6 dreadful workplace experiences that are just an adult version of our student life!

We’re taking a look back at the moments from our school and college days that have striking similarities to the challenges we face in our professional lives today. 

There’s something about certain experiences that stick with us, right? Do you ever feel certain experiences from our school and college days seem to have followed us into our professional lives? Those all-nighters, group projects, and surprise deadlines that were once filled with dread as students seemed to have followed us into our adulthood. We find these experiences oddly familiar, resurfacing in different forms at work. It’s almost as if student life was a “practice run” for the realities of professional life, preparing us to go through similar stresses but with a grown-up twist. 

Also Read: Offbeat teacher-student pairs who redefine the classroom

Let’s brush through some of those dreaded student experiences that are similar to our work routine struggles:  

The last-minute assignment panic

Remember that sinking feeling when you realize an assignment is due in less than a day? And you decide to do it in a single night, overestimating yourself and hoping caffeine and desperation would carry you through. Today as adults, our tight work deadlines bring us back to those nights. 

Group projects (aka doing 90% of the work)

“Group project” usually translates to “one person does all the work while everyone else slacks off.” If you were the ‘responsible’ one, you know the dread of group assignments all too well. It's no different today when the word “teamwork” is enough to make you feel like the weight of the entire project will fall on you again. Some things never change in life, does it?

Surprise Presentations 

You would know what pure terror feels like if you have ever been in situations when the teacher called on you because you were supposed to present something that day. Even years later, surprise presentations in the workplace or being put on the spot at meetings give us flashbacks to those days.

Report cards

Even if you were a good student, there was always a sense of anxiety that came with report cards. Whether you had stellar grades or the occasional “needs improvement” comment, seeing your progress evaluated in such a formal way was nerve-wracking.  Workplace annual performance reviews give us the same kinda anxiety.

Choosing a seat in the cafeteria on your first in a new school

We can all agree to the fact that the kids who never got to change schools were the luckiest ones. It's an actual dread if you are attending a new school for the first time and don't know anyone to sit with during lunch. Figuring out where to sit in the cafeteria was a task. It's the same for us at a new office, networking events or parties where you know very few people.

The ‘future plans’ question

 “What’s your five-year plan?” is the adult version of “So, what are you planning to do after graduation?” It's one question we all hated, and we often find ourselves just as clueless as we were as kids.

It turns out, that those stressful moments of student life weren’t just awkward rites of passage but building blocks that helped us handle similar pressures later on in our lives. Our professional lives are often full of experiences that feel like deja vu, reflecting the same frustrations, nervousness, and sense of dread we felt back then. In a way, school may have ended, but the experiences we had as students continue to be part of our lives, keeping us on our toes.

Keep adding to the list of things that dreaded us as students and still do as adults. Comment below! 

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