Apparently I'm good at online definitely-not-Pictionary. It's a fixture in work-related online "social" events, and on the vast majority of occasions we've played it, I have won by a considerable margin. Tonight was no exception.
This pleases me, even if my success is more down to my ability to type quickly than necessarily being especially "smart". It's fun to be good at something — though of course I don't mind on the occasions when I do get beaten.
I feel a tad less awkward on online meetings than I used to. This is probably partly down to how normalised they've become over the last couple of years, but it's also a product of the fact that I like both my job and the people I work with. That really does make such a huge difference.
When I think back to my previous job, where I would frequently just go to bed and nap while attending conference calls on my phone, it seems a world away. It's not that I necessarily disliked my previous job or the people I worked with there — I just didn't care, and I had no reason to care. I didn't feel particularly important or valued, and I was becoming increasingly frustrated by certain colleagues' tendency to introduce complete wastes of time into our "procedures".
Generally speaking, in my experience if your job involves following "procedures" there are almost certainly a zillion ways you can do it more efficiently. But for so many positions, "procedure" seeks to form a sort of backbone for the authority structure that's in place. And I guess it might have some value in an organisation that works in that way, with people who work well that way.
I'm pretty convinced at this point that I do not, in fact, work well that way. The people I work with on a daily basis now treat one another as equals, and everyone knows how to contribute to keep things ticking along. I like this. It works well, it keeps stress minimal, and it makes interpersonal relationships feel less stilted and awkward. We can be human, not drones.
Anyway, you'd think this meandering had some sort of point to it, but not really. I've just had a bottle of VK and felt like pondering some things. Now I'm going to play some Evercade in bed and get a good night's sleep. Hope your Thursday has been fine!
Discover more from I'm Not Doctor Who
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
