I’m off to see a progressive rock band next week. Lucky me. Going with a friend who is a mad fan and hopes if I experience the majesty of the band in concert, I will become a convert.
To prepare me for what promises to be over three hours of pompous overblown narcissism, I purchased a concert DVD of the band to get a feel for what’s likely to be going on on the night.
Turns out they have a fine guitarist – really good. And watching him, I got to wondering if, like me, he really had grown out of his taste for progressive rock, and was stuck doing something he did well, but no longer enjoyed.
Which got me wondering further, what things out there do you do better than practically anyone, but dislike intensely?
Customer service, sales and people management. I do all of them well, and being as how I loathe people, I dislike doing them. I go where the money is, though. Go figure.
I felt like giggling madly when I was awarded a Customer Service award for being an exemplary sales representative for my district, when in reality I had a deep and abiding loathing for the customers I had to deal with day in and day out. I think I still have my pin somewhere (I was expected to wear it while at work, just to reinforce what a fantastic role model I was… gag)
Thank god I’m equally good at something I love… otherwise I’m pretty sure I’d still be in retail hell (or sales hell, or something else to that effect).
A couple of years ago, I learned good technique to carve a turkey. I mentioned at the next family thanksgiving and was handed a carving knife and huge two pronged fork. I carved the turkey and did a damn good job - too good in fact. I’d rather be having a cocktail and watching football, but now, everytime me and a cooked turkey are in the same room - I’m expected to cut it up.
Sewing. Not that I’m that great at it - I’m self taught, and never really learned technique, but I can put together a costume or a simple dress with little trouble. I really got into it back in the 80’s when you could not buy decent Ren Faire garb.
So now everyone who wants a special shirt or a dress or a cape or, worst of all, curtains, comes to me for it. And I hate it. Curtains, especially, as I don’t have a work table long enough to lay the things out and get the lines straight. Seriously, people, unless you have really weird sized windows, it’s NOT cheaper to buy the fabric and badger your friend to sew them for you! Decent fabric is going to run you $10 a yard anyway, you’ll need at two-three yards a panel, and for $20 you can get a downright nice panel at Target with pockets sewn in and everything. Gah! Leave me alone!
I’ve been in insurance for…well a long time now, doing everything from claims to underwriting and now sales. I can’t stand it. I hate selling things, I hate talking to people, I hate having to be nice to people…and yet I make a crapload of money at it, people think I’m awesome at it (which I am) so I’ll probably be doing it for ages to come.
The thing is, I think the more you hate people, the better you are at customer service and sales. Seriously, my husband is a people person. He likes people. He sucks at both customer service and sales. I despise people. I literally have spent the last 4 months looking for a stronger word than loathe to describe how I feel about people, but I am always in the top sales, get all kinds of customer compliments and am always being pushed into management positions. WTF, right?
Telephone support for my Mum (79) and her PC. I always get her sorted out, but it’s incredibly slow and frustrating, especially when her hearing aid’s not working properly.
Pretty much most of nursing. Yes, I am good at it. Yes, I am usually the go-to person to solve problems etc. And? There are days (even in this new job that I am enjoying-mostly because I really don’t have to think at all) where I want to stand in the middle of the nurse’s station and yell at people. Things like, “If you don’t take the meds, however will they help you? If you don’t stop smoking/sleeping around without protection/driving drunk/being a jerk, it WILL come back and bite you in the ass. And even, You must be the dumbest person on the planet–have you ever read a freaking label?”
But I don’t. I smile and reassure and educate and support. But inside is my inner Greg House…
Other than that, I am good at solving relational problems for other people. Twice in the past 2 months I have put together "contracts’ for two separate families (no relation to mine) re limits on their teens behavior and ground rules for living at home once you have that baby you insisted you must have, even though the father refuses to have anything to do with you and you will have to sue for any type of financial support, plus you hate your parents, and they aren’t overly fond of you. (these moms asked me for help–they are friends of mine.)
Sadly, I seem to suck at solving my own problems. Most likely lack of perspective or innate laziness.
I am not a whiz-bang computer tech like MacTech or drachillix, but in my family I am the go-to computer person.
I also have a knack for collecting old used machines and parts, and building useable machines out of those for family members who can’t afford a new computer. I do all of this, of course, for free. I couldn’t even ask for money if I wanted to (which I don’t) because the point of this “program” is that my entire family is “poor.”
But after so many re-installs and so many hours of Windows updates and so many Google searches for weird errors I am fed up with it. I told everyone I am out of the “business” and happy to pick out a nice refurbished Dell for them when they can scrape together the money but that’s pretty much it. I am way too worn out for getting people out of their virus jams anymore.
I am a good writer. Writing is part of my job. I freelanced as a feature writer for a major newspaper for several years. My editor loved me because he never had to edit my stuff.
But I really don’t enjoy writing. I despise the writing process. There was that thread a while back about calling oneself a writer. I don’t think of myself as a writer, because it’s not something I feel driven by creative impulse to do. I freelanced because I made good money doing it.
I’m an engineer. Engineers are not supposed to know how to write. When they find out you know how to write, they drag you away from the lab and make you write proposals.
I’m pretty good at writing proposals. But I hate doing it. I would much rather work in the lab.
I need to convince my supervisor that I hit my head and forgot how to write.
I was a pretty good chemist. Not from a research point of view, but I was quick and efficient, and typically would run 2-3 full methods a day, when most people could barely manage 1 (or wouldn’t!) Thing is, if I wasn’t working, I was bored out of my mind. Even when I was working, I was bored out of my mind, but at least my hands were busy! I kept harassing my boss for random projects to improve the lab/work area/safety etc to fill my spare time.
I quit that job, that career.
I’m a full-time student now; currently in a Materials Engineering program, but hoping to switch to Mechanical at the next entry point. I hope to end up doing something less boring!
Nothing to do with the OP’s question - sorry - but, what are you doing listening to modern prog?? Get out your copy of In the Court of the Crimson King, and you’ll forget you “grown out of your taste” for prog!
Oh and I guess I’ll answer also - nope. All the things I’m good at, I like.
Maybe I should switch jobs with Crafter_Man, 'cause I’m about up to here with engineering. I suppose I’m not so adverse to the actual design and analysis work–which can still be interesting on the rare ‘good’ project–as all of the politics, and the reviews I’m supposed to attend, and being yanked from one immediate priority project to another without ever actually completing any one of them. And the rocket launch business seems to be progressively staffed by congenital idiots, although this may have something to do with having to review programs run by a major defense contractor best known for their string of launch and mission failures and dropping satellites out of their fixtures.
'Course, I don’t know if I’d really care to write proposals day in and day out, but it sounds like pretty easy work, and I figure I could devote an hour or two a day to it, and spend the rest putting together my Great American Novel. It’s about this guy in a bomber wing in Iraq who thinks that everyone is trying to kill him because the keep shooting at thime and keeps fulfilling the required number of missions, but before he can get his transfer orders his squadren leader ups the required number of missions, so he hides out in the hospital where he censors letters under someone else’s name and and tries to fool around with the nurses. I can’t figure out a title for it, though; I need something catchy and alliterate. Oh well, I’m sure it’ll come to me.
