Tuesday, 20 July 2021
Jobs Context
When I attended business college in Sydney back in 1983, where I learnt how to “secretary”, my family took advantage of my skills. Notably in the areas of communication and typing. Later, when I learned about computers, I became the primary go-to person for my mum and, for a while, my sister. These side jobs are called love jobs. Jobs you do for those you love and don’t get paid.
You see, one of the many skills taught in the college was communication in all its forms, whether written, face-to-face, or on the phone. My mother, with her thick Swiss-German accent, doubted her ability to communicate to Australians effectively. This lack of confidence meant that her daughters got the job of helping her out.
On the other hand, my sister was seemed to doubt her ability to respond to questions people might ask on the other end of the phone. I should point out that she overcame the fear, but she wrote a list of possible questions; she might write her answers too. Not having the answers threw my sister until she got her equilibrium.
My sister stopped using me for computer jobs and as a go-to when I authoritatively wiped her disk drive without making a backup; this I did after assuring her I was in IT and, therefore, knew “everything”. She reminds me now and again of the quote which may have had the words of, “trust me, I’m in IT”. 🤔
Love Jobs are for Family
Time moved on, and my penance for wiping my sister’s hard drive seemed to be fixing other people’s IT mistakes. Ah, karma! I wound up in an IT Service Desk for a time.
While my sister stopped using me for IT support, my mum wasn’t so easily scared off. Although, by virtue of location, my sister, now tech-savvy in her own right and married to a computer programmer, did get the IT support calls from my mother.
I moved out of direct IT support and became an ICT Project Manager; I’d gotten sick of looking at blue lines and “blue screens of death”. At home, I wanted something different and switched to the Mac. Because I was on a Mac, I could no longer assist my mum, who insisted on clicking “Ok” to a bunch of pop-up messages on the PC, riddling it with a virus after virus. Multiple times, my brother-in-law reimaged the machine.
My sister is a school teacher and has a young son, and was unable to support my mother’s virus addiction . The solution, move our mother to a Mac. My sister was happy, and viruses didn’t seem to be an issue. The calls I received were “how do I” instead of “why isn’t this working” style questions. An application allowing you to remote into machines and see desktops made IT love jobs a dream.
Non-standard Support Hours
When you get paid to do a job, and you get to go home and not think about it, it’s bliss. For many years, I complained to my mum and sister that I usually get paid to do what I’m doing for them for free. You know, composing emails, looking things up and guiding your mum through a how-to question or another.
If the “it’s my job” argument got used against my mum, she would return with, “I cooked all day and then had to come home and cook; deal with it”. She was a cook by day and by night – we all gotta eat.
The other thing that used to get to me was the inconvenient hours – it was always after work or on weekends 🥲. IT support for my mother is what happened today, an impromptu, my printer needs updating; “how do I do it?”, question. No amount of diversion will stop the questions with my mum!
Today's Cards
The Cards - Job Analysis
Carryover Cards
One card carried over from yesterday; Fighting moved from Hopes & Fears to Others’ Views.
Cross
Existence sits in the Now; I’m trying to embrace the moment; Postponement influences Existence meaning it’s useless to forestall the questions from my mother because they’re going to come, anyway.
I cannot apply the Travelling card today unless it’s my being back at work this week. It’s time to refer to the Osho book. The phrase that stands out is “It may be a physical movement from one place to the next, or an inner movement from one way of being to another.” Now, it makes sense. Travelling in the Goal is that I’d like to make the solution to my mother’s love job question simple.
Of course, the support rod used on my back I created many years ago when learning computers and eager to show off my newly found skills to anyone willing to listen. It’s the Distant Past’s Adventure.
In the Recent Past, I became comfortable in my skills and knowledge (The Master) and support for loved ones, no longer frustrates. There was a time when my skills had become second nature, and everyone knew about them where I didn’t want to use them at home for love jobs. Too late, those early years where I sought to display my skills also created a dependency.
Future Energy is Thunderbolt, signifying a change. Have you ever noticed that significant changes just seem to happen when things are running smoothly? My theory for this is that you’ve accomplished a stage of learning, and things are going smoothly, and it signifies that you’re ready for your next challenge from the universe or God.
Base
Sometimes it’s easy to forget that the knowledge you have on specific topics, things you take for granted, aren’t natural to others. When you make this assumption, it’s when the Projections card appears.
As clever as my mum is, I need to remember the world she grew up in was so very different than the one we’re living in today and making the leaps into technology, and its terms are incredible. Projections are what I feel I do at times.
Others’ Views is that I’m oversensitive or a bit touchy on the subject of helping out with a computer problem, represented by the Fighting card. Yeah, this would be my past coming back to haunt me when I was precious about support. Other people have long memories too.
Hopes & Fears has the Suppression card. I hope that I’m not suppressing my frustration at assisting. The fear, perhaps, is that I’m hiding how I would like to support. My mum is a demanding, love job customer. Her confidence around IT has grown, so much so, she feels happy to experiment with clicking on things while you’re on the phone trying to help her.
The Outcome for today is We are the World. Perfect! We are the World indicates working together for a common cause, which you want when providing IT support.
References
- Osho, Osho Zen Tarot – The Transcendental Game of Zen, St Martin’s Press, ISBN 0-312-11733-7
- You might also find this article fun: Day 131
