Wherein Technology Lets Me Down

It’s hard to work for a living. I think no matter how much you like your job there are days when you just don’t want to do it. Days when lying in bed and reading a book or spending all day watching movies just seems like a better use of your time. When dealing with other people’s insecurities, issues and needs just doesn’t inspire your passion. I used to have a colleague whose email signature read: “Love what you do and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Bastard. Who needs to read that in the middle of a busy day? Who needs to be reminded that there is probably something out there you’d enjoy more, if only you could think of it? What colour, exactly, is your parachute?
Today, however, even such an annoying email would have been a welcome sight. Instead, I spent the better part of my day on the phone with our systems department trying to understand why my Outlook was completely crashed. Throughout the course of the day, I had to hear at length about how this wouldn’t have happened if my Inbox weren’t 1.3 gigs large. It took a lengthy self-flagellation session to convince our systems department that I was sufficiently repentant for my bad behaviour and that I deserved to be assisted. Frankly, I don’t want to know what a gig is. I don’t care. If they don’t involve a concert or a stand-up comedian, I’m just not interested in gigs. I would like to write something down and send it to the person who needs to read it. I want to look at a calendar and know what meeting I’m supposed to be in. If my mailbox, calendar, task list and everything else I depend on to do my job will crash when it gets past a certain size, why doesn’t it warn me? (Note that this is a rhetorical question. If you know the answer, please don’t send it to me.) These tools are supposed to make us more effective and efficient, and they often do. But at other times, our utter dependence on them makes us realize that without these tools, we don’t really have a job. There was a brief moment earlier today when it looked like the whole thing was irretrievable and it occurred to me that this was when I’d get to explore what else I’d like to do. Because if working for a living sometimes feels like torture, recreating and rebuilding the history of everything you’ve done within one company, trying to track down all of the contacts you’ve made over time, and dealing in perpetuity with the idea that “this would be so much easier if only I hadn’t lost…” would be more than I could bear. I’m glad I can keep my head in the sand just that much longer and leave my parachute tucked away in a corner. There is something to be said for the status quo. While I’m at it, though, maybe I’ll take tomorrow off and read a book…