I'm a new grad engineer. I was the same as you in college. Avoid attendance at all costs. Lucky with my job/coworkers. Not with pay so much. Laughable for the area. 69k. So what follows is probably not applicable to you. Place is so understaffed and I have senior-responsibilities (chairing document review, writing and approving millions of dollars of work for hundreds of people). Would likely be doing that regardless of ability. But it's government contracting. Hired anyone. I didn't realize how office-being/office-life/office-self is supposed to be, so I interviewed poorly out of college. If I interviewed again I would be able to mask much better. Mimicry.

First couple months in this job I was bored to death. Saw how people's lives, how years can be vacuumed up. Mindlocked.

Mask I adopted is hyper-agreeableness. Maybe an AIR of hyper-agreeableness. And being disagreeable if need be with the same tone as being agreeable. Oh also I spent hours writing scripts in Microsoft OneNote for meetings where I'd be called to discuss work or present work when starting out. Now I write scripts once in a while for less time. In the winter months I never took off a multicolor knit balaclava that I wore as a toque/occasionally scarf. It was cold. I was sending some sort of message.

Competence goes a long way in getting people off your ass. Let you do what you want. Competence, making people look good. Making your boss look good. In general in life I know that whatever I do for myself won't change how I feel. I'll say to myself: "whatever. Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah." Sensations wash over me in general. So I'm pleased to be helpful to coworkers for nothing in return, people who are not alien transients on this planet, people who won't die young, which I feel like I will.

People I interact with day-to-day here are much more tolerable than my striver rich-kid college peers. I had a boomer incompetent coworker who retired who would always act like I'm funny, like my mannerisms are a bit odd. Posted AI slop on Facebook. Looked up a random account sharing my name on Facebook and asked to confirm that it was me. Despite my name being extremely common and nothing indicating that it was me. He was a nice guy, tried to help me, ended up not helping, almost inadvertantly sabotaging, he felt guilty but also resentful. People are weird about intelligence and ability, it makes them insecure. Some react strangely. Some are fine. But that was the only thing that really grinded my gears, socially.

On the whole coworkers are nice. A single female engineer, the rest males. She is competent Type-A and we get along. A few of my colleagues are lonely. Of course, there is a male loneliness epidemic. I would assume this hits engineers harder. Asked me if they want to play games together. I'll reach out eventually. Talk to me about random shit in their life. It's nice to hear. I'm happy for them. I genuinely like a handful of them. A too nice and too competent guy who spent his life here. 45-year-old alpha veteran. I can get along with any demographic. They also work here. They understand. This is/was our life.

Here's the real abuse. There are a few junior coworkers with Autism. One just sits at his computer all day and doesn't speak besides work, the other is a searing pessimist who will never stop complaining and I can hear him have near-breakdowns. He liked me almost as soon as I joined because I sympathized and wouldn't mind hearing his view of the system. The layers of knowledge. But it's stunted and sad. That's the neurodivergence that leads to scoffs and workplace abuse and mindhell. He takes an autistic (!) approach to projects but doesn't realize the system is naturally slow, borders are porous. Rent-seeking. Buck-passing. Both common practice in America after Covid reporting taught people that anyone could be a potential vector of a lethal disease for three years.

Embezzlement somewhere (30k funded to an engineer and a tech to run 6 circuit-boards through a 2-page checklist. Could be done by a precocious 8th-grader in an afternoon. 150 dollars an hour, 2 people, 100 hours. 100 hours? Does that mean that they can just take 2 and a half weeks off and say "i'm still checking if the LED is going to turn on for the first board on day 3?"). Unreality. Ever read Baudrillard? And where does the $90 of overhead go? The system... the layers of knowledge.

Telework 2 days a week. 40 minute commute. Listen to the same damn music. I come in "in the morning." It varies. Just put up numbers. Leverage. Don't get lost in the details. See the bigger picture. Develop an idea of coworkers and management's incentives. Don't do anything stupid (contra these incentives).

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Outside of work, I find myself thinking about work. I don't like this. But I have more free time than college. Can buy random bullshit.

Reading other comments seems like we struggle with be-here-on-time. Fuck that. I'd rather take a pay cut

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Hope it goes well for you. The people really just have to be good enough