Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Pekerjaan saya di kantor cukup mudah.

kerja on its own is more like “work / to work” in a general sense, and can be a noun or part of a verb:
- Saya kerja di kantor. = I work at an office. (informal)
pekerjaan is a noun formed with pe- … -an, meaning “job / occupation / task”:
- Pekerjaan saya di kantor… = My job at the office…

So in this sentence, pekerjaan is more natural than kerja because you’re talking about your job as a thing that you have, not the activity of working in general.

Why is it pekerjaan saya instead of saya pekerjaan?

In Indonesian, possession is usually shown by putting the possessed noun first, followed by the possessor (often a pronoun):

pekerjaan saya = my job
rumah saya = my house
teman saya = my friend

So the pattern is:
[thing] + [owner]

Saying saya pekerjaan would sound wrong in Indonesian; it would be like saying “I job” in English. The pronoun saya cannot stand in front of the noun to mean “my” the way my does in English.

Can I say pekerjaanku instead of pekerjaan saya?

Yes, you can.

pekerjaan saya is neutral/formal.
pekerjaanku is informal, more casual/intimate.

Examples:

Pekerjaan saya di kantor cukup mudah. (polite, neutral)
Pekerjaanku di kantor cukup mudah. (casual; talking to friends, peers)

The suffix -ku means “my” and attaches directly to the noun. It can replace saya, but it changes the tone to more informal.

What does di mean here, and could I use a different preposition instead of di?

di is a preposition meaning “at / in / on” when referring to location. In di kantor, it means “at the office” or “in the office”.

In this sentence, di is the correct and natural choice. You would not normally use pada here. pada is more abstract and formal, often used with time or people (e.g., pada hari Senin, pada mereka), not for physical locations like kantor in everyday speech.

So:

di kantor = at the office (natural)
pada kantor = unnatural in this context

Does kantor need an article like “the” or “an” in Indonesian?

Indonesian does not use articles like “a/an” or “the”. The bare noun kantor can mean “an office” or “the office”, depending on context.

So di kantor can be understood as:

“at the office” (if it’s the office both speakers know about, such as your workplace)
“at an office” (if you’re speaking more generally)

You rely on context, not on a word like “the”, to know which is meant.

What exactly does cukup mean in cukup mudah? Is it “quite easy” or “easy enough”?

cukup means “enough / sufficiently / quite / rather”, and the nuance depends on context and intonation.

In cukup mudah, possible readings are:

“quite easy” / “fairly easy” (a moderate level of ease)
“easy enough” (sufficiently easy for what is needed)

Without extra context, “quite easy” or “fairly easy” is usually the most natural English interpretation.

Where does cukup normally go in the sentence? Could I say Pekerjaan saya di kantor mudah cukup?

The normal pattern is:

cukup + adjective

So:

cukup mudah = quite/easy enough
cukup besar = quite big
cukup cepat = quite fast

Placing cukup after the adjective (mudah cukup) is not natural.
Therefore, Pekerjaan saya di kantor mudah cukup is wrong. You should keep cukup directly before the adjective: cukup mudah.

Is this sentence formal, informal, or neutral? Are there more casual alternatives?

Pekerjaan saya di kantor cukup mudah. is neutral to slightly formal because of saya and the more standard structure.

More casual versions might be:

Kerjaanku di kantor lumayan gampang.
Kerja gue di kantor lumayan gampang. (very informal Jakarta slang, using gue for “I/my”)

Changes:

kerjaanku instead of pekerjaan saya (more casual)
lumayan gampang instead of cukup mudah (everyday speech)

So the original is suitable for polite conversation, writing, or talking to someone you don’t know well.

Can I drop saya and just say Pekerjaan di kantor cukup mudah?

You can say Pekerjaan di kantor cukup mudah, but it slightly changes the feel:

Pekerjaan saya di kantor… clearly means “My job at the office…”
Pekerjaan di kantor… can sound more general, like “Work at the office…” (not specifying whose work), unless the context already makes it obvious you’re talking about your own job.

In many real conversations, if it’s already clear from context, people might omit saya, but including saya makes it explicit and clearer for learners.

Could I say Saya bekerja di kantor dengan mudah to mean the same thing?

It’s grammatically possible, but the nuance is different and it’s not the most natural way to express this idea.

Pekerjaan saya di kantor cukup mudah.
Focus: your job itself is quite easy.
Saya bekerja di kantor dengan mudah.
Literal focus: “I work at the office with ease.”
This can sound like you are talking about how you perform your work (you personally find it easy to work there), rather than the nature of the job being easy.

Everyday Indonesian would usually use the first sentence (or a similar structure with pekerjaan or kerja) to say “My job at the office is quite easy.”