Today marks the end of my second week in the new job as your Royal
Highness the Managing Editor of Linux Today and LinuxPlanet. This week
went a lot more smoothly than last week, without telco techs
bumbling around making messes and disrupting my service. Unfortunately
they’re not finished- I have a several hundred foot-long temporary
cable trailing across my property. It starts out at the street at the
junction post, winds across the riding arena, through a pasture, and
across my driveway. I guess Monday I’ll have to unleash my inner
harridan to motivate them to finish the job.
It all started when I ordered a second phone line. Somehow that cascaded from single-line service that had no problems to two lines with severe problems. It takes talent to do that. Fortunately my house wiring is healthy, so repairs are on their dime. They think the problem is in the underground cable somewheres, and for all the time they’ve spent dinking around with tracers and standing around scratching, they could have replaced the entire line three or four times. A crew did show up a few days ago with shovels. They didn’t look like field technicians- they were pasty and un-calloused like desk workers. A token hole was dug, but not refilled, and then the shovel crew quickly vanished back to their sunless lairs. The official story is they are waiting for the “digging machine”, which is supposedly on another job. Whatever.
It’s been an interesting transition from freelancer to corporate cog. Some things are unchanged; I still get to work at home, with my own comfortable chair and music and treats and cats and dogs. I never did like working in offices- bad lighting, bad air and windows that don’t open, commuting, and cruddy old castoff computers because the managers and salespeople always glommed the good ones, even though they hardly used them. Some kind of dumb status thing, I guess. Worst of all was the weirdos with years of accumulated sick leave because they never ever stayed home when they were ill, but instead dragged their germy verminous selves to work, spreading contagion and disgust.
The work is demanding- I have a full workweek and then some, and my schedule is more restrictive, but overall I work fewer hours than I did freelancing. I’ve been promising myself for years to quit being such a workaholic, and maybe finally it will come true. I have good people to work with, and we communicate via exactly the same means as we would if were all sitting in the same office building- email, IM, telephone, and grapevine. I’m fortunate to be with a company that is so telecommuter-friendly- even in this advanced 21st century a lot of bosses don’t like the idea. Their loss- working at home is awesome. Comfortable, friendly, quiet, no distractions- what could be better?