Hi, everybody! I just wanted to welcome everybody who might stop by and clock in, and to say feel free to work on whatever floats your boat, new projects or old. Everybody's welcome. Make yourselves comfortable, as les francais might say. Or, perhaps, dit.
But I have to level with any and all, as well: pull up a chair and spread your ears, because I've got a confession. I honestly don't work for them. The company. It's more for me.
Is that alright? Is that considered acceptable?
I don't mean it to be off-putting. If that makes me selfish, well plunk my magic twanger and call me froggy, I guess! It's just who I am: I work for myself. Who else is there to work for? Work for yourself, says I - if they pay you for it, that's their problem! I've been wearing hundreds of hats for dozens of years and they're all pretty much for me, too (with a few groovy exceptions). Anything I do at work tends to be for myself, and not really for the paycheck.
In fact, I think that might come across. In fact, I think it ought to be probably pretty obvious. I mean. Look at some of my memos and policies. Who the hell else would appreciate some of this crap? But just in case, I thought I'd better level with you (the indefinite you): yeah, it's more for me.
Work is a fun outlet! It's good writing practice. It's a nice way to let off a little creative steam, to twist a few spreadsheets into corkscrews, to waft some skewed conference calls across the horizon on a crooked breeze, to put some notes out there in Fedexed bottles on the tide for whoever to find - whoever, or no one. It's not that anyone would find one and find me. The notes all basically say random jive stuff anyhow! I don't even bother describing the island. I'm not trying to be headhunted or anything.
I've met some pretty cool people through work, which has been a wonderful surprise and no mistake! But for the most part, my friends - practically nobody I know works. Again, there are a few groovy exceptions, but for the most part, my friends don't go in for this sort of thing. My friends who live near me get the real thing (me). They're not interested in the professional version. My friends and family who live far away, some of them do ask about my job from time to time - and rib me when they see me, on some of the more ridiculous aspects! At least, since they found out what I was doing for a living (I sure didn't tell them. Kind of a funny story how it got sniffed out actually, well perhaps not funny, perhaps more "you had to be there").
But yeah. That's kind of me, being up front about the ulterior purpose of my job. It's for me, mostly.
But all welcome to it! I sincerely do mean that. It's there for that, even if that's not why it's there.
Yeah, I kind of enjoy working. It's pretty cool. And some other people have some pretty cool jobs, too! With a lot more focused and invested approach then I have. It took me a long time to start checking out what's out there, but I've gotten into it a bit over the past 12, 18 months or so. Still, barely a toe-tip dip into the vast deeps of what is.
So. How about you folks? Anybody enjoy working? Why do other people work? Is it the enjoyment? Or some other reason.
There seems to be a lot of angst about pumping up one's job title. Somebody needs to explain that one to me some time.
7 comments:
Okay, I admit: I couldn't come up with a good post on work today for Work Post Mondays, so I just adapted an old one about blogging to be about work instead.
It worked OK!
I enjoy some aspects of working. And some of my closest friendships began in the workplace. And then there's conferences!. Is there anything more wonderful than the debauched camaraderie of a work function!
But, there are other things I would much rather be doing, I just haven't thought of them yet!.
I get the feeling you like your job Joe, which is wonderful to hear. Someone asked yesterday if they should quit their job, and I said that if you even have to ask then you should quit. But certainly that's not always an option.
Anyway!, I keep a log of honest to goodness things that clients at the free legal centre I work at have said, just to remind myself why, for the moment, I stay where I am.
These were all said either to my good self, or my beloved, learned colleagues...
“She went for me like a child for its bone”
Extremely agitated client kept telling me that his ex was "downgrading him" … I assume he meant demeaning him.
A client told me her application for legal assistance had been "reclined" by us. I am presuming this is an awesome mutation of declined and refused.
Me: “How are you?
Prison client: “I should be on a beach somewhere sucking on margaritas and dreaming of tall blondes. But I'm not. I'm in prison.”
Male client called to get some information on family law and how custody arrangements work. After being given relevant details he exclaimed "Jesus, they should put that shit on condom wrappers!".
Client: “I didn't realise the charge was serious.”
Me: “What were you charged with?”
Client: “Serious assault.”
A client described himself as being like a walking paraplegic or quadriplegic.
Client: “I’ve always wondered why I need to see a psychologist – all he does is psycho analyse me.”
I was advising a client who wishes to pursue a debt from a male stripper. I should have known better than to ask if he had large assets. It brought the conversation to a halt.....
Very nice elderly computer illiterate client told me his son has his own “blob” on the internet.
Client: "The questions the lawyer asked me were non-purposeful and of no purpose"
A lady called about making a negligence claim because there was mould on a burger she ate.
When I explained that she would need to show breach of duty of care and loss she said “My husband really likes burgers and I can’t eat them anymore. My quality of life has suffered. I can never eat another burger. It’s psychosomatic.”
Client said he needed help "instamatically".
“I want to be there to hear my side of the story”.
Client called to get legal advice how to revoke an irrevocable authority.
Client felt his wife was suffering post natal depression, although she hadn’t given birth yet.
Client asked me how legal the Family Court was.
….I said it was very legal.
Client: "I've literally been murdered".
Client: "The Office of Fair Trading told me to call you … How much leather does a sofa have to contain for it to be able to be sold as a leather sofa?".
Client rang to say her son had been charged with drinking while under the influence of alcohol.
Client called quite angry (who knows why!) and ended up saying to me the classic cliché "do you know who I am?!... I'm an icon of the world! ... I used to play for Chicago"… thinking he was an ex athlete I asked what sport he played, he said "no, the band Chicago" … after googling him and getting no result I suspect the only world he's an icon in is his own.
Client called in for advice on charges of speeding and driving in the right hand lane.
I asked the client what she was doing in the right hand lane.
She answered - speeding.
Female client read to me part of an email she had written to her ex regarding a property settlement. Email read: 'Look, Dude, we both know this is the end of the road. Neither of us has had the balls to end it but we need to take action. We need to get on with our happiness'
Mel, some of these are classics (and are you aping my recent tic of adding an additional, modifying punctuation mark such as a period, after the main punctuation mark such as an exclamation point? Or did I get that from you?). You shouldn't spend all this wealth here in some comment to me! Your could turn this into an internet meme, or an infinitely-forwarded e-mail.
I've got too much to say about any of these, too many remarks or comebacks, I'm overloaded.
Yeah, I've noticed I am doing that whole full stop after another punctuation mark. I know it, but I keep doing it!. :-)
Story of my life!.
I was more than happy to put my little log of client comments on your blog. Can't think of a place I'd rather put them.
And another new one...
"I am my daughter's mother". To which I was gagging to say, the only response really there could be, ... "No shit!"
Well, people often say "I am my mother's daughter." It follows!
:-D
I think a lot was in the way she said it too. Which is hard to describe textually, but there was this long pause in the middle of her saying it. It was like… “I’m calling because I am my daughter’s…..” and I’m sitting there listening, thinking, “go on, say it, you’re going to say ‘mother’ aren’t you? Please do, that’ll be funny” I mean, what else could it have been?... “constant source of irritation”?
I’ve been thinking more about my habit of putting a full-stop after an exclamation mark as well, and I think I’ve worked out why I do it. It’s the mixed feelings I have about exclamations. I love them, and use them too much, because they are so chirpy and evocative. They change the entire tone. Example “You suck” versus “You suck!”
However, conversely, exclamations annoy me. So darn excitable. I think I use the full stop for some balance. The full stop is all, like, “Hey, I know you are tall and skinny and so screamingly bubbly, but you better believe there ain’t nothing coming after me, so calm.it.down.
These are classic
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