Work follows you around wherever you go

Yep. I’m in IT, so everyone seems to imagine that after a 14 hour day of doing IT, I’m hungry to fix their computer, or teach them how to use some software, or help them design a website, etc…

Sorry, I don’t drink. :smiley:

At the moment, I’ve come out of retirement to work as a drafter for a company that builds flight and maintenance trainers, and I’ve done projects for variants of the H-60 and H-65. I learned what a swash plate is - my previous work was all in the fixed-wing world. But I made it clear when I interviewed for the job that I didn’t want to be an engineer. I was willing to do occasional design work, but no meetings, no budgets, no dealing with customers. So far, so good.

I have a friend who does IT, but on the two occasions I’ve asked for assistance on my computer I have told him it would be at HIS convenience, and that I’d pay whatever the going hourly rate foe the work is. If I have to pay someone I know that my friend won’t think I’m stupid because I don’t know how to fix stuff myself.

You’d be surprised at how little demand there is among friends and family for hydraulic engineering expertise. :wink:

I’m reminded of a kid’s cartoon several years ago, where the dad was a rocket scientist (do not remember the show’s title). The kid comes in and asks dad to fix the TV.

“I can put it into geosynchronous orbit, but I don’t think that will help.”

Likewise, I don’t get many requests for manufacturing engineer from amongst the family. Unfortunately I’m the go-to computer guy, because, well, I know computers.

-60 and -65 variants… I’m guessing the end user is/was the USCG. Nice.

Once upon a time, I ended up having to teach a new-hire Quality Assurance inspector at a helicopter OEM what a swashplate is, and how it works. He was also a career fixed-wing guy; in his words, “The closest I’ve been to helicopters before this job was jumping out of them in Vietnam!”

I did forget to mention that I’ve been the go-to guy in my family, for questions about everything military, since 1993. Hopefully that will die a quiet death now that I’m retired from .mil service…

I’m an author, mostly of picture books and stories, poems, etc. for children’s magazines. Many people want to know how to go about getting things published, and I tell them what I do. I don’t have a problem with that.

Lots of people want to know how I find my illustrators. Fortunately, that’s the publisher’s job. It’s almost never a good idea to have two people team up to submit both a story and illustrations, because if the publisher likes one but not the other, they’ll reject both rather than cause trouble.

Once an illustrator wanted me to do some writing for him but didn’t want to pay me for it. Yeah, that I wouldn’t do.

I kind of do this to my contractor, but he brings it on himself. I’ll call him to hire him (or one of his guys) for a job, or to get a bid for something bigger, and suddenly I’m getting all sorts of free advice and connections, and usually he’ll stop by the house and fix a couple of random things while we talk. So far, he’s fixed a stair rail, reseated a toilet, and adjusted a few doors, and other smaller stuff, all gratis.

Going the other way, I got to know a guy who was a regular at a bar/restaurant a friend of mine owned, and told him I had always dreamed of writing science fiction. He wanted me to write his autobiography for him. He was serious. It got to the point where I wouldn’t go down there anymore for fear of him asking me when we were going to start.

No one quite understands what I do and explaining it in under a minute gets complicated (and most people get it wrong because they hear what they want to hear), so people rarely ask me questions beyond “What do you do?” I’ve learned to say I’m a writer (which is true–I work in communications for a company that has a grant from the state). They ask what I write and I’m pretty vague about the exact subject and it’s enough for me to redirect the conversation.

No one asks me to write stuff for them, except for a few family members who ask for help with their resumes, which I’m fine doing for them.