Oof - It Has Been a While

Like two and a half years.

Bitmoji cartoon of a chubby woman
wearing a blue shirt, with her brunette/grey
hair up in a topknot, sitting at a desk  and using
a laptop computer at what looks like sunset.

This is likely because I love my day job, and I've been working - even during parts of the summers - since we got to go back to in-person schooling.

But now I have a sprained knee, and these take forever to heal. I've been out of work since February 26th (now March 16), and I hope to return soon. I've taken steps (not literally, because I sprained my knee - a torn MCL) toward going back to work because the injury coincided with my annual recertification by the Department of Transportation. 

My own doctor's clinic has written me a note that says I've been taking my meds and using my CPAP, there is a bullet point on my to-do list to make an appointment with the DOT-approved doctor, and I can now walk around without crutches as long as I wear the brace and don't have far to go.

So far, so good.

But even if I return to the same routes I had before I hurt myself (which is unlikely; I'm not sure I'm up to that yet and other drivers have taken those routes for me), that's only about six hours a day, and I need more work. I do still have a Bachelor of Science in Intercultural Communications, I can spell and punctuate, etc., etc.

I just want a part-time, remote, writing or editing position that nets me 5-20 hours a week of work. And maybe paychecks that are more frequent than once a month; this is the one downside to working for public schools for me.

Any hits?

Open to Work

Yes, please.

Here's the thing; I have two jobs (not including parenting, which is my most important job but doesn't pay the bills). But one is for a school district and has been sidelined by Covid-19 until they reopen our schools for in-person learning, and the other is down to less than 10 hours a month at the moment. Not good.

And as I got passed over in favor of another candidate for what would've been the perfect job for me today, I wondered why I'm apparently unhireable. I mean, I can write, I'm not asking for huge wads of cash, and I'm certainly not the only person who wants to work remotely during a pandemic. Is it ageism? Am I not ruthless enough about going after what I want? Am I not clear enough about what I want?

There's not a lot I can do about the first two of these.

So here's me, being clear about what I want.

• A writing. proofreading, and/or editing position.
• Reasonable pay. I don't need hundreds of thousands of dollars, but a livable wage would be nice. 
• To that point, $25-$40 an hour would be nice.
• Also, I can get insurance through the school district. So I'm not fussed about those benefits, though they would certainly be nice.
• Remote work. I don't mind going in for meetings occasionally, or even going in every day if a worksite is quite nearby. But not all the time during a pandemic.

Honestly, it doesn't seem like that much to ask.

What I Can Do

Cartoon rendition of me (green
eyes, brown/grey hair, freckles,
in a blue shirt, giving a thumbs-up,
smiling, and working at a laptop), with a
caption reading "working from home."

It occurs to me that the previous posts on Work Safe but not Boring are out of date, so let me give you a quick bulleted list of major skills and experience.

• The usual suspects - Microsoft Office Suite, Google Docs, etc.
• Some SEO (writing rather than programming)
• Some light QA/Agile Test work
• I know quite a bit about the theory of recent business trends, especially in IT and Cloud services. I may not have done a lot of agile testing or SEO in a few years, for instance, but I have written about it often, and you have to know some of what you're writing, or it sounds fake.
• I have the happy ability to "translate from Geek to English." Basically, this means I can make highly technical information accessible to almost anyone. 
• But many people do that, right? It's easier to do this, even if it makes the non-technical people feel stupid. The key here is that I can do it without sounding like a condescending jerkface. 
• This is not as common as you'd think; many very bright people are not great at teaching, partly because they often don't quite realize that you have to start at the very basic steps.
• As an example, say you're an expert chef, and you are trying to teach a rank beginner to cook. You're not going to start throwing out terms like Gateau St. Honoré or expecting them to create a perfect crown roast of lamb right out of the gate; you start small, with scrambling eggs and chopping vegetables.
• I can also do what in my household has always been called "Nerd-Herding" or "Nerd Wrangling."
• I believe the correct business term for this is "project management" and it's the act of getting everyone moving in the same direction.
• This is harder than it looks, but as my late spouse was ADHD and probably on the autism spectrum, and my younger daughter is diagnosed with both, I have lots and lots of daily practice at this skill set. It involves lists and charts and patience and deep breathing.
• I can work from home - in fact, I am usually more efficient working remotely than in an office.
• Part of this is that I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in (Intercultural) Communication, from the University of Phoenix, before it was fashionable to distance-school. And I did it with young children in the house.
• When working remotely, I don't have that irritating voice in the back of my mind, reminding me of all the things I need to do when I get home (or on the way home) from work. I'm already here, so when it's time for a break, I can throw in the laundry or take out the garbage or grab the mail.
• And hey, I've gotten fairly adept (as a user) with Schoology and Zoom and other aspects of Google Drive (I already knew Google Docs) in the past few months.
• In the social media circles in which I participate, I have learned quite a bit about accessibility and image description. This is why you will see a caption under most of my images with a description of the image in question.
• Based on this list, I think it's fair to say that I can almost always find a silver lining... eventually.

Just a Snippet

Cartoon rendition of me (green
eyes, brown/grey hair, freckles,
in a blue shirt, giving a thumbs-up,
smiling, and working at a laptop), with a
caption reading "working from home."

It's been a while - about two years - since I last wrote in this (the consistently safe-for-work) version of my personal blog. 

Mostly this is because much of what I have written since then is inappropriate in topic (politics) or language (because I'm angry about politics and my language reflects it in... let's just say fairly obscene and profane ways.)

I don't really know where I'm going with this, except that I need to exercise my not-angry writing skills and this seems like the best place to do so. And it can also serve as a writing sample. And yes, I'm fully aware of the grammar rules stating I should not begin a sentence with a conjunction. But this is my own blog, in a conversational style. Just so you know when you read it that I do know what I'm doing; I thought I'd mention that.

Anyway, why I'm looking for work? 

In a word? Pandemic.

You see, my job is as a McKinney-Vento driver for my local school district (yes, I also know that Wikipedia is not a citable source for most formal papers. Again, this is conversational, not formal). If you choose not to click the link, the summary is thus: I drive the kids who can't ride the bus (for whatever reason) to school. 

No kids in school in-person equal no kids to drive.

But wait, you say, I thought your district was taking the school to the kids, delivering lunches and library books, because your school district is just that cool!

They are.

But I'm newish, so a lot of other drivers are ahead of me on the seniority list, and I don't have an assignment. And it doesn't look like I will anytime soon, not if the Covid numbers keep climbing.

So aside from serving on the Racial and Educational Justice team for Transportation, and sort of remaining on call, I have nothing to do, and no money coming in (the district doesn't pay me for tech support or onsite paraeducator services for my own two kids; wouldn't that be nice?). 

So here I am, looking for work in my other specialty.

Nice to meet you!

Connections

This post is dedicated to my father, who is less than comfortable with the online connectedness of today's society.

I can understand this reticence intellectually, although I do not grok it personally. There's a lot out there, and much of it is Not Good. From random folks oversharing <raises hand guiltily>, to who-the-heck-knows-what-tweets'll-come-out-of-the-White-House-today, to Creepy Stalkers, the Internet can be a scary place.

But there were two incidents yesterday that really made me happy to be part of the online community.

There are a few people on LinkedIn (one of whom I know better on Facebook) who have been so helpful to me in the swamp of despair and rejection known as Job Hunting. Although I have not found what the UI people call "suitable employment" yet, these three ladies have been especially encouraging and inspiring, just by being who they are on LinkedIn. Yesterday I felt I should tell them so, in a public forum, and tagged all three of them.

One of these women is LinkedIn famous. And her mere presence (and she followed me back! How flattering!) caused a lot of hits on this thanks-for-being-you thread. One of the other tagged connections messaged me to thank me for the number of hits on her profile thereby. I did not tag people with the intention of getting hits on my profile, except possibly from the three people I tagged. But the response was amazing; I made fourteen new LinkedIn connections, thousands of hits on the thread, hundreds on my profile, and now my name is out there to so many more people. And that was in the course of one Friday the day before a holiday weekend.

The other great connection went like this. I have a group of online friends who are parents of children Abby's age; most of us have never met in person, but we have known each other for over sixteen years online. One of them has a child who is sadly unwell, and her mom posted a fundraiser request (for hospital expenses) on Facebook. Now as we all know, I have no money, so I shared it with my own (considerable number of) Facebook friends. One of them (whom I have also never met in person) not only shared, he donated.

The neighborhood Facebook page we set up has been useful again this week, as several houses at what we call "down by the front entrance" were without water for a few hours Thursday. I texted the repairs and maintenance guy, he explained the issue, and I shared on the community page.

This, my friends, is what the Internet is for. What it does when it works properly.

And in the offline community, today Lizzy and I had a playdate with a friend I've known on the fringes for a couple years now. This friend is someone I knew to say hi to at school and PTA functions, and her child (in Lizzy's grade) has also been to several classes and camps at Studio East. Lizzy says she's the nicest person in the fourth grade (I'm inclined to believe she is correct), and her mom and I are now friends too, rather than barely nodding acquaintances (who help a girl out when she's dithering over whether to go to Weight Watchers).

Community. Connections. Online or off, it's all important.

Job Depression

Depression comes in several flavors for me, and it's a fairly comprehensive list. The types are very entwined; some of it is just my brain's chemical makeup, some is grief, some is situational-but-not-directly-grief, some is body-chemistry-but-not-brain-chemistry.

It's not a good mix.

Please don't suggest meds, meditation, weight loss, Vitamin D, melatonin, counseling, etc. We're doing these things, and doing them appropriately. They've helped a lot; I can now use the phrase "widowed mom of two," for instance, without curling up into a ball. People offer to help, and although those offers (especially from family) often make me feel like an incompetent-at-life-preadolescent, I do usually take them, especially if they directly benefit the kids. Swallowing my pride over and over is not helping with depression.

But these things don't actually help a lot with the current underlying issue, which is that I need a job.

I'm working a bit on a freelance basis; textbroker.com is terrific. I've tried delivery services, though there are some technical snafus going on with that. But these are not a living in and of themselves. I don't qualify for assistance (except the food bank, according to my research) because the death benefits I get for the girls means I make too much for that. And I wouldn't want to do that anyway; I want to work. I'm not disabled, not enough to be unable to work anyway, though if you read my blog regularly you probably know that temporary emotional disability due to a death in the family was certainly a big part of the problem at my last job.

In any case, this is not meant to be (yet another) post about that whole mess; suffice it to say that I'm better now, and as long as I don't have to deal with retail or call center hours and bottom-line-only-screw-the-worker employers or irrational-Veruca-Salt customers on the daily, I could work. I could work full time and be happy and productive in it. Because the daily rejection is adding to the depression in a big big way, and as well-meaning as it is, so are the offers of help.

So here goes.

Requirements: standard work week or telecommute ability, 25 to 40 hours a week, $16+ an hour, in writing or editing or communications or software testing or even plain old data entry.

Wish List: the above, plus a few dollars an hour, close by (to northeast of Seattle) or with commute subsidy, full benefits for me and Lizzy (Abby has her own through her dad), and writing about video games (at which I'm actually pretty good, thanks, Atari/Humongous).

And for the sake of all you hold holy, please no "business opportunities." I don't have the wherewithal, financially or mentally, to start my own business or participate in your MLM.

Emphasis Mine

Interesting bits of a work-personality report. Pretty accurate, as far as it goes. Any emphasis is mine, not theirs.

You have shown that you have strong emotional reactions to problems in the work place. This means you are probably a very genuine and sincere person who others enjoy being around. But it also means that major setbacks at work can take their toll on you. You are especially sensitive to interpersonal setbacks such as very unhappy customers and angry bosses. Because of this, you typically try to separate stresses in work and personal life, but may not succeed. It is important to you that you are able to rely on others to provide the direction and resources necessary for you to get your work done. You do not mind minor day-to-day changes, but are uneasy with larger changes, especially when you are not given sufficient reasons as to the reason for the changes. 

You work very well in groups because you are adaptable and cooperative. Beyond those attributes, you also enjoy the company of other people. More than most people, you have an interest in and the ability to work very effectively in group situations. You are very well suited to work in team-oriented environments. In most situations, you are dependable and cooperative. Usually people can trust you to do what you say you will do, but in certain situations you are willing to do something different. While you are dependable in most situations, sometimes you surprise people who were expecting something different from you.

Your work style indicates that you are motivated by other aspects of work than simply a drive to succeed. This internal motivation may simply be an appreciation for the work itself. It appears that results and achievements are not your primary reasons for coming to work. For this reason, you often must rely on other factors such as direction from supervisors, encouragement of co-workers and rewards such as pay to serve as your primary motivation at work. 

You do not seek out leadership roles. You do not see yourself as an assertive person and prefer to let others take the lead in most situations. Your interests are suited to team or individual roles more than to leadership roles. You choose to be less assertive than is sometimes necessary and you don't have a strong interest in influencing others unless it directly impacts your own results at work. Also, you can be unsure about whether you will actually succeed in influencing others so you may not persist as long as is necessary. You do not place much importance on being a leader, and you prefer not to lead unless it is in an instructional or teaching role. You are not motivated by power. Because of that, you do not look to take on leadership roles in most situations. 

You enjoy working in jobs that are not highly structured but with enough structure to ensure that the direction and available resources are sufficient to be successful. At the same time, you have a strong preference for working with others where your own outcomes depend on collective efforts of teams or groups. Your personal rewards and satisfaction at work comes primarily from a collaborative, interdependent work environment. Level of structure is not as important a consideration although you would not enjoy the extremes of very highly structured or completely unstructured settings. 

Your work style is  creative and innovative, although there are limits. Consistent with that, you are willing to work in new, uncharted areas where less is known as long as there are clear expectations about the objectives and limitations. You are well suited to this type of challenging, uncharted work that requires insight and creativity more than consistency and reliability. While you are willing to take some risks at work, there must be a significant amount of information about the degree of risk and the possible results before you would feel comfortable with the decision. 

Um, yes.