If I mute myself, how will I hear you? Musing of a Blue collar tech promoted to Grey collar field manager, feeling trapped in his home office

[SalaciousR469]

First things first. SalaciousR469A is not an attempt to introduce an erotic tone to my ad. R469A is a real refrigerant used in ultra low applications down to -100 degrees. As for Salacious, guess who just figured out the Thesaurus feature on Word, This guy!

I started my career in grocery store refrigeration right out of high school. The past 20 years have seen me visit 3-6 stores a day driving roughly 60000 miles a year. Flash forward and back to Spring 2022. My field manager is shown the door. It was strongly asked/suggested that I move from the blue collar world to a new exciting Grey Collar world…

Time index today, I suddenly realized, I am caught in some power draining trap. Just like in star trek next generation episode “Booby Trap” is that a coincidence? My “Field Office” aka spare bedroom has become my gilded cage. However I have managed to learn a few interesting thing.

1. When hooking up 2 27inch monitors to a laptop you need a docking station and about 50 miles of different cables non of which are ever included.
2. That I have a special gift for misspelling words so poorly that spell check just flashes “You Lose” on my monitor screen. Could that be considered spell shaming? I should ask HR.
3. Zoom calls are a total time suck. A call that should be 30 minutes drags on for 3 hours until my face feels like it is melting, remember the bad guys from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

If you are still with me AWESOME! I am hoping to connect with a kindred work spirt. One who knows my struggles and can laugh around the virtual water cooler with me. If my totally innocent tag tingles your fancy, we could retire to the conference room aka the leather sofa in my man cave.

OMG this post seems like a 3 hour zoom call to read

 

[Booboobear84]

I'm an accounting/tech geek, but I worked from age 10 to age 20 in an electric motor repair shop which had many HVAC guys visit. I currently have an Electric motor shop as a bookkeeping client. I feel a kindred spirit,

Yeah about the docking station though it didn't seem like that much wire.

I so feel you about spell check. It saves me mostly but sometime I really stymie it. I tested in 8th grade at a 12th grade level, except spelling was a 7th grade level. I think I might have declined since then.

 

[mfrost9023]

Have been in IT for 10 years now, absolutely love having multiple monitors, absolutely hate docking stations. Especially when you forget your mouse dongle in the dock and head back home with just your mouse

 

[Intrepid47]

First things first. SalaciousR469A is not an attempt to introduce an erotic tone to my ad. R469A is a real refrigerant used in ultra low applications down to -100 degrees. As for Salacious, guess who just figured out the Thesaurus feature on Word, This guy!

I started my career in grocery store refrigeration right out of high school. The past 20 years have seen me visit 3-6 stores a day driving roughly 60000 miles a year. Flash forward and back to Spring 2022. My field manager is shown the door. It was strongly asked/suggested that I move from the blue collar world to a new exciting Grey Collar world…

Time index today, I suddenly realized, I am caught in some power draining trap. Just like in star trek next generation episode “Booby Trap” is that a coincidence? My “Field Office” aka spare bedroom has become my gilded cage. However I have managed to learn a few interesting thing.

1. When hooking up 2 27inch monitors to a laptop you need a docking station and about 50 miles of different cables non of which are ever included.
2. That I have a special gift for misspelling words so poorly that spell check just flashes “You Lose” on my monitor screen. Could that be considered spell shaming? I should ask HR.
3. Zoom calls are a total time suck. A call that should be 30 minutes drags on for 3 hours until my face feels like it is melting, remember the bad guys from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

If you are still with me AWESOME! I am hoping to connect with a kindred work spirt. One who knows my struggles and can laugh around the virtual water cooler with me. If my totally innocent tag tingles your fancy, we could retire to the conference room aka the leather sofa in my man cave.

OMG this post seems like a 3 hour zoom call to read

Man I had so much fun reading your post!!

It’s a beautiful day for a motorcycle ride, and I’m chained to my desk as a “healthcare hero,” one of those marginalized and replaceable “most trusted profession in the US” who just last week received “thanks for all you do” delivered by an administrator who did not attend the mandatory “how to introduce yourself” training that ALL employees were required to attend, and who flatly stated when she entered my secured unit, “I was assigned to come round on this unit and thank the staff for all the work they do. Also, is there anyone else here that I should thank since I’m here.”

Ah, warms the soul, that does.

Yeah. I had a BLAST reading your post! Thanks for writing it!