Big VS Small workplaces

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In the past few months I've worked at two very different types of workplace.

The first was a small, tight knit company based in a little village on some farm land. It was in the main a pretty relaxed environment. There was no dress code, you could listen to music while you worked, they were quite flexible with hours. You could use your phone or surf the net as long as you didn't abuse the privilege. I, along with a few others worked in a portakabin which was rented to cope with a heavy influx of staff. It was also somewhat an erratic place to work-in the five months I worked there, I think five people left. Three of whom started at the same time or just after me. While in some ways I thrived in such an atmosphere, I also found it rather cliquey-mainly because a lot of them were friends outside work. Everyone knew everyone's business and there wasn't really a hiding place.

Where I work now is a lot more formal. I've seen people get told off for coming back from their break a couple of minutes late. You feel like you need to ask permission to go to the toilet. Phones have to be switched off in the room I work in. Even if you were to be walking out of the office at the end of the day and turn your phone on then, that would be a sackable offence. However I rather prefer the anonymity of this place. It's more organised and less chaotic. A bit boring but I don't mind that. There's less for me to get anxious over.

I often think of some of the things people said at the first place (comments about female members of staff etc) and think how much trouble that would get them in if they said it where they work now .

So what sort of working environment do you prefer? Big, formal places or smaller, less formal places?

I prefer small, less formal.

I don't mind either. In a large workforce I can blend in with the crowd, and be left to my own devices. In a small one it is less overwhelming, but social snafus are more likely to pop up.

I use to work for a small business owned by very cheap people who paid their employees peanuts and claimed they couldn't afford to give pay raises. Now I work for a fortune 500 company and am paid pretty well. I prefer bigger companies because if they are making billions, you know they can afford to pay for you and more positions will be available within the company.

On the other hand, if you are working a low skilled position, bigger companies could be worse because you are more likely to be seen as an expendable, unskilled, nameless, necessary evil as opposed to smaller companies that may actually know who you are.

At the end of the day, it's always going to be about what your position entails that dictates how your work experience will be.

I work at a rather large store, and I like it there, though one can work in a certain department if you prefer smaller groups.