It's been a week already since I last posted. Juneteenth is now a federal holiday, and since I work at a state college, it's a long weekend for me. I recently passed one year working at my current job, making it the longest duration of employment - other than my tutoring biz - in quite a while.
Not that I haven't enjoyed and/or gained from my various paid stints in recent years. Each has been a stepping stone to something better in the difficult waters of finding rewarding employment beyond 50. I'm thankful for the tuting that's carried me for several years, and I'm thankful that I can be picky - an offshoot of being thankful that Magnum is the stable one.
Also, last week, I officially transferred to a local PEO chapter after the two year+ holding pattern. I've mentioned that PEO has chapters all over the US and that covid shut down in-person PEO meetings right after we moved here. So I held off visiting local chapters until things opened up again, then hit up a few local chapter meetings with a vengeance. One group eventually took me in - a lovely assemblage of ladies, for certain.
Speaking of work, covid, and shutdowns, I occasionally deal with technical issues at work and have to contact tech support agents. This past month, I made two calls to different tech support sites. I'm pretty sure that most tech support agents we deal with are working from home these days.
Both of the unrelated agents I dealt with were prompt and helpful. And, in each case, I almost got the impression that they were... lonely? Wanting to keep me on the line after my issues were resolved, they offered more (deemed unnecessary) assistance or wanted to chat more about the cause of the original issues, etc. I wonder if they miss going in to an office where they have face-to-face interactions with coworkers?
I know of others who love working from home and don't want to ever go back to the rat race commutes. One of my coworkers dealt with a tech support call where the coworker said he heard multiple cats in the background. Ideal work for crazy cat ladies?
I mostly like getting out of the house, but my job is an easy bicycling or walking commute away, and it's not full-time. It's not a "dream job", but it'll do for now, while I figure out the color of my parachute.
6 comments:
Yay for being at your current place for a year!! I do remember when you left the nursing home for this job. I can't believe it has been a year already! And yay for a 3 day weekend! The company I work for has made it a holiday this year (they took away the day after Thanksgiving which made a lot of people "mad" in that they got paid for a 4 day holiday) to give Juneteenth this year. Since I'm a temp and my temp agency just pays for the major holidays (Memorial Day, Fourth of July and the like) I don't get paid for tomorrow. However, I work for the payroll department, even though I don't do payroll, but I come under them. They always have to work Mondays, holidays or not, to process payroll so my supervisor said if I wanted to work I could. I am choosing to work to get paid. I would just be sitting around home so I rather be productive and make some money :) The payroll department gets time and a half for working holidays and they also get the Friday off in the week of the holiday so they get a 3 day one so they don't lose out except they never get to have holidays with their families.
I bet people do miss the interaction of being in an office if they are working from home and probably welcome the opportunity to chat with those who call in. I worked at home for years but I was paid on production so I never wanted to talk with anyone lol or I'd lose money. I do like the interaction now in the office, something I thought I wouldn't, but I do like that human connection!
Glad you got settled in at a PEO! It is nice that things are starting to normalize now after those 2 years :)
Enjoy your day off tomorrow!
betty
Betty, it seems like a good number of holidays fall on Mondays, so nice of your department to compensate with Fridays - even though, yeah, those employees miss out when the rest of the family is off.
I do like having at-work interactions and being part of a team - something I don't necessarily get from tutoring. I miss some nursing home coworkers and residents. I peruse the obits sometimes, and not surprisingly, come across obituaries of residents I knew 😞
I realize it's not quite the same thing but when I retired, I truly missed interacting with people on a day-to-day basis. I think people working from home must miss that too sometimes! Congrats on one year at your job. My year anniversary will be at the end of August.
Jeanette, yep, I get it. I even prefer tutoring in-person rather than online even though online is more convenient. Congratulations on your upcoming anniversary!
I only worked in an office while putting myself through school. I worked at an airline and then worked for the Airline computer company where I always worked from home. Since the 90s! I don't get the issue of working from home that everyone has. I had a dedicated office where the company bought all the things I needed. I went to my office same time every day, closed the door and worked until 5p or later. I usually didn't even have lunch but sometimes I did whenever I could get away. But I had no background noise. If I had music on my computer I would mute it before talking to customers or co-workers/boss. It was never an issue but I also did not have kids or animals at that time. When the pandemic started I did not understand everyone's outrage of working from home. I worked longer hours and sometimes weekends and no I was never told to but it's in your house, let's get it done. No excuse. What I missed was co-worker happy hour! That was my only regret! I could never go back to an office with office drama and the like. Besides they frown on me wearing my pjs to the office.
Peggy, looks like you were already well-versed in the whole WFH lifestyle! Magnum started working from home a few months before covid. Like you, he has a dedicated home office with everything provided (except AC, which might be nice right now). PJs in the office - the new casual Fridays?
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