Author’s Note: This piece was originally posted November 19, 2013. Present day commentary is in italics.
Back in college, I had a part-time job providing content support to school administrators attempting to fill out an annual report to continue accreditation of their school (I really need to post more about this job) . My main task from September through April was to troubleshoot problems that school principals encountered in completing this report (sounds much easier than it was).
Most of the time, the callers merely needed guidance on how to answer a specific question (and TBH they were usually stupid questions- amazing how many high school principals could not grasp the concept of an FTE). Other times, questions were of a technical nature and the old “reboot your computer then log back in” trick cleared up most problems (ah- I still use that one with co-workers. 90% of the time it works, thereby avoiding a call to IT).
However, every once in awhile, the questions from callers were so bizarre it was mind boggling that these questions were coming from people whose jobs entailed inspiring children to learn and become productive members of society.
One of my favorite bizarre questions was handled by my co-worker Marta (as with all my posts- not her real name). Marta’s phone call started off normal enough. After the obligatory “hello how may I help you” salutation, Marta’s voice took on a startled and confused tone.
“I’m sorry, sir, can you please repeat your problem? You say that when you hit the Delete All Records button, all the information in your report disappears?”
Marta paused for about 30 seconds before responding. “Sir, can you hold for a moment.” Marta then hit the mute button and announced her phone call to the rest of us in the office.
“Dude, what the hell am I supposed to say to this guy? He’s a principal and wants to know why his report clears out when he hits delete! Does he not know what the word delete means?”
At this point, I was already halfway to the kitchen, laughing all the way. I was just thankful I didn’t have to deal with this particular customer. Our supervisor, patient as ever, suggested to Marta that she just slowly and calmly explain the function of the delete button and advise him not to use the delete button. Her advice worked, and Marta did her best to explain the function of a delete button without patronizing the caller.
Do you have a bizarre question you’ve had to answer on your job? Do tell! Share in the comments.
Hello! It’s been a few weeks since I posted thanks to life. To my pleasant surprise, today’s prompt was a perfect excuse to post something.
Music is something that has always been part of my life. From an early age, I took to playing musical instruments, starting with piano. Everyone in my family had somewhat varied musical tastes which later influenced my eclectic taste.
Music has been there for me at times when I wasn’t quite sure how to process things. It’s been there for me during long stretches of tedious work tasks and projects that nearly drove me insane work tasks. Shoot, half the time when I’m walking around town I have my own soundtrack running through my head, perfectly punctuating every step.
To summarize, music enriches my life.
Stay tuned – later this week (or weekend) I’ll have a fun music related post that I hope you will all check out and participate in.
Also, if you are on Instagram, be sure to follow my account. My latest post is a collection of photos from the Wanamaker building in downtown Philadelphia, which includes the World’s Largest Pipe Organ.
Tell us about the last thing you got excited about.
I’m traveling this week. The last time I left my surroundings was 3 years ago in 2021. I gifted myself a trip to the East Coast to celebrate the fact that I made it through a 24 week program through UT Austin on machine learning, which as discussed a few weeks ago, required me to learn Python.
I started out my week in NYC. Was my first time there. I will share more of my experience there in a future post but I moved on to Philadelphia. So far this trip has allowed me to spend time with a few different friends that I had not seen in awhile which in itself is exciting and amazing.
The last thing I got excited about among a week of excitement was experiencing downtown Philadelphia. I took a train from NYC to Philly, which gave me the opportunity to take in the sights between the cities. I snapped some photos from my seat, including this one of the Delaware River.
Crossing the Delaware
Once in Philadelphia, after a nice leisurely lunch at Reading Terminal Market with my friend who lives in the area, we spent some time in a park. Coming from the Southwest, the foliage here was different and amazing.
Just another municipal park in Philly.
The park had squirrels everywhere. Yes there are squirrels where I live as well, just not in my current neighborhood. I have to visit a local preserve to see them back home.
Squirrel enjoying a peanut.
While in downtown, we walked over to Independence Hall.
Independence Hall
Then viewed the Liberty Bell. We went at the right time- there were no lines to view the bell.
Liberty Bell – no lines to get here!
This is just a smattering of things I saw yesterday. This whole week has been an exciting experience in many ways. Even sitting in the park just people watching on a summer afternoon without melting away from heat exhaustion was exciting!
That’s all for now. I hope you all are enjoying your latest slice of life the excitement that accompanies it.
Noise is an underrated topic for the working world. Depending on your work environment, the type of noise that permeates through your workspace can vary from the drone of electric tools to the bustling sounds of a cafe.
I’ve always worked in an office environment. I’ve spent many years trapped volutarily located in the confines of floors in buildings of downtown areas. What I’ve learned over the years is it takes immense patience to work around people you’d probably slam the door on if they showed up at your house other people.
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com I’ve never had an office that looked this modern. My current office is outfitted by office furniture another company in the building was going to throw away.
For my entire career as an office worker, I’ve had some type of hybrid or alternative work schedule. The difference between the past 4 years and the “before” time (we all know what I’m talking about here) is that the days in office vs. remote are flipped. Before- I was in office 4 days a week, and at home 1 day a week on average. After, well you get the gist.
I still commute to an office a couple of days a week to keep up appearances , because the company said so, be a “team player”. even though in my current role I have no real reason to be there. It’s ok because I get to waste more time getting “the scoop” from selected co-workers in the office and go for long walks in the area it gives me a change of scenery each week. Nevertheless, when I’m in the office it still requires patience to focus amidst other people’s noise.
I live in a different city from where I work so I can walk through construction zones for a change from my quiet tree lined neighborhood.
I had different office jobs throughout my college career, but the REAL adjustment came into play in after I completed my master’s degree and stepped into my first analyst job. This was the first job where I had to really concentrate on the work- it was mentally taxing.
The type of troubleshooting I had to do required more thought and diplomacy than I was used to on my other jobs. I was a budget analyst at a large state agency and errors in calculations had consequences.
Now, I don’t know if I took the job too seriously or if the others in my office didn’t care, but I was stuck with 2 co-workers in particular, let’s call them Helene and Kara- that TALKED LOUDLY ALL DAY. EVERYDAY. ABOUT EVERY MINUTE OF THEIR LIFE IN THE OFFICE AND OUTSIDE.
Photo by Sora Shimazaki on Pexels.com Do you have this guy as your co-worker? It’s fun isn’t it, trying to get work done with the office bullhorn in your presence.
Oh- and lucky me, because they did a alternate work schedule of working 8- 9 hour days in a row to get every other Monday off, they were usually in the office by 7:30am and already knee deep in conversation by the time I rolled in at 7:45am.
A typical morning was something like this:
“Oh Helene- may I offer you some pop- corny corn?” Cue INSANE LAUGHTER FROM BOTH.
“OMG Kara that is one of the BEST Doug Heffernon lines”. (Note: I had not seen an episode of King of Queens at this time to know WTH they were talking about).
“Ok Helene, this is your week to take care of Seamus! Here you go”. (Seamus was a leprechaun pen they played with in the office. Yes these were grown ass women that cared for a leprechaun pen. Don’t worry there will be a post about this in the future.)
“Kara, when are you going to join my Zumba class?” (Helene taught Zumba classes in addition to this day job).
“Oh, I’ll aim for this Wednesday. I just got a phone # from the new guy on my bus route, and that’s a perfect first date.” (Idk what bus route she took- I never had that kind of experience riding the bus all these years).
“That’s perfect, I have five spots left and I”m trying to fill them up”.
“What time is it?”
“Eight thirty- is it too early for a snack run?”
“Yes, let’s go in an hour.”
“OMG guess who I ran into?”
“Who?”
“That lady with the eyebrows that used to work down the hall?”
“OMG does she still pencil in her eyebrows like its halloween?”
“Girl and then some”.
AND IT WENT ON AND ON LIKE THIS ALL DAY LONG. I didn’t have control over the background noise and it was frustrating as hell. There were no TVs in the office, so I had to rely on music. Thankfully, I had received a free iPod for joining my school’s alumni association. It had still been sitting in the box- my second week on the job I tore open that box and got to work filling it up with music.
Fast forward to today. I have no clue what happened to Kara and Helene, but I continued to have my share of Kara and Helenes in the office over the years. I still don’t understand how I had patience to not snap and strangle them all zone out the din. But somehow I managed. I’m fortunate that now I have a dedicated home office which makes it convenient to control noise. And because I have an office at the office complete with a TV, I can shut the door and just leave the TV on to drown out the Kara and Helenes of today.
Serenity Now!
But for those of you stuck with sitting out in a cubicle or open workspace with such inconsiderate delightful co-workers, get yourself a good pair of headphones and find the background noise you can control. And know that I feel for you!
What strategies do you use to increase comfort in your daily life?
Act busy to avoid getting more work assigned. If you’re already busy, act busier. Rinse and repeat. This also works if you want to avoid chatting with coworkers. If they want to ask you questions about work stuff, tell them to throw a meeting on your calendar. 90% of people from my experience will never willingly schedule a meeting but be prepared for the 10% that will. None of this is a guarantee of smooth sailing but it helps make the daily less rocky.
Any vacation is memorable as long as you are not working or checking in with work or thinking about work. ‘Nuff said.
I also advocate for taking at least a lunch break during the working day, which can be thought of as mini vacations. Taking a walk or even stepping outside your home or office for a few minutes can do wonders.
If you work in office, try to find green spaces nearby to walk around or even just sit for a few minutes and enjoy the quiet.
Here are some of my mini vacations when working at the office. These were all taken within the past two weeks.
So I know some of you are thinking -” uh isn’t it hot in Phoenix right now”. Yes! So your next question might be “how are you outside walking around taking photos?!” Well- because when I am in the office, the air conditioning is set much lower than I’m used to so I need to dethaw by mid-day and it takes a good 10-15 minute jaunt around the area to do that!
Ok so for me the motivation to get out and take a break is two fold- mental AND physical health/comfort. Because feeling like a popsicle all day is completely unproductive.
Also notice – we still have greenery in the dead of summer!
Heritage Square Downtown Phoenix Arizona Center Downtown Phoenix Virginia G. Piper Plaza Downtown Phoenix
I listen to too many genres and subgenres to pick a favorite. Since this blog is related to coping with on the job tomfoolery, my answer is curated to playlists that keep me calm focused when I have things I don’t want to work on important deadlines or I’m cleaning up other people’s messes I’m solving complicated tasks that require diplomacy and concentration.
Below are some playlists that help me retain my sanity focus during work hours. All links are to YouTube playlists, because it’s free.
-Playlists of Erik Satie’s Gymnopedies or Gnossiennes on a loop. These are instrumental piano pieces that I find both calming and beautiful and stop me from typing out my real thoughts by email increase my patience.
– Blue Lines by Massive Attack. A classic from the British Trip Hop collective. The variety of the songs from start to finish hold my interest yet simultaneously allows me to focus.
I have a number of personal playlists as well that feature other genres than shown above but these are my defaults when I don’t feel like sifting through my personal collection and just want to hit play and go.
How does your musical tastes differ from work to your off time? Or is it the same?
1. I still don’t know the correct answer to the riddle “how many chucks would a woodchuck chuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood” and I fear I will never know the answer. Seems like I could just add up the number of times the word “chuck” appears but that seems too obvious.
2. That I’ll turn into some crazy person who decides not to retire. I’ve dreamt of retirement since I was a girl (yeah you read that right) so not retiring would shake up the core of my identity.
3. That I’ll develop some weird health condition that prevents me from drinking coffee. Would be almost as devastating as item 2 above if not more so.
4. That I’ll never make time to learn underwater basket weaving.
5. That the Friday/Saturday morning kids show Xploration Earth is right and we’ll all be eating crickets as our main source of protein by the year 2050.
Phew now that I got that out of my system, what are you all worried about? Can’t be nearly as bad as my list.
unfrazzled analyst 