There and Back

I thought I was going to be fired. No job. Embarrassed. Just left one job and can’t keep another. I turned forty recently. Not a good look. Luckily my boss was cool about it. Told me to just breath, clam down. It happens. Shutting down the company file server and putting over two hundred people out of work temporarily just happens. Good to know. I feel like such a newb at my new job. A helpdesk role where I unlock accounts, disable/re-enable accounts, reset passwords, uninstall/reinstall software, onboard new staff, fill in termination forms, replace mouses and keyboards, jiggle monitor cables until they work again, convert pdfs from an email attachment and then resend them to the appropriate receiver. You know, helping. It’s not better or worse than my older job, just different. This new job has benefits, never had those before. The old job was a cooking gig. Years and years of burns, cuts, booze, and drugs. It was fun until it wasn’t. This new one is sitting in front of a computer and waiting until a ticket comes in that is assigned to me. Sometimes I get to go to the production floor with all the hourly workers, you know, blue collar jobs like welder, electrician, painters, other roles I have no idea about. When I go to the production floor I feel like one of them. Dusty irritated sweaty hungry. The working man. Insert Tim Allen grunt. Still trying to figure out my boss. He’s sort of an asshole but a nice person. An odd mix of helping and making fun of people. So far I don’t mind it. He’s shared provocative stories from his bachelor days and he sounds like he had tons of fun. He would have made a good PUA blogger.

Shutting down the file server at work was a good lesson in what it is like to work in a live production environment where people rely on services and resources to be available ninety nine percent of the time. Hope I don’t do it again.