Tag: telecommute

Job enjoyment.

Today I am asked if I enjoy my job. The answer is a somewhat reluctant yes. I just can’t bring myself to say I love something that makes me get up so early. Sorry, I’m just never going to be a morning person. I would much rather go to work sometime in the afternoon. I could probably deal with it better if it was completely remote. As it stands, I have to get up early every day, get ready, then drive into an office a few blocks away.

My jobs have definitely become increasingly better over the years. The first one being positively horrible because I had to stand in one place all day. That really hurt my ankles. It had other health dangers as well. The people there were pretty nice to me though, and I’ve learned that’s a really important part of any job. My jobs have also increased dramatically in pay and benefits, which is also very important. My current occupation is in management. I had to overcome a lot of obstacles to get here though, especially my shyness. At this point in my career, I honestly wouldn’t want any job that wasn’t in management.

There is one other thing I don’t particularly like about jobs. I have found that some people in the workplace are competitive to a fault. I feel like this is a product of sports being overly accentuated throughout all their school years. They assume that everything in life is a game, and the goal is to annihilate their enemies. When these people get to a workplace, instead of just doing their job, they think they are in competition with everyone, even their own teammates. I’m honestly one of those people who hope we all win, but more importantly, I’m smart enough to recognize that most jobs are just a labor contract. Do your job at work and play games when you are off work. Either way, I’m not going to compete with you.

Are you a morning person? Do you have to commute? Do you telecommute? What do you love or hate most about your job? Have you ever worked with highly competitive people? What are the biggest problems in the workplace? What do all good jobs have in common? What about bad jobs? Let me know in the comments, and don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe!

How often I walk.

I walk quite a bit. Every time I go to the bathroom I walk there. Just kidding!

I work in an office, which should normally be a very sedentary job, but there’s actually quite a bit of walking involved every day. From the covered parking garage, I have to walk thorough several large buildings that are interconnected to form our campus. There are elevators, stairs, and even an escalator to aid my travel, but I usually hit at least one or two staircases, and I always walk on the escalator when it’s empty. I’m not sure of the exact number of steps, but it’s a pretty long trip to my office on the third floor, and I make this hike at least four times a day because I go home for lunch. I also go in every day, rather than telecommuting, because I don’t have that option as a manger. Telecommuting can be dangerously sedentary if you don’t plan to include exercise in your daily regimen.

All this walking does take some getting used to, but I’ve come to appreciate the exercise, and it’s really a beautiful set of buildings downtown. Everyone who visits complements the architectural design and aesthetic beauty of the campus. Various paintings and other art, many from students, also line most of the walls of the buildings, giving it a pleasant and artistic vibe.

Aside from the walking at work, I also often stroll downtown to local restaurants, bars, and coffee shops. This is also usually a pleasant walk, as the downtown area is maintained very well. I see people taking pictures every time I walk around. You hardly even notice you are getting your steps in, as it feels so leisurely.

Do you do a lot of walking? Do you have a sedentary job? How do you blend exercise into your daily routine? Let me know in the comments, and please remember to like, share, and subscribe!

My morning routine.

The alarm goes off, I hit snooze a full three times. I’d hit it more but after three my alarm clock just resets itself, so it won’t go off again. I hate that, but I’d just keep hitting it until 10:00 am if it kept letting me. Yea, I admit it. I am not an early riser. I can set up all night long pretty easily, but I hate the morning. I really need a job on the night shift, but the kind of work I do is largely day shift.

After I get up, I make coffee. That’s the first thing I do. I’m not quite alive without my first cup of coffee. I think I’m in this weird quantum state only partially existing in this universe, blipping on and off with brief moments of wakefulness that eventually become continuous enough to allow me to fully materialize.

Gotta get this day done so I can come home.

Sometimes I say little things in my head to motive me to actually get out of bed. It’s an odd trait maybe. I’m not sure if I asked anyone else if they do it, and I’ve been doing it so long I forget that I do it. On the good days, I probably say something like, gotta get this day done so I can come home, or gotta get a move on or I’ll be late. On a bad morning, I might say something a lot grumpier with a few expletives. As noted, I don’t fully exist before coffee, so what I say doesn’t count.

My coffee comes from a small expresso machine I have in the kitchen. Sometimes I actually make lattes with it, but in the morning, I just fill that little portafilter to the top and make expresso shots. I’m not sure how many shots that makes. I just try to max it out. That’s the only way I will get to full materialization. I mean, you don’t want to try driving when you are not fully in this universe.

There’s some degree of multitasking going on as I wait for the expresso machine to spue out its life juice. I start taking the vitamins and supplements that I take every morning. There’s a lot I must admit. I was always a vitamin taker, but over the years I added this thing or that for various claims. Some I think work pretty well, but others I’m taking might be snake oil. They have become a habit though, and habits don’t always get scrutinized, at least not daily. There would be no gain from making them a habit if you had to think about it, since a habit is teaching your brain to do repetitive things, so you don’t have to think about it. I think I repeated myself there, maybe I need more coffee.

After coffee and pills, I go to the bathroom and get everything ready for my shower, but don’t quite get in yet. The caffeine takes a little bit to kick in and I have the morning sort of timed out to account for this. After I lay out my towel, etc., I actually go back to bed for a few minutes. I have an alarm set on my phone for this one, and I can’t hit snooze. I might get a whole 15 minutes, but it depends on how long it took me to get the morning tasks done. If I get sidetracked by looking at my phone, I will lose precious moments of sleep. Those 15 minutes feel heavenly some days.

I think I hold some sort of record probably, like maybe ten solid years of being late.

After the alarm goes off on my phone, I’m in kind of a rush to shower, dress, comb my hair, brush my teeth, put on deodorant, and make the short drive to work about 15 minutes away. The coffee is finally pumping through my veins by this time, so it goes a little faster. I’m usually there about time, but honestly, I’m a little late most days. I think I hold some sort of record probably, like maybe ten solid years of being late. I’m probably exaggerating. Lots of people are late though, and many of them get to work from home and take vacation, and I’m there every day and basically on call 24/7 through my smart phone.

Are you a morning person or do you need coffee to get you going? Do you prefer to go to bed early or stay up late? Do you find sleep as blissful as I do? Do you have motivational phrases you say to yourself?

Notable happenings.

The day isn’t even halfway over, but it doesn’t look like today is going to be very noteworthy. I am stuck in an all-day meeting on my day off. The one nice thing about it is I don’t have to go into the office for this one. I can mostly just do it from my phone, but it’s still a day I was supposed to have off. I already put in 40 hours this week working 4 10-hour days. This goes back to what I was saying yesterday. Jobs get in the way of living. Something interesting might happen before midnight, but the odds are not in my favor.

Do you ever work on your day off? Do you lose vacation days each year because you can’t find time to take them? Does it take forever to catch up when you do take off? Let me know in the comments.

It wasn’t for me.

I remember there used to be a time when there wasn’t an internet, but I honestly don’t like to think about it. It was a time when everyone was expected to do everything in person or through paper. It was a time when people couldn’t work from home very easily. It was an era that predates blogging and many forms of self-publication. It was really not for me. I was born for the internet, and I spend a ridiculous amount of time there.

Some people like to blame the internet for everything, and there are some negative aspects, but if you really think about it, it has made the world a better place. Here are some things it has added.

  • Better connection to other people. Before the internet, it really wasn’t that easy to keep up with people you went to school with, or family that moved out of state. I remember my grandmother actually had to write to her cousins on paper and use snail mail. That definitely wasn’t optimal, though it did build anticipation and teach patience.
  • The internet allows for anonymity. Some people see this as an evil aspect of the internet, but I think it is absolutely critical. Societies and governments tend to silence and chastise people who criticize them out of fear that if enough people gather together, they will overthrow them. Without anonymity, those people would not be able to state the truth about their society or government.
  • It is more inclusive. The internet is pretty much everywhere now. Before it, you had to really work hard to connect with people outside your local community or state. The world has become much smaller and striking up a conversation with someone across the globe is trivial now.
  • The information age opened up tons of jobs that allow you to work from home, or anywhere there is an internet connection. You can literally work from the beach if you like. You can travel the world if you like, taking your work with you. You also don’t have to worry about that dreaded commute anymore. The only highway you have to be on is the information superhighway.
  • It provided an outlet for tons of creative minds. There are so many creators out there now. It’s almost becoming an expectation in our society. Without the ability to self-publish, you would have to get everything approved by a bureaucratic publishing system and advertising was pretty slow and expensive. Now, you just create an account on social media and start sharing.
  • Of course, the best part of having the internet is that you get to read this amazing blog. 🙂

So, what’s your favorite thing about the internet? Could you live without it? Tell me about it in the comments, and don’t forget to like and subscribe.