Random Thoughts

I just read a story on NPR's website about a guy who recently passed away from COVID-19 and his daughter, who wrote the story, said that her late father loved the song "Songbird" by Barbra Streisand. Dad had good taste in music! Say what you want about Barbra, but she can sing her voice is absolutely lovely on "Songbird." I need to break out my Steisand CDs again.

In other news, my attention span has been sufficiently shot and I blame being in lockdown mode due to COVID-19. I can barely sit through anything on TV that lasts for more than an hour and, even then, I often find myself doing other things while I watch TV, like checking my phone or being on my computer. The only time I can kind of pay full attention is when I'm watching something that requires me to read subtitles. I did manage to get through the first season of the Netflix series Dark before I threw in the towel. I signed up for Amazon Prime recently and started watching the series The Americans. I was into it for about three episodes before I lost interest. I just couldn't commit to multiple seasons of this show or even to finish out the first season. I watched the entire first season of Downton Abbey before I bailed on it, but at least I got through one season. I've been forcing myself to turn the TV off and read each night for at least a half hour or an hour just because I know it will take me forever to finish a book if I don't. Back when I used to be a commuter, I could read on the train, but not now. 

When I work from home, I can't have the television on because I can't concentrate on my work and listen to the TV or even a podcast at the same time. I'm fine having music on when I work, preferably something soothing. But television? Forget it. 

I recently watched a movie called The Assistant and I'm still thinking about it. The movie was about a young woman who worked for some bigwig in the movie industry and it just focused on a day in her life at the office and how poorly she was treated at the office. But the part that really annoyed me was when she went to the male HR rep to complain about perceived mistreatment of another female employee, after the HR guy basically dismissed her and her complaint, by the time she got back to her desk her male coworkers and her male boss already knew she had been to HR and everything she had said to the HR rep and berated her for going to HR in the first place. Ugh. So much awfulness all around. 

Curb Your Dog!

I don't know if it's a result of being locked down for nearly a year now due to Covid restrictions or what, but the latest bee in my bonnet is that people (mainly residents from the condo building next to my co-op) keep bringing their dogs over to relieve themselves on the small patch of lawn behind my building. Because my back rooms face this area, I see the parade of pooches daily while I'm working from home. This is recent occurrence. We didn't used to get a revolving rounds of dogs, but we've got them now. Most of the residents pick up behind their pets, but some don't. I even watched some kid bring his small dog out, he picked up behind the dog, then dropped his doggy shit bag in our recycling can. I've watched this kid do this twice. I can't figure out if he's unable to read (these kids have been out of school for a while) or if he's just a jerk. Maybe he's illiterate AND a jerk. 

I'm tired of seeing these dogs and their lazy owners using my background as a toliet. Get off my lawn and curb your dog! I've been taking pictures all week to help build my case with the local government via 311. My co-op doesn't seem to care. I suggested they at least put a sign up to deter the people from bringing their pets around and the co-op secretary said they'd consider doing that. 

My co-op must be one of the most useless groups around. I had no idea how poor they were in doing anything, including passing along any relevant information to shareholders, until after I bought my place. When I was renting a condo, I knew more about what was going on in my building than I do now as a freaking owner. 

But I digress. I actually entertained the idea of getting a dog last year. I'd gone on Petfinder and checked out a small dog that I thought would be great to have, especially since I'm home all day now. I've always said I'll get a dog after I retire when I have time to devote to my pet. I think I'll stick with the retirement plan because, eventually, I'm going to have to physically go back to work. And what would happen to my dog then? Would I be forced to race home each day to let the dog out? Would I end up utilizing doggy day care? That gets expensive! But now, as I watch the parade of pet owners out in the snow and cold as their dogs come to shit and pee outside of my window, I feel I'm better off observing dogs from afar rather than having one of my own...at least for the time being.

Corporate Stooge

Do all companies expect you to become a corporate stooge just because you work there? Are you supposed to sell your soul just to have a job these days? We all make concessions on the job and do things we don't want to do, take shit from people we don't want to take shit from, etc. But are we supposed to be lobotomized also by our corporate overlords? Just sit and nod and drool in agreement even when we really don't agree? Are we not allowed to have our own thoughts and disagree when the corporation's views don't align with our own? I'm dealing with a situation like this now. I'm not corporate mouthpiece. If I disagree with something, I'll state my disagreement. Now I'm not naive enough to think that my views will overrule the company's, but I do expect a truce where we "agree to disagree." I don't feel any corporate entity should try and force me to adhere to a narrative that I don't agree with. I do my work and earn a paycheck for that work. Mind control shouldn't be a part of the job too.

WFH? WTF?

I consider myself very lucky to be able to work from home through the Covid pandemic. I know many workers don't have this luxury. However, I sometimes feel I'm being taken advantage of by my employer. I certainly more hours than I did when I went into the office each week. I often find myself working on the weekends in addition to working longer hours during the week. My workload has increased significantly due to staffing cuts and shortages. The company is definitely doing more with less. I have to buy my own office supplies and the company refuses to reimburse anyone for these items. (Hey, printer cartridges aren't cheap!) And there haven't been any raises since the pandemic started. These may sound like minor complaints, and they are, but they're still valid. My home is also my workplace now which is great in some ways. I can use my own bathroom, I can eat from my own kitchen, I don't have to share space with others, or see people I dislike during the workday. But where's the separation between work and home? My spare room has been turned into an office, filled with stuff from my day job. Every time I go there, I see stuff from work even when I'm not working. It's depressing because it's a constant reminder of the work I have to do. I often feel like I'm on a hamster wheel and I can't get off of it.

Again, I'm grateful for having a job in this pandemic when so many people are out of work. I'm grateful to be able to work from home when so many others are forced to go out, ride public transit, and deal with catching Covid just in order to earn a paycheck. But I also feel that some of these companies (my own included) have an attitude that workers should take what they can get and shut up. In fact, the HR woman at my company pretty much told me that. It's annoying because if you complain, you're viewed as a whiner.