Office Life (Setting in Visual Novel)

[sorani]

I really need help and I'm not sure if this is the right place to post such details.
I am making a visual novel and I am planning to take it's setting in an office.
I thought that I didn't want to do my visual novel on a highschool setting, since it was overused, nor a college setting, since I do not know anything about college. So I chose an office setting, probably even worser, since I have no overall knowledge of an office job.
So I came to ask any person who knows about the office life in:
-what usually happens in an office(probablypaperwork)
-the roles(secretary,clowningaroundperson,seriousperson,etc)
-the types of office work or companies containg such job
-and something an ignorant person like me will not know (affairs)
Now I regret typing this. I'm sorry if I troubled anyone by posting this or am I being too lazy to google all of this? When I googled it, I looked at the thing and completely did not understand a thing.
Though it is for my visual novel, I plan to not release any information, seeing that it is unneeded in this type of post.
I also would like to add that I never watched "The Office" before, but it seems I might need to in order to understand office life.
Sorry for such a post like this, and thank you for answering, if anyone would like to trouble themselves to answer.

[Sapphi]

Haha.. I work in an office so I can tell you all about it.
A bit of background... it's a community college admissions office, so most of what goes on there is receiving applications for new students, entering the people into the computer system, scanning and filing documents (like copies of letters we send out or insurance release forms for health career students) and sending out transcripts... stuff like that. Really, what's going on is usually going to pertain to what the office DOES, but you can probably be sure that there will be a lot of filing, lol.

As far as office "roles", I really encourage you to watch "The Office" as it is pretty much a parody of the many different types of office worker and how everybody relates (or doesn't).

One of the funniest things about working at a community college admissions office, though, has to be the stupid people who call in and ask questions. The area I live in has a lot of.. erm... character so you never know what kind of people are going to call.

If you have more specific questions you can always PM me ^_^;

[LVUER]

OK, I've work at several places. But work culture could be different from country to country (even at each corporation). To be honest, I never work at international gigantic corporation. Only at small (city-sized) company.

Working and studying in college is almost the same. The difference is that you get money instead of spending it. Everyone else could be your trusty co-worker, but also could be your rivals... so in the end, you're on your own. Don't get on your boss (or immediate superior) bad side since it could be bad for your career (you could even get fired).

When choosing where to work, wage/money is not everything. Sometimes you'll want to look at the benefit, the condition of working place/atmosphere, bonus, company vision and mission, company ethic conduct, how far the office from where you live, etc... there are so many factor to decide. Just like when you're deciding which college you'll attend to.

Note: This is how things at my work place. It could be different from other companies.
Q: What usually happens in an office(probably paperwork)
A: You are assigned to a specific post, depending on your skills (or your degree). Usually, every morning (or certain period) you will be briefed by your chief-section on what you must do. And you do just that. And depending on what you're doing, most of the time there is a strict time-limit (deadline). And your company usually never bother about your schedule. They just want the job done. So if you suddenly get lots of work when you have a date that night. Suck it up and cancel your date.

Q: The roles(secretary,clowningaroundperson,seriousperson,etc)
A: I can't say much about this, since it really depends on where you work. But basically, it's divided into two roles, staff (those whose works tied directly to what company do) and non-staff (those who do the "etc" job, like cleaning service, office-boy, security, etc). Staff itself is divided into much more section/department, like Accounting, Operational, Financial, Personnel, Warehousing, etc (could be less or more depending on the company). And the amount of person in each department depends on how big that company is. Since my ex-workplace is small, one person could do multiple job (like one person become both operational and financial manager). In bigger company, each department could consist 10 or more person, each is lead by chief-section. Each chief-section/manager is responsible to General Manager, General Manager to Director, and so on.

Q: The types of office work or companies containing such job
A: I don't really understand this question. Care to elaborate more?

Q: And something an ignorant person like me will not know (affairs)
A: In bigger company, competition for promotion is harsh. Some even resort to dirty trick to achieve promotion or to make other people looks bad so that person fails to get promotion. Some people quit from their high-paying job simply because they couldn't stand the competition.

In smaller company, the competition is less fierce but since there are less place to get, it's quite hard too to get promotion. Especially if you're working in family-business company, you'll know that higher position is "reserved" for family of the company owner. So no matter how hard you try, you'll never get those positions.

[sorani]

Thank you both very much for taking to time to write down your experiences and knowledge of an office job.
Office jobs still are kind off new to me.

@Sapphi-Thanks, I'll go watch that show, seems very informational to what I am looking for. If I have any other questions, I'll definitely PM you.

@LUVER-That's a lot of information ^_^; Thanks. about the question that you do not understand, I wanted to ask what kind of companies, corporations, examples of offices. Like, Microsoft for instance.(acttually i don't even know if it is where a person can get an office job in...)

[LVUER]

Actually, even if it's factory, drilling company, or car manufacture, there's always the office section. Let's say Astra Company (Honda in my country). The factory produces (or rather assemble) Honda car and motorbikes. But who takes care the deal? Who takes care the supply routes? Who takes care all the money flow? That's where the office section comes in.

Of course small sized factory doesn't always have dedicated office building. The office is inside the factory (or at least in the same complex).

Or like in a school, college, or university. There's an normal office section that takes care things that doesn't involved in educating process. Normally, you wouldn't see this, especially as a student (even as I teacher, I rarely go to the "normal office section" of my own school/workplace since we're working at different place). This office takes care things like accounting/financial (where the money go, what inventory to buy, how to pay the teachers, etc).

Or another example is a freighter company (I watch this on NHK and from what I heard from my friends). There is an office section on the harbor. As usual, they takes care of the money, accounting, staffing, and... freighter management (my friends works in that department). He takes care documents that needed to enter/leave a port, checking all container/freight (only checking the document, the physical container is checked by people on the port/ship), managing schedule (when to enter/leave port, since you couldn't enter/leave port as you like, or risking a collision with other ship, or couldn't unload your freight and then wasting time/money).

There's also a person who responsible on how to load/unload all the container on a ship. Where to place, where to place the container (so it could be loaded/unloaded easily while keeping the ship's balance), and so on. Of course the physical work is done by people at the port. He responsible only for the "office" work.

Company like Microsoft have the office. And I believe company like Googles and Yahoo also have their own office. Samsung, Toshiba, Sony, and other corporation have their own office, but obviously in different section/place from their manufacture counterparts.

I hope it could help. You could PM me if you want, but I visit this thread from time to time. In fact, I visit almost all thread (especially new thread). Don't hesitate to ask more if you need it ^_^

[gekiganwing]

I currently work in a small office. My job involves working with a PC for about eight hours each day. Since my duties don't involve making phone calls, it can be rather quiet and isolating. (I provide customer support through email.) Most of my coworkers are just a few cubicles away, or just down the hall.

Back in the PS1 era, there was a Japanese game called Yuuwaku Office Renaika. Not much has been written about it, but AFAIK, it was one of the many simulation games that were common before To Heart and Kanon made the visual novel format quite common.

I searched the VNDB, but had trouble finding other games with office themes. In terms of non-school settings where people might work, I found a number of stories about cafes, hospitals, and hotels... Here's the entry for "coworker heroine" -- http://vndb.org/g441 And here's "businesswoman heroine" -- http://vndb.org/g595 From there, you might want to explore the "heroines role/vocation" section.

That said, I can see potential in a story that isn't exactly about office work. Most people don't have exciting jobs, and it would take a very silly sitcom or a newspaper comic to make their jobs seem interesting. Perhaps you can portray the characters' lives before and after their daily work schedule, as they try to ask important questions (such as "What am I doing with my life? Am I just getting by from day to day?").

Or you can write a story about a coworker or boss who the main character finds attractive. The conflict would probably be about how awkward / challenging the relationship is. You see, even if dating one of your coworkers is not strictly forbidden, it can be a source of much tension and drama. And don't even get started on dating your supervisor or boss...

[jack_norton]

Scout is writing for me a office-themed dating sim. I think is a good setting for a VN

[sorani]

Thank you for replying.
At first I didn't really thought much of a office themed visual novel, but after some long thinking, I finally decided that it would be perfect.
This is actually going to be a GxB simulation game, but as this post suggests, I know nothing of office life.

@LVUER-This is definitely helpful, thanks again. I'm afraid that I won't be able to fit so much information in my visual novel, since I don't know how to incorporate this in the story. I greatly appreciate all of these helpful posts here.

@gekiganwing-thank you for the sites. About the story, I was thinking of the not so exciting life as an office worker. I was also thinking of the protagonist being able to date her boss. I guess, I still might not know the rules in an office.

@jack_norton-I too believe that it is a good setting, I actually was just planning a background to fit the protagonist, since I wanted the protagonist to work in a big city environment, like NYC.