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| And NO....this is not the reason, though i have to admit,being around folks who do this when I am with them make me crazy! |
I am not making this up.
And i realized just very recently how much the phone has affected me because of my job in the union office. I've worked in this job for 25 years (not to mention the previous 10 years in the school district where i was a secretary).
I am now retired but temporarily working part-time in the union office and one thing i no longer have to do is answer the phone.
It's only been two days post retirement, but i realized how much more i like going to work just knowing the phone is no longer my duty.... I feel lighter... I feel happier! Just knowing when that phone rings i don't have to have some conversation with the person on the other line has freed me up to be more positive and ready to get to work.
Here's the deal: nobody calling the union office ever does so with positive news. They call crying, venting, whining, griping, yelling, and i am not kidding, even suicidal (That has actually happened to me four times. One time... months later i read the member's obituary and that's where i found out she was really serious....And on that call i actually had access to the mental health place next door who I had a colleague summon to come over and take the call.)
They have even called drunk.
It was SO rare to receive a good phone call that i actually started to save any voice mails i received that were nice messages. I had calls from a few members or colleagues who liked what i wrote in a newsletter, or what i said in a meeting, three of those calls were from my friend Julie (jj here) who had her little kindergarten or first grader kids in her music class sing happy birthday to me.
Because of retirement and cleaning up my office, I also recently cleared them off my voice mail. There were 9 messages in all.
And sometimes when i had a particularly negative experience at work i would play all 9 messages and listen to them again. (Julie's kids singing were the best.)
So now i'm thinking maybe after i de-program myself from this union job there are a few things that I think will change me.
#1. I will be a more positive person.
#2. My house is going to be in much better order because i actually like doing things like putting things where they belong - for example my next project now that the refrigerator is done is to put up new shelf paper and reorganize my kitchen cabinets.
(I don't have THAT many kitchen cabinets so this is not that arduous a chore really.)
#3. I will like being around people more.
#4. My health will be improved. Already i have been able to quit the blood pressure meds. Going on two months now and my blood pressure has been just great.
#5. Hell, I might end up getting a cell phone. (Not saying i will really use it, but i might get one.)
How do you think YOU would change if you weren't working at your current job? What do YOU think you would be doing differently? How might you feel differently?
Notes to Self:
High temp today: WOW! it hit 90 degrees at 4:05 pm. That might be the record high all summer. We have had the most fabulous summer ever in the history of Washington State summers. (However, next week it changes and goes back to 62 degrees for the high.)
Sunrise: 6:42 am (right now as i type at 7:46 pm it is 83 degrees outside! That's amazing!
Sunset: 7:32 pm ...
it's going SO fast now! :(
Longest run this week: 51 minutes
All time blog posts: 48,081
Blog posts last month: 1084
12 comments:
I know it's Sept. 11 and i should have posted some patriotic sentimental post but my Facebook feed has worn me out on the Nine-Eleven stuff. And for me? I actually hate memorializing bad days. When someone days i would rather think about their birthday than the day they died.
OK, not that i love July 4th either. But you some of you know what i mean.
louie, for example.
By the way, since Thug Kitchen didn't choose me for that serial killer knife prize i am no longer going to pimp their site. But you can still find their awesomeness on www.thugkitchen.com and on Facebook too.
But i am so over them. I agree the muskrat story should have won the main prize but that dude who never called that woman again who had the emergency appendicitis attack and who won a TK prize is a chump and i think my bacon wrapped tots should have at least won an honorable mention, not to mention that i've promoted TK enough.
So i am breaking up with TK.
When I retire, I hope that I will be able to travel more - for fun.
I couldn't get by without a smartphone. I'm already in a cold sweat because I have jury duty next week and can't bring mine on the premises. Fortunately the courthouse is just a block from the office, but still!!!
Hey pearl, is this you?
Yep. It's me. And it's been a long time, but I'm sure you can remember that as wedded to that phone as I am, I never let it get in the way of a face to face conversation with a real flesh and blood person.
You were never like that with the phone. I figured this must be you because of your travel statement. Good luck with jury duty. I have loved being on jury duty before....3 times.
They don't allow phones even while you wait to be called?
My kid has her phone surgically attached. Mine is there, when we travel I look for cheap gas, problems with the road ahead and play solitaire.
I have jury duty the week of the 30th. We are allowed our phones as long as they are off. We're one day, one trial. I'll call in the night before and see if my number is up. Last time I went 4 days and then on Friday had to report to a totally different courthouse.
Things are sad around the ranchero as we lost our kitty.
I worked too many years answering phones but the worst was the tSa lost and found. People who didn't listen to the message, left their crap on airplanes and not at the checkpoint. Hated it but did a good job.
Hey amulbunny! I like your new photo and did i miss this before? Now i can simply click on your name and go right to your blog? I never knew that before. Is mine like that too?
What good is your phone if it is off? What i remember about jury duty is waiting a lot to be called. Then waiting some more. At least now you can check online the night before. The first time i was on that option was not available so you drive in, take about 20 minutes to find a parking place that is not going to get you mugged during the winter months if you are actually called to serve and leave later and then you go inside and then just end up going home.
I brought Sodoku with me to jury duty. But mostly i ended up talking to people around me. That's one of the things i like most about jury duty, connecting with other people who are waiting to do their civic duty!
Reasons you need to have a smart phone:
I can call and tell you on those rare occasions I am running late.
You can use Siri to get directions and never worry about being lost - some of those short cuts that use small, lonely, country roads aren’t on the map. but Siri knows, so you don't have to ask sketchy pistol-packing dudes for directions.
If you do get lost, the phone’s GPS will help the rescue-searchers find your body.
You will love to text. Not constantly, I am not a huge texter, but I like it a lot. It is very handy for quick check in's.
You can quit counting on your friends to read your emails on their cell phones
You can check your email on your phone. Especially important if you want to check home emails while at work. Oh, I forgot. you're retired.
You will not get addicted UNLESS you put Facebook access on your phone. Don’t do it.
You can take quick photos to email to yourself or for posting on Facebook.
You can use it to make phone calls; go figure.
Let me see if i can refute your points but first hahaha.....'rare occasion'!!!!
I have 2 on Siri and directions: first off i don't go anywhere. Secondly ' lonely country' roads sre breeding grounds for serial killers.
HOWEVER of course i haven't forgotten that i travel sometimes with friends who are feerless and willing to FOLLOW pistol packing scary dudes (just because they ate cute.)
Ted Bundy was pretty cute too.
So good point there.
Againg GPS searching my body. I don't go very far from home ever!
RE: TEXTING. I am terrible typing on my kindle plys as a very good typist it's uoaetting to me to be such a terrible texter. What good is receving a message you can't understand?
Not only thst i always write too much and even beinf retired i will not have enough time to text.
However...texting can help me learn to be more succinct. Maybe THEN my friends will read my emails.
You already made the point about no need to read home emails at work but actually people don't email much anyway and i have not checked it much anyway cause it id mostly the Democrats...iTunes receipts ..Choice hotels and now Trip Advisor in my inbox.
Facebook. I get more personal messages through Facebook so that's not a good point.
I already have that tiny coolpix camera which is not only smaller but shoots video and has higher resolution and it doesn't upgrade and become obsolete every 6 months.
Finally i barely have room for my checkbook in my purse (hahaha now don't i sound like an old lady?) So i have no room.
And i am on a fixed income making a lot less money.
The above was sent from my kindlefire i was not dri nking wine! Plus it took me about 2 hours and 17 minutes to type so imagine my texting abilities.
This too wss typed on a kindlefire.
I am going to think of that job question- (if I didn't have mine) and it is more serious for me because they are cutting back in a really weird assed way- (not ready to explain now) - I do not like talking on a phone though and it is my job- I like making my customers happy and saving lives though- I do not talk on the phone much when I am not at work and think mainly because I do all day every day and sometimes for hours and hours.....12 hour shifts! I did not get a cell phone until my daughter was PG. I loved answering machines when they came out... I like texting though.
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