Just to close the loop on my doomy-gloomy post from about a week ago, we all woke up the next day feeling fine so the whole thing was a moot point.
Sort of? What if we weren't fine, and I brought the 'rona into the group? It still bugs me, because the logic obviously follows that other people who've been exposed might be directed to come to work and expose me.
@TNP I was able to purchase two locally made cloth masks. It's not perfect, but better than nothing.
Today was day 3 of training for the new job. Things are weird; we're financial sector and therefore essential employees. Almost everyone that can work from home has been sent to do so, leaving about 50 total people in the building, including our 10 person class.
At around 8:45 this morning, I got a message from my wife saying she wasn't feeling well and she reported 2/3 of the Big Three: Coughing and Shortness of Breath, lacking only Fever. She goes through the CDC website, gets in contact with a nurse, who advises that she should go to the facility packed with people who suspect they have the virus to get evaluated.
I raise this concern to the trainer at this time, forwarding my wife's email with my thoughts: I need to go supervise my kid, and if we suspect she has the virus, then I'm sitting here exposing your 10 new hires, any trainers, and everyone else in the building.
Okay, I'll check that out on break, she says. This will be the last we'll discuss the matter. It's possibly relevant to understand that the trainer is on WebEx, training from home.
Around 11, I get another message from the wife. She talked to her actual doctor who advises that she not go to a facility with a near-certainty of infection waiting just yet, but rather to take 24 hours to observe and audit her condition, watching for worsening condition and/or the onset of the final member of the trifecta.
I still have heard nothing from the trainer by the time the class goes to lunch at 12, and at this point I'm just sitting there thinking about how I'm exposing every single person in the building. I finally speak to the proctor in the classroom, who with evident anxious concern (stepped back far away from me and) agreed that wisdom suggested my immediate departure.
Since then, I've been calling around to all these people at the company's HR department. So far the prevailing wisdom is that they would like me to return to the office tomorrow.
I can't confirm that I don't have the virus in my household, suspect that I might, in fact. It seems negligently stupid to want me to come in -- but then this advice was dispensed by people who live and work in North Carolina, not here in the Maine office with me. I suspect the people here might feel differently about me walking into the facility.
@lawyerbots, any words of wisdom applicable to this situation? I think it's pretty stupid to go to work tomorrow honestly, unless we wake up and she's just clearly in perfect health. I do not want to be responsible for anything that would lay down that path.
I'm not cash-rich, but my situation is stable. If there's anyone in Maine not feeling that stability and I can do something to help, please reach out. I will gladly do what I can.
I took a very brief stab at Iron Man, but it was hard to fit him into the setting. I think in my case it was really my fault; somewhere in my concept I could and should have filled in some kind of magic-related fuckery to make the suit work as everyone expects it to. I had an idea about having Edwin Jarvis' spirit somehow get trapped in the suit and planned to play that out on grid, but it would've been better as a trait in play at the time of creation. I couldn't wrap my head around how to Iron Man with a suit that doesn't keep up.
It's worth noting that I've also never played a supers game, so it was a little bit of a long reach for me in the first place.
Thanks for the helpful resources. We're struggling to figure out how to not let this affect our kiddo's development. This helps a lot.
I don't think we need to lament these conversations at all. Creeps are a thing; they're out there. Here, we put them on blast, shine the light, and expose them.
I can visualize with focus, but I can really only 'see' what small bit I'm directly focused on, and it's a lift. It won't hold or persist. My thinking is much more notional and nebulous.
To @Rinel 's question: I'm not much on Minecraft specifically, but if I try to play Fallout 4 it'll end with me spending 72 straight hours building settlements to a level of detail that does absolutely nothing in actual game mechanics. Behold my ridiculous fortress pyramid, unassailable, where I am Pharoah.
Contingent on a background check I have no reason to fear, I have the job! The recruiter called with an offer about an hour after the interview. Goodbye, goddess. It's been real.
I've always wondered to what extent people 'see' things when they RP or read a book. I find that my brain is working more with the sense and impression of things than with any specific visual imagery. I like PBs in that having looked at that picture does let me kind of fill that picture in. If I haven't seen a picture of it there's about zero chance of my sense of a thing being a visual one. My poses tend to focus on dialogue and I have a harder time tracking visual-based information like the sense of relative physical location or somebody's physical traits. It's more like what you said, blobs that I know things about.
@Auspice I really identify with this. Probably people that know me online would be shocked to hear that I'm a painfully shy person who struggles to even place a food order on the phone, let alone make a friend. I'm borderline socially dysfunctional in almost any situation I haven't prepared myself extensively to face, and maybe even then.
Around people where I'm comfortable I'm cracking jokes and the life of the party.
I think I'd be hard-pressed to control myself from exploding if somebody saw how I act online or with my friends and tried to tell me I'm not shy. Motherfucker, eat a whole bag of raw dicks.
@Auspice Yikes. Just yikes. Here's hoping you get some traction with a company of people who are NOT insane.
Big progress today on the reemployment front! Around lunchtime I got an email with the assessment I'd been promised. I gleefully grabbed a conference room and completed it, and almost as soon as I hit 'done' I got another email from the recruiter to set up a phone interview.
Since I was so "eager to throw open my schedule to make way for this exciting opportunity", we had the phone interview immediately. It went great, and I'm confirmed for an in-person on Thursday! Probably my favorite memory with the current company will be taking a phone interview on speaker phone for another company in one of their conference rooms.
Some small bit of the balance redressed in my favor. Petty, but satisfying.
This is big for me because this change has been my back of mind private exit strategy for a few months. It's gratifying that as I'm becoming completely convinced of the need of it, it's proving to actually be viable. I do believe I'll get this job.
Finally, the light at the end of the tunnel. And with that, officially, good luck @Auspice -- you're welcome to share yourself some of mine.
@Auspice said in The Work Thread:
I need some of y'all's luck to rub off on me plzkthx
I'm not so sure you want any of my luck yet. Wait and see, and if it's good I'll gladly will some of it your way.
@nyctophiliac said in The Work Thread:
@gryphter Maybe the new place you applied for called to check references?
It could be. Truthfully if this other thing works out, I do plan to take the new offer in as a negotiating tool and make it clear I'm leaving without a compelling counteroffer.
The thing that sucks is I don't actually dislike my work or my team, and the manager I can't stand to work with is no longer my direct and has the HR lens on him now. I've thought about it a bit, and what I need to stay is the promotion I deserved a long time ago. Nothing short of that will do it.
Triple post because apparently I think I own this board, but more importantly I've already heard from a recruiter. They're pushing my application through to the next level, where I'll do some kind of assessment. The ball is rolling.
I applied to a new, higher-paying (entry level) job last night, and can confirm, there is some weird shit happening whereby employers can tell you're checked the hell out. Everyone is suddenly super nice and soliciting and I am bathed in the warm glow of the support I've sought for so long now.
Same deal; I've told no one, just came to work today armed with the knowledge that I'm over it and taking steps to leave. In this case I don't know what this company could do to keep me, but I'd be interested in entertaining some offers. I have a hard time believing I won't get this entry-level inside sales job that's being heavily recruited for, so, your move, athenahealth.
