I had some calls - screening interviews - last week for contract jobs doing systems analysis. I was assured there would be requests for in person interviews this week. Hmmn. Today is Wednesday. Is this phone working?
The weather has been fabulous lately, after a rainy start to the spring. I am outside most of the day, puttering, weeding, mowing, and sitting in the shade, marveling at the natural beauty of flora and fauna.
A huge variety of birds pass through the yard if you just sit down for a minute and listen for them. Of course there are our resident cardinals who have built a nest in the very bush that I was planning to cut down - Now, this project is postponed until after the eggs have hatched and the chicks have flown. But there are numerous other species: A Baltimore Oriole was sitting on the cedar fence yesterday. Two red tailed hawks making lazy circles in the sky. A lost Canadian goose flies over, honking desperately. There are also bluejays, crows, doves, robins, woodpeckers, mockingbirds, and many that I cannot identify. Their trillings, squawks, chirps, tweets and caws emanate from the trees like the noisy parrots in the jungle. The ambient noise of life. I heard somewhere that those sweet sounds of birds are actually angry threats identifying territories or requests for mating privileges. It sounds more like a racket when you think the songs are being sung by thugs and harlots.
Well, it still beats the sound of phones ringing, the kid in the next cube who talks about nothing but cars, the paging system, and other typical office related sound track.
Other wildlife abound. I throw stones at the odious squirrels - who dig up my lawn in their frenetic search for...what the heck are they looking for anyway? Chipmunks are left alone to scurry and chirp as they please, although my stand of catmint does attract the local outdoor cats. I like seeing them - they chase away most of the rodentia. In the evening, we are visited by skunks and raccoons. One got into the garage the other night looking for food. My three indoor cats sit on windowsills watching the action outside. They are entertained by the reality show being played out.
Work? Yes I'm working. I have a list of chores and tasks. I am also monitoring the neighborhood building projects. Next door, they are setting up the forms for the extended foundation. Someone has to make sure they are doing it correctly. And later, the concrete trucks will be onsite.
I may not be getting paid in the coin of the realm, but the reward of seeing the newly mown lawn and the dark earth of a freshly-weeded flower bed gives one a sense of satisfaction that must be pre-wired into our DNA from ancient ancestors, embedded in our medula oblongata. You cannot get that same satisfaction from a data model or from a meeting that went well.
Cripes, listen to me. I need to get a job pretty soon, or the next thing you know I'll be one of those old guys sitting on a bench seemingly at peace with the world. Who needs that?
5/19/2004
5/13/2004
Suddenly It's Thursday.
I know a man who has been retired for almost twenty years. He is 82 years old. Once, when I asked him how he passed the time he declared that you can get really busy doing nothing. He claims that the title of his forthcoming book is: "Suddenly, It's Thursday." Now I know what he meant.
When the only events on your schedule are Doctors appointments and getting the car washed, it is hard to keep track of what day it is. Some driven people never know how it feels to do nothing. To those of us with a low sense of urgency, the unscheduled day is a gift from the heavens.
For those readers who have a job, you can understand what I am saying by remembering your last long vacation at the beach. (Not a long weekend getaway or a traveling tour of the sites in Mozambique. These trips have too many time-sensitive moments and they don't give you time to get into a relaxed mode.)
But, if you recall your best long vacation, you remember that around the beginning of the second week, you really got relaxed. You forgot your job, your meetings, your backbiting co-workers, your clueless boss, your inept subordinates. The vacation day consists of napping, eating, drinking, reading and thinking. You lose track of time, because it doesn't really matter what day it is. A good day depends on the weather, not on the vagaries of the next phone call from your idiot clients.
Well, an extended time not-working has the same effect. You develop certain strategies to promote a nice stress-free existence. You shop for food and go to the dump during weekdays. Working people clog the streets on Saturdays trying to take kids to soccer matches, getting to the mall, rushing to the super market. They need to do everything in one day, so they can relax on Sunday. It's dangerous to be on the roads when these frenetic souls are speeding to their destinations, multitasking with cell phones glued to their ears, yakking instead of paying attention to their driving. Busy, busy, hurry, hurry. Too much anxiety in the streets.
So, what happens is, non-working people tend to let the week drift along. You do whatever you feel like doing. Then, at some point you again notice that your wife has taped a list of honey-do's to the beer refrigerator. Some of the things on the list are left over from previous weeks' lists, and now they have exclamation marks, arrows and highlights. And you realize in the interest of harmony, that you better get some things done.
That's when you realize that suddenly it's Thursday. Again.
A year in Blogville
It was about a year ago that I started this weblog. People who know me have been getting email HH Updates for years, and before the internet I kept a typewritten journal through decades of all the previous jobs. I plan to publish it all in my book about leadership. The working title is "I should have stayed in bed."
When the only events on your schedule are Doctors appointments and getting the car washed, it is hard to keep track of what day it is. Some driven people never know how it feels to do nothing. To those of us with a low sense of urgency, the unscheduled day is a gift from the heavens.
For those readers who have a job, you can understand what I am saying by remembering your last long vacation at the beach. (Not a long weekend getaway or a traveling tour of the sites in Mozambique. These trips have too many time-sensitive moments and they don't give you time to get into a relaxed mode.)
But, if you recall your best long vacation, you remember that around the beginning of the second week, you really got relaxed. You forgot your job, your meetings, your backbiting co-workers, your clueless boss, your inept subordinates. The vacation day consists of napping, eating, drinking, reading and thinking. You lose track of time, because it doesn't really matter what day it is. A good day depends on the weather, not on the vagaries of the next phone call from your idiot clients.
Well, an extended time not-working has the same effect. You develop certain strategies to promote a nice stress-free existence. You shop for food and go to the dump during weekdays. Working people clog the streets on Saturdays trying to take kids to soccer matches, getting to the mall, rushing to the super market. They need to do everything in one day, so they can relax on Sunday. It's dangerous to be on the roads when these frenetic souls are speeding to their destinations, multitasking with cell phones glued to their ears, yakking instead of paying attention to their driving. Busy, busy, hurry, hurry. Too much anxiety in the streets.
So, what happens is, non-working people tend to let the week drift along. You do whatever you feel like doing. Then, at some point you again notice that your wife has taped a list of honey-do's to the beer refrigerator. Some of the things on the list are left over from previous weeks' lists, and now they have exclamation marks, arrows and highlights. And you realize in the interest of harmony, that you better get some things done.
That's when you realize that suddenly it's Thursday. Again.
A year in Blogville
It was about a year ago that I started this weblog. People who know me have been getting email HH Updates for years, and before the internet I kept a typewritten journal through decades of all the previous jobs. I plan to publish it all in my book about leadership. The working title is "I should have stayed in bed."
5/07/2004
A Year Beyond Hellhole
On Monday I will be celebrating the 1 year anniversary of my unemployment.
I say "celebrating", because I really do not miss working (meetings, status reports, commuting, deadlines, ego-centric a-holes, unreasonable customers, insufficent resources, striving for excellence, competition and did I mention meetings?).
I do miss the fun things (Interesting colleagues, beers at the pub, travel to user conferences in interesting places, occasionally getting something worthwhile accomplished.) And, I do miss getting paid.
The weekly unemployment check ($500) was great for 9 months. And, since it went away, I am getting pressure to fire (oops, I mean "lay-off") the cleaners who still come every two weeks. And, I have had to cut back on lottery investments and lunches with friends and the increasing headcount of unemployed former colleagues. I keep reading about the hot economy, but haven't felt the warmth yet.
So, I continue to check the job boards, and apply to any Business Systems Analyst job that looks interesting and located within a short commute. I remain calm. Sooner or later there will be opportunities to work. These cycles are immutable and I am confident that I will ultimately return to the ranks of the so-called 'gainfully employed'.
But, with gardening, reading and social activities, I really don't know how I will find the time to work at a full-time job. Life is full of such contradictions, I guess.
Hey, the sun is out, I have stuff to do.
I say "celebrating", because I really do not miss working (meetings, status reports, commuting, deadlines, ego-centric a-holes, unreasonable customers, insufficent resources, striving for excellence, competition and did I mention meetings?).
I do miss the fun things (Interesting colleagues, beers at the pub, travel to user conferences in interesting places, occasionally getting something worthwhile accomplished.) And, I do miss getting paid.
The weekly unemployment check ($500) was great for 9 months. And, since it went away, I am getting pressure to fire (oops, I mean "lay-off") the cleaners who still come every two weeks. And, I have had to cut back on lottery investments and lunches with friends and the increasing headcount of unemployed former colleagues. I keep reading about the hot economy, but haven't felt the warmth yet.
So, I continue to check the job boards, and apply to any Business Systems Analyst job that looks interesting and located within a short commute. I remain calm. Sooner or later there will be opportunities to work. These cycles are immutable and I am confident that I will ultimately return to the ranks of the so-called 'gainfully employed'.
But, with gardening, reading and social activities, I really don't know how I will find the time to work at a full-time job. Life is full of such contradictions, I guess.
Hey, the sun is out, I have stuff to do.
5/05/2004
Cinco de Mayo
I was checking out the job boards today and found a perfect job for me. I would have been perfect for this job if I had some relevant experience.
Still, One must be alert to opportunity, so I sent this email:
"I am truly unqualified for the job you described in your Monster.com ad. Not only have I not earned a living as a writer or editor, but, more damagingly, I am possessed by an inexplicable condition which my wife diagnoses as "call reluctance." I cannot explain why I am intimidated by successful business leaders. Perhaps it is because my own job history is pockmarked by an inability to rise above the rabble who sit in the cafeteria, munching on jelly donuts and free coffee, grousing about inept management.
Which brings me to the incentive for this e-query: The job description did mention the thing about free bagels and drinks. So I was wondering whether it was limited to soft drinks or whether you are one of those progressive outfits that has beer in the fridge. Now, that would be an interesting place to work.
You also mentioned that everyone has a great time and no one ever wants to leave. Again, this sounds like the perfect environment for someone like me: Laid off from my high paying IT job, nearing retirement, non-golfer, 30 years experience as an IT project leader, pretty good writer, superior sense of humor, and someone who can really appreciate a free bagel.
Ok, I admit it. I am not really applying for a senior writer position. But your environment sounded so attractive that I had to take time out of my normal job-hunting and blogging to see if you had any work for someone who can write knowledgeably about technology and management issues with a sense of humor. "
Hey, what if there actually was some one in HR with a sense of humor. Maybe they would show it to someone who was thinking about hiring laid off systems analysts to write about data management and other funny stuff.
Stranger things have happened.
Still, One must be alert to opportunity, so I sent this email:
"I am truly unqualified for the job you described in your Monster.com ad. Not only have I not earned a living as a writer or editor, but, more damagingly, I am possessed by an inexplicable condition which my wife diagnoses as "call reluctance." I cannot explain why I am intimidated by successful business leaders. Perhaps it is because my own job history is pockmarked by an inability to rise above the rabble who sit in the cafeteria, munching on jelly donuts and free coffee, grousing about inept management.
Which brings me to the incentive for this e-query: The job description did mention the thing about free bagels and drinks. So I was wondering whether it was limited to soft drinks or whether you are one of those progressive outfits that has beer in the fridge. Now, that would be an interesting place to work.
You also mentioned that everyone has a great time and no one ever wants to leave. Again, this sounds like the perfect environment for someone like me: Laid off from my high paying IT job, nearing retirement, non-golfer, 30 years experience as an IT project leader, pretty good writer, superior sense of humor, and someone who can really appreciate a free bagel.
Ok, I admit it. I am not really applying for a senior writer position. But your environment sounded so attractive that I had to take time out of my normal job-hunting and blogging to see if you had any work for someone who can write knowledgeably about technology and management issues with a sense of humor. "
Hey, what if there actually was some one in HR with a sense of humor. Maybe they would show it to someone who was thinking about hiring laid off systems analysts to write about data management and other funny stuff.
Stranger things have happened.
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