Work Rivals

Image: www.tofugu.com

I binge watched Parks and Recreation last month, actually twice because it's a great show. Several of the episodes showed how the Parks and Rec department had a blood feud rivalry with the library. This makes me think about my own work rivalry.

I work from home but I still have coworkers. I'm on a team and we communicate via several chat rooms. We mostly talk about work stuff and there is a common dislike for customer service.

Customer service handles all account changes, billing as well as setting up new accounts. In tech support, we just troubleshoot issues once the service has been set up.

For some reason, customer service seems to be extremely lazy. I'm sure they aren't all like that but we get a lot of customers who have been seriously screwed over by our customer service department. I got screamed at by a guy today who should have been sent a new modem but customer service was too careless to do their jobs correctly.

It drives me crazy and I know my coworkers feel the same way. We try to do our jobs as well as we can, but we can't make account changes or get service turned on.

So while I work here, customer service will be my library. My coworkers will bond by complaining about their poor work.

Do you have a work rival?

The Perks of Working from Home

My workspace

You may or may not know that I work from home doing tech support. I've done this since August 2012. I work tech support and it's like any other call center job. But working from home has a lot of perks.

This first one isn't really a work from home perk but it's a perk. My boss is great and understanding. My coworkers are funny and help the day go on. And yes, I have coworkers. I'm on a team and we can talk in a chat room. We have one room for business stuff and another where we can talk about anything - and we do when it's not busy.

One of the biggest work from home perks for me, is I can work in my pj's. And I do. With all my health issues being comfortable while I work is really great. I can also work in the dark and there are no bright fluorescent lights. This really helps a lot with my migraines.

After my seizures happened last month,  I was told that I wouldn't be able to drive for three months. If I worked outside the home, I'd be screwed since Todd works 2nd shift. But since I work from home, it's business as usual. I did ease myself back in, thank again to a great boss, but I've been back full time for a couple of weeks now.

Working home works great for me. It seems like more and more people are going that route as well. As someone who has chronic pain, it really helps me be able to be comfortable, be able to crash into bed after my shift if needed but still make a living to help my family.

My Ghost Adventures - Office Ghosts

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I've been writing a series of my ghostly encounters. I've talked about how my basement felt haunted, dorm room spirit messages, and ghosts of the theaters I worked at. But the theaters weren't the only haunted places that I've worked at.

The first place I worked at after we moved to NC had a haunted women's bathroom. The first stall was always colder than the rest of the bathroom. And the door of that stall would slam shut on it's own. There were no windows in that room and it would happen when the door was closed.

I was only a temporary worker at that job. My next job was extremely haunted. I had a ton of experiences in the two years I work there.

Part of my job was taking pictures of custom woven products and I got a lot of spirit orbs in my pictures. My cube wasn't near a window at all and I'd take a bunch of pictures at a time. The orbs would only show up in a few of the pictures.

My first job with that company was customer service rep for a line of picture throws. It was a very popular gift at Christmas time so I volunteered to work after my shift in that department during the busy season. I was given permission to act as kind of a 2nd shift supervisor. I sat at the actual supervisor's desk and was able to access the email to address issues that way.

The rest of the 2nd shift reps were in an office in the back so I'd be alone in the front office. There was lot of voices and noises that would happen. The voice I heard most of the time in that area was a man's voice. I'd hightail it back to the other area where people were whenever the voices got too loud and scary.

My regular desk was on a different floor and I'd often just leave my coat and purse up at my desk. That floor was very haunted and this I knew because of the spirit orbs. The noises on that floor when I was the only one on that whole floor were terrifying. Loud bumps and voices - and the air was thick. It didn't feel good and I always hightailed it out of there as fast as I could.

Nowadays I do work still someplace haunted, but that's because I live in a haunted house!

Up Next - My Haunted House

My Very Own Empire Records

Image: Wikipedia.com

I love the movie Empire Records. If you aren't familiar with this wonderful example of the 90's, it's about a group of people working at a record store. The main conflict is that their store is about to be sold to a major chain, killing the indie vibe and the fun.

This morning I was thinking about how I'd like to watch it again. And then I realized that I had my own Empire Records when I was in college.

My favorite job in college was working at the local movie theater. Most of the time when I worked there, we had the Cinema Four, which obviously had four screens. We also had two one screen theaters downtown - the Ward and the Broadway. I usually worked at the Cinema Four or the Ward. I didn't like working at the Broadway - it was (is?) very haunted with no so nice spirits.

The head manager was an older guy who was a lot like Joe from Empire Records. He loved the theater and he loved movies. We had different people working there and we'd have a lot of time to talk while the movies were playing. It was an easy job and a ton of fun.

There was a Soul Calibur arcade machine along with other games. One of the other managers had rigged it so we could play games for free. My proudest moment at that job was when I actually beat one of the managers. I wasn't great but I had gotten good enough on one character to kick some butt.

Alas, our story didn't have a happy ending. A big 12 screen theater was built and the Cinema Four got knocked down. The last time I knew the Ward was a church and the Broadway was used by the community theater.

I worked at the big theater for a while. It wasn't the same at all and they didn't want to promote me because I was from the old crew. I ended up quitting out of frustration.

Real life is rarely like the movies. But for a short time, I had my own version of Empire Records and I'll always have fond memories of that time.

Disadvantages of Working From Home

Last year I wrote a post about the perks of working from home. Being able to work from home in my pj's had a lot of advantages but there are some things that can suck about it.

Because I work from home, have a small child and have a husband that works 2nd shift I don't get out of the house much. Most of the time it doesn't bother me too much but I do get a little stir crazy sometimes. I'll go to the store just to get out of the house.

I try very hard to keep my work separate from my home life. I have room that I use as an office and I generally only go in there for work. But sometimes I go in there just to check to see if I have a call rating or to check my email. Working from home makes it hard to completely disconnect from work.

While this one applies mostly just to my job, I think it probably happens with other work at home jobs. I work six days a week and it gets very tiring sometimes. I only work 6 1/2 hours a day so it's still about 40 hours. But since my only day off is Sunday and because I go to church, I don't really ever get much of a day off.

This disadvantages are generally pretty minor and right now the advantages do outweigh the disadvantages. I do hope to go back to working in an office again someday when Emily is a little older.

Misadventures When Working From Home

Emily with our cat, Willow

For me, working from home is a lot like working in a call center. I have coworkers that I talk to over a chat program, I have one boss and a set schedule. My husband works 2^nd shift so generally he’s around if Emily needs anything. Sometimes Todd does have class or needs to leave for work early. Since Emily is four, she is pretty good about playing quietly with her toys while I’m working.

There have been a few incidents were she has damaged the calm of my office. One time, Todd was at class and she tried to change to regular TV. She pushed a wrong button which caused the TV to turn up to full volume. That didn't take me too long to fix though.

The other day we had our biggest issue to date. Todd had left for work and I was working a little over because I was stuck on a long call with a customer who really was clueless. About a minute after Todd left, I heard Emily start to wail. I quickly put my customer on hold to see what was the matter and found that one of our cats had scratched her.

We have three cats, two of whom have been around since before Emily was born. We do our best to have her realize that the cats are living beings and not playthings. But she has been trying to carry around our oldest cat, Star, around lately. He’s usually really gentle with her but he must have not wanted to be picked up so he scratched her.

It wasn't that bad but my child thinks any boo-boo is the end of the world. I hurried to get off my call and finish my shift but it took a while. It was hard because Emily kept crying but I had to finish that call.

Once I got off work, I saw that the scratch was bleeding so I got a band-aid on it. I snuggled her while we watched her current favorite show, Teen Titans Go. She was fine but it was hard to work hearing her cry outside my door. 

Hopefully that will be the worst misadventure we have!

The Ups and Downs When Working From Home

My Home Office

Last year, I reentered the work force after 3 years of getting my 2^nd degree. I did temp work for a while but I was always on the outlook for a full time job. I got laid off from my temp job and I managed to find a tech support job that I can do from home.

Working from home is great especially that means we don’t have to have a sitter for Emily. I usually work from 7 am to 1:30 pm, which works out very well because my husband works 2^nd shift and leaves for work at 2 pm.

I've worked from home for almost a year now. There are a lot of advantages to working from home, but some disadvantages too.

Because I have chronic pain issues, working from home is much more comfortable than working in an office. I can turn off all the lights in my office, wear comfortable clothes and adjust the temperature so it is perfect for me. I also only have to walk a few steps to get to my bedroom and am able to take naps because I have no commute time.

Also because of no commute, I spend a lot less on gas money and extra food. When I working outside of the home, I’d spend a lot of money on fast food and it would add up fast. I also save money on child care since Emily is very good about being quiet even on the days that Todd has to go to class.

I’m lucky because my job is a regular job. I get a paycheck with taxes taken out, which is pretty rare for work from home jobs. I make a decent hourly wage and I make extra for any sales that I make. Even though my hourly wage is $3 less than what I was making with the temp job because I have fewer expenses.

 Because I work a tech support job that’s open 24/7/365, I have to work Saturdays every week. Working 6 days a week, even though I only work 6 ½ hours a day can be draining. I do get the occasional weekend off but that means working a lot of extra hours throughout the week.

Since I’m home all the time, I get a little stir crazy. I don’t have a lot of local friends so I end up going to the store a couple times a week just to get out of the house. The stir craziness and my chronic pain issues do make my anxiety and depression worse some days.

The job I work isn't the best job. There are a lot of angry people and a lot of stupid people who end up calling in to get tech support. I can handle most issues and I do have supervisors that I talk to via a chat program if I run into problems. Some days are better than others, but that’s pretty standard with any job.

For now, the advantages of working from home outweigh the disadvantages. It works out really well now that Emily is small. When she’s a little older, I might want to work outside of my house but for now I’m happy with the situation I’m in now.