistent working hours – most offices are open the usual 9 to 5, so you can expect regular working hours.
The work is mostly sedentary – you won’t be doing a lot of physical work or be spending a lot of time on your feet.

Key Outcome – keep businesses running

The main focus of office workers is to keep the business they work for running smoothly, and in most cases making a profit. Offices provide a space where all different workers can communicate and share ideas easily and quickly.

Key Tasks –

Answer phone calls and emails
Supervise and manage employees
Attend meetings with co-workers and clients
Keep track of finances and expenses

You can find offices in any industry

Offices can be found in almost any industry – while things like accountancies, banks, and law firms are probably the first things that come to mind, lots of different businesses run from offices. From a design firm to the head office of a manufacturing plant, there are offices in more industries than you might think.

Work Environment

You can expect regular hours and the option to work from home

Regular work hours | Work on-site and from home | Jobs in all locations, including metro, regional, and rural | Job growth depends on location

Most offices run over regular hours, so most workers will find themselves arriving and leaving work at the same time each day. Depending on the workload, you might occasionally have to work overtime.

A lot of the work in offices is done on computers, which means there is also the opportunity to work from home.

Offices are so common that you’ll find them in all places, from metro to regional areas. There is a large concentration of offices in major cities, so you might find it slightly easier to find work in an office in these areas.

The Career Clusters you’ll find in an office

Because there are so many different kinds of work that can be done in an office, you’ll find people from all Clusters. The most common Clusters tend to be Coordinators, Linkers, and Informers.

There are many Makers who are responsible for the initial fit-out and subsequent maintenance of offices, such as the people who build and install furniture, and install and maintain IT systems. Some big businesses will also have creatives who will work in-house rather than outsourcing.

The Linkers in offices include salespeople, who are responsible for getting a business’ product or service out to the public. Receptionists and assistants work hard to connect clients with other workers and perform important general office duties.

Coordinators in an office are the people managing and supervising their employees or co-workers to ensure people are doing their jobs. They are also responsible for things like organising pay and leave, and overseeing the hiring and firing process.

Often the Informers make up the backbone of an office, and are the people there doing the day-to-day work – think people like accountants, lawyers, and others who commonly work out of offices. They’re there to meet with clients and provide specialist advice and services. Some offices will also hire Informers to come in to undertake things like cultural and diversity training.

Although we might think of Innovators as the people who work in labs and workshops, a lot of them also work in offices. Scientists and researchers will work in offices to type up reports and share findings. Engineers and architects can also be found in offices, meeting with clients and creating new designs at their desks.

Guardians are probably the least common Cluster to find in an office. While most offices need to comply with strict workplace health and safety standards, someone is usually contracted externally rather than being permanently employed in an office (though some very large businesses may have WH&S officers that work in-house).

How do we expect working in an office to change in the future?

The last few years have already seen huge changes in how people work in offices (particularly thanks to the pandemic). Many more people have taken up working from home, and offices have become much more flexible with their running hours and practices. With future advances in technology, this flexibility is only going to increase.

Not only has technology make office work more flexible, but it has also taken over some more menial tasks entirely. Data entry and research jobs have been made much easier and in some cases even obsolete, and increasingly powerful AI may even mean certain tasks and jobs don’t need to be performed by humans at all.

That being said, there will always be a place for face-to-face interaction, particularly when it comes to sales, and people will still be needed to pick up on any errors and perform creative and innovative tasks that machines cannot.