26 September 2006

Office life

Once upon a time, I had an office at a place where other people worked. I didn't really like being there every day. Even further back in the dark ages, I was a cubicle dweller within a small maze of indistinguishable partition walls. I hated being there every day. These places had their problems like poor temperature control, bad lighting, annoying coworkers, complete lack of windows, inconsiderate people in large public bathrooms and so on. These places also had their positive sides like enjoyable coworkers to discuss work/gossip with, making me feel "adult" and "productive" because I actually left the house every day, free leftover meeting junk food, fastest internet connection known to mankind and so on.

Today is a work-from-home day, so I get to enjoy two large windows in my office, a cute office-mate who curls up by my feet and barks at the dreaded UPS and USPS delivery folks, an entire refrigerator full of food that is not labeled for someone else to eat (but also contains no free meeting food appearing a couple of times a day), good lighting, a comfortable desk, a private bathroom and so on. I'm also incredibly lonely because although my office-mate is cute, he's not so good with conversation and doesn't have any entertaining gossip about anyone.

I alternate between getting a million things done in an hour and not being able to concentrate long enough to get anything done in two hours. Sometimes, I see interesting things out my windows. Things like when the city crews came by and dug up all the manhole covers and replaced them with pavement. Weird because two days later, another crew came by and dug up all the pavement and re-paved, putting the manhole covers back in. Like when the city crew came by and painted little arrows and slogans on all the storm drains. Like the fact that the UPS man comes down this street and stops within 2 houses of us EVERY DAY. Like the day my much older neighbor, who usually walks around with a cane and a little rat-dog, came by on a scooter - with the dog riding along. (Why? Assuming he goes out partially for the exercise and partially for dog-related issues, why would you take a dog on a scooter? I'll never know.)

Sometimes, this quiet is a nice change from the vanbulance where I have to talk all day with a partner or patients, but right now it stinks because the low call volume lately means a lot of sitting around with nothing to do and my schedule hasn't been coinciding with the other ambulance people I enjoy talking to but rather with those that make me want to claw out people's throats so I'm not getting the usual social interaction at the station. Also, I'm kinda sad because D made it to the 911 trucks at the southern station starting next month so he isn't going to be around to talk to anymore either.

No point to all this, just feeling left out of the rat race in a weird way today and slightly overwhelmed by the big pile of work that a 19 page document can represent.

2 comments:

Pregnant In Texas said...

I know that exact loneliness, although I usually feel it when I'm actually AT work, which makes it even stranger. It's kind of like going to the grocery store in the middle of the day - everything looks the same, but is slightly different.

You will get all the work done that you need to, I have faith in that. Maybe just give into the fact that you want to look out the window then check out 'The View' with Rosie O'Donnell, just to see how annoying it is.

MedicChris said...

Hey Jen,
Thanks for the comment over at my place. I can relate to a lot of what you mentioned here...I used to work from home, I'm currently in Cube-ville, and long periods with low call volume drive me nuts too. I'll be checking in more often to say HI. Hang in there!

Chris