Hey! Testing! Welcome to the Thicc AF Podcast everyone. Welcome back! We're here today to
talk about our lives and to give you some entertainment. And get caught up with each
other. Woohoo!
Okay. So we wanted to talk about some, some pet peeves at work that, um, most every day
something happens and someone gets on my nerves at work and we both work from home. So sometimes
those pet peeves are different when you're working from home versus like at the office.
So like when you're at the office, you know, a big one I would think is like people bring
a tuna fish to work or like microwaving their salmon in the microwave or like the printer
getting jammed and they're like pissed off because the person just left it or whatever,
you know? Or like, I don't know.
That's hilarious because when I was like really heavily getting like Home Chef and Hello Fresh
and stuff like that, I would definitely get salmon and I brought it to work.
Well say, I think it's not as bad. Like if you ate it cold, it probably wouldn't stink,
but then you put it in the microwave and it microwaved fish. Just, I don't know what it
does to it. It just like releases the toxins. There's probably some, some science behind
it that I don't know. I don't know what the science is, but anyway, so I'm going to go
and say, I've got a list of pet peeves that I've come up with and I have more, but, and
I'm sure my friend, my friends Rose and Diane have heard all of my pet peeves because I
complain to them all the time about the things that people do to me or they don't do it to
me. I mean, they do it at me or around me and I'm like, seriously? And I'm not going
to say any names on who, who does it obviously, but you're forgiven if you know who you are.
So don't get mad at me because you know what? I probably do something that pisses you off
as well. All right. So one of my biggest ones, and this is not like, this isn't really a
pet peeve because I still do it, but like, why do we use the sign off? Thanks for emails
when we're not really actually thanking anybody for anything. Is this supposed to like a sincerely
or sincerely? Yeah. But like also sincerely, if you said sincerely, everybody would think
you're from the 1900s or like not in 1800, excuse me. But if, and, and are you really
sincere? I don't know. So I don't know. Like that and like regards, like I feel like, and
then people use best. So it depends, you know, I feel like there's a culture. What are you
like? I don't like best. What does your company use? Thanks. Does everybody use thanks? Well,
I mean, it depends. Like if I really want somebody to reply to me, like quickly, I'll
probably say thanks so much with an exclamation point. Yeah. Because I just want to be like
extra thankful that you're going to help me hopefully in a quick manner. Yeah. Well, so
like I've been at other places where I've worked, places of work, workplaces, and they've
used the culture is like different and everybody use either like regards or best or something
like that. And then we've worked, I've worked with other companies where they have different
sign offs and they're like, Oh, well, this is what you know, and it's just a culture
and I think it's so weird. We don't have a standard as far as anything that needs to
be used. Well, not that has needs to be used, but just like what people use. And so like
one person uses it, like say the CEO uses it. So then everybody else does it because
they want to be like the CEO. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I, I know that
I see some, you know, different things. A lot of it is external. I think that I noticed
more than anything. Thankfully, you know, I work for a company where there's rapid,
you know, responses because we use teams and you know, things like that. So there's not
a lot of not, I mean, I'm not going to say there's not a lot of, but like my, the mass
majority of my communication is with clients and it's external. Yeah. Yeah. I feel you.
But don't you think it's weird that you'll be like, thanks, even though you're not asking
for anything like, Hey, here's this stuff. Thanks. Here's all the stuff I did for you.
Thanks. But what if it's just like a thank you for acknowledging, paying attention, receiving
my email. Okay. Well, I can get that, but like, you don't have to ask for something
to say, thank you. You can be informative. Just thanks for your time. Okay. Well, I guess
that makes more sense now. Well, thank you for helping me with that because that has
been like, I've been like cringing every time and I type it myself. I'd be like, type it
every single time. Thanks. And I'm like, I'm not thanking anybody, but this is what everybody
uses. So I'm going to do it too. Cause I am the follower. What are you going to say? Bye.
Don't email me back. Yes. Please don't email me back. Also don't send me an email that
says, okay, this is, I'm going to go to another one. Okay. Don't send me an email that says,
can you please call me? Please call me when you have a chance. I'm like, I'll look at
my phone and be like, did I miss a call from this person? Oh no, I didn't miss a call.
I didn't miss anything. That person just is trying to pass the ball to me because they
don't want to pick up the phone and call me. And they want it. They want it to be like,
Oh, Oh, well I told you to call me. Oh no, honey. This is your deal. You don't get to
tell me to call you for your situation. Yeah. No, that makes me so mad. Well, I was just,
I was not thinking on that same wavelength when you first said that because I was like,
I would much rather somebody like reach out to me and say, can you call me or whatever
than randomly calling me without giving me a heads up as to what this conversation is
going to be about. But I see what you're saying. It's not a forewarning that we're about to
have a conversation. It's a, I'm putting the ball in your court because I don't want to
pick up the phone and handle this myself. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Or it could be a, I just
get an, I don't get any context behind anything. It's just please call me. And I'm like, about
what? I'm not, I'm not dropping what I have, what I'm working on right now to call you
for something that I know is may or may not be urgent enough to drop all the other urgent
things that I'm working on. So if you want to tell me, if you want to call me, I'll answer
the phone or, and if I don't answer the phone is because I'm working on maybe something
urgent or I'm on the phone call and I'll call you back, but let me know what it is that
you need to talk about so that I can triage the stuff that I'm working on. Like, I can't
be like, yeah, I can't be like, they're like, please call me. And then they're like, Hey,
there's no toilet paper in the bathroom or some crap. Not that people would ever call
me about that. But yeah, I, I get that to a point. I guess I do not hesitate to ask.
I mean, of course I've developed relationships with certain people, you know, that are better
than others. And I know that I don't really have to like preface if I need something.
I just need to say, Hey, do you have five minutes? I need to run this by you or whatever.
And I'm not explaining that being like, I need to run this by you. Not like, please
call me. I'm like, you know what? Why don't you just pick up the phone and call somebody?
Yeah. I mean, I'll ask somebody, you know, Hey, do you have a second? Can I call you?
You know, whatever. Um, but I'm definitely not giving like a prep message of this is
what I'm about to call you about. Because if I did, if I wanted to type it, I would,
I obviously have a conversation because I'm asking you if I can call you.
I also don't like it when people call me for one thing. So, or like they call me for one
thing or I call them for one thing. And then they, that person changes the subject and
goes off on like four or five other things. And I'm like, just trying to get an answer
for the one thing. It should be like a 30 second conversation, two minutes, maybe five
minutes at the most, but it ends up being like a 15, 20, 30 minute call about stuff
that I didn't call about. And then now my brain is on these four other things that you
asked me about. And I'm like, I'm out of my flow. I'm confused. And then I have to dig
up all this other stuff for these other things. And I'm like, why don't you just set up a
meeting? Like if you need to talk about these other things, I called you for, so sometimes
I like, if I need something from someone and I want to call them, I won't call them because
I know that that person is going to go off on some four other things.
That's awful that you feel like you have to avoid somebody when you truly need help because
you know that it is going to be an off the rails conversation.
When it's not off the rails, it's like of other stuff that's happening, but it's like,
yeah. So it just like, I just, it's a pet peeve of mine if I call you for one thing
and then you, like I'm trying, it's like one topic.
A misuse of time. Really?
Yes, really. Yeah. And it's, oh, so I read this thing and I think it's like in the New
York times or something like that, that there are studies that say that like, and I don't
know the exact study or what it is. And honestly, I don't even know if it's like legit. I will
have to do some more research. So don't call me out. But apparently somewhere there are
studies that show that if you, that on average to get back on a task after an interruption,
it takes like 25 minutes or something like that, like 23 to 25 minutes to get back on
task after an interruption, which is like crazy to me, but it's the truth. Like, cause
now, cause then I'm like, okay, I got an interruption and now I've got to sort through all whatever
they said, Hey, I need to do the, you know, talk about this. And now I'm like focused
on something else. And then I see that stuff. And then maybe you go down a rabbit hole on
that just 25 minutes later, you're like, Oh, what was I working on? And then honestly,
sometimes I've done that and I've gone back and I've lost, I've had to like start over
on like some, like, you know, some type of like math problem or something, not, you know,
calculating things that I've been working on. So that's a pet peeve of mine. I don't
know. It sounds like you have like the best work job and nobody does anything bad. And
I'm like, no, I mean, like we don't have to talk about your job now, but like any other
jobs. Yeah, no, I mean, I, I get that. I think the probably, and I mean, it wasn't the worst
experience, definitely not in the beginning, but like I worked in a call center a long
time ago and big pet peeve of mine was like, you know, just coworkers like misusing, you
know, their time and, you know, accidentally like hanging up on people when it's, you know,
their shift is over. Cause we had people coming in at, you know, all different times, like,
um, like seven, eight, nine, you know, you had people that would work nine to six and
stuff like that. And then like, you know, the call center were closed, but you know,
when it was like four o'clock and it was time for somebody to go, sometimes they would just
like fake hang up on people. And that was like so disrespectful to everybody else who
was like working a different shift and still in the queue. Like it's unfortunate, but sometimes,
you know, I could get a call at, you know, 359 when I'm supposed to leave at four. What
were they calling you about? This was when I worked for a medical software company. So
these were like doctors and nurses and dentists and you know, things like that. Yeah. Calling
in IT help kind of stuff. Yeah. I mean, basically, I mean, they were, we, they purchased our
electronic medical record software. So if they ran into an issue, you know, while they're
charting for a patient or something, that patient could be sitting in the room and they're
calling us because they're having an issue. We need to be answered. I didn't know you
did that. And that's interesting. Oh yeah. I mean, I really did like the job for sure.
We got, went through a merger acquisition. And then after that, you know, I stuck around
for a couple of years, you know, trying to see the light at the end of the tunnel and
that never happened. And at one point I was managing 31 people by myself in a call center.
And I was like, uh-uh, I was on call 24 seven. I could not go on vacation, you know, have
a weekend. I mean, we had people on call 24 seven because of what we did, you know, people.
Yeah. So yeah, that's, that's difficult. I would not now. I mean, I might if I had to,
but I would not purposefully take a job where that was going to be my life, where I was
going to have to like fake hang up on somebody. But if I needed to be at something like, what
if you had a kid and I mean, honestly, I get that kind of like if they need to plan for
that, but, um, yeah, I mean, and that is life and it wasn't something that, you know, happened
all the time. And there were definitely times that we worked with people that had children.
And if somebody else was still around and they weren't on a call, then we would transfer
that to them and let that person get out of there. I mean, it, you know, I mean, that's
just messed up. Yeah. It was crazy. And I mean, we were in our early twenties at that
point. Like, I mean, this is entry. It was entry level work. You know, we're making $30,000
a year. Nobody truly gave a shit about that job. You know, most of the people anyways,
like that said, they were, yeah, that's, yeah, yeah. Like not showing it. And that was probably
pet peeve for me at the time, especially when I started to manage the group. When you're
supposed to be there at a certain time to start and be in a queue. So, you know, there's
limited number of people there on off hours. So like, if you're a 7 a.m. person, you need
to be asked in seat in the queue at seven o'clock, not at 7 10, not at 7 15. You're leaving
your coworkers hanging at that point. Yeah. Well, and that's with any, I mean, that's
with that job. That's also with other jobs like nursing jobs. You have to hand off your
patients, things like that. That's with restaurant jobs. Right. That's, you know, my job's not
like that because nobody hands their work off to me. If I'm not there, my job doesn't
get done. Yeah. I mean, unless there's something like really urgent or something. And then
my boss will probably which that's a tough spot to be in because you know, I think the
culture of the workplace is changing and there are some companies, you know, that have added
more holidays, you know, just not I don't know if they're considered federal holidays,
but you know, just calendar year holidays. There used to be I think probably like eight
for some folks. I think we have something around 11 or 13 crazy like that. And, you
know, we have unlimited PTO, but that's not something that everybody can do. And it's
not, you know, always encouraged. And I know if you know what you're saying is it's got
to be hard for you to take a vacation because if you're the only one doing it and no one
is covering for you, then you are backed up when you get. Oh, yeah. 100%. Yeah. Okay.
So yeah, that I mean, that is definitely it's it's not it's not fun. But honestly, I kind
of like that. There's not somebody else doing my job because my the way that my job is is
done. If you if I were to pass it off to somebody else, like if we had other people that came
in like the next day or in a different shift or something and did my job, it would be all
jacked up and nobody would know what was going on because you'd and then you'd have to have
a lot of long conversations of like, here's what happened and this is what I did. And
just to try to figure it out. So like it's more of it's not like we don't have like I
mean, I do have some little things here and there, but like it's not like tasks that I
get done. Like you were saying the other day that you're like very task oriented. Yeah.
My job is, I mean, not necessarily like a task. Check it off your list type of job.
It's a very ongoing project type of thing. And yeah, yeah, I'm just in a different place
as far as that goes. I mean, some of my projects I've had for a long time, you know, just because
they are bigger projects, you know, what have you. But a, you know, general project for
my job is four to six weeks. So it's a very quick turnaround, which I'm used to because
at my old job, our turnaround was about 45, 60 days. So I mean, it's about the same timeframe,
little bit, maybe less now, but also sometimes way longer now. So I mean, it just depends.
But I mean, I'm literally checking things off a list like a check it like we have a
smart sheets, you know, that has percentages that'll tell us when, you know, if I've marked
this 100% complete this line item, then it tells me I've gotten to like 43% completed
the entire project type thing. So very task oriented. Yeah. And that's interesting. It's
very different than, but we can talk about pet peeves. That is the pet peeve I have.
That spreadsheet is jacked up and nobody will fix it. And it's so irritating. And if you
edit it because it has all these, all your people are listening, by the way. Oh my gosh.
It has these, well, they may agree with me. They may not. I don't know. My boss knows
how I feel. Um, but it has all like these predecessors. And so it's not just, you know,
a predecessor of like line 28 is dependent on line 27. It could be that 27 and 28 start
at the same time. So you have to mark it a certain way and you have to put like a minus
one if it only takes like, if it's done same day or whatever. And I'm just like, not very
good at that. So I feel like I poorly manipulate the spreadsheet, which probably makes things
worse. User error. So basically you hate it because of yourself. So there's probably some
smart person out there that created it. That's like, you're just doing it wrong. If I could
teach you, you would just understand it. You would love it. Oh, 100%. There were many times
throughout this one project that I have going on right now and we've had during my one-on-ones
with my boss, which I have every single week, there have been multiple times where he's
like, we have to fix your project plan. Like, I think I get it fixed. And he's like, no,
Sarah. And I'm like, okay. Yikes. Anyways, do you have any other pet peeves you want
to talk about? I have a pet peeve when people don't respond on Teams in a timely manner.
Like what do you consider timely? Same day. So teams, depending on what time it, like
the message, if I send it at 4.55, then no, I don't expect you to respond the same day.
We don't do, so we message all the time and that, I don't, it's kind of a pet peeve. Like
we have a group message. It, so, I mean, people are asking questions and it's product, it's
work conversation. It's not, you know, just la dee da type, whatever. Like it's legit
work conversation, but it goes off all day long sometimes. And it drives me crazy. And
I have to mute it because I want to answer and I want to participate and I want to go
back and look at it. That's how I feel about my Facebook messenger with the supper club.
I'm like, what is even happening? I'm still trying to catch up from last Wednesday. Like,
hello. That's just because you're bad at Facebook messenger. But one time my boss messaged me
on, or I messaged him on like a Thursday. It was like the following Tuesday and he was
like, Oh, I missed your message from yesterday. And I was like, I'm sorry. That was from last
week, but thank you for the reply. Like, what the hell.
Oh my God. If I had to add like Teams messenger or like some type of messenger to all the
things, the ways that I get communication at work or like another software or something,
I might like throw myself into the wall like the Kool-Aid man. I'm like, Oh yeah. But no,
but oh no. I would not like, I'm so glad that we don't have that like Teams culture of messaging
because we already have the emails and then I have a cell phone. So people text me, people
call me. It's, it's just too, and then it's a lot. Yeah. I mean, that's all, that's all
we have. So like our meetings are in Teams and stuff like that, but it's, it can be overwhelming
sometimes in that kind of stuff overwhelms me because I, like you just said, you know,
if it takes 25 minutes to refocus, every time I hear that damn ding, I'm like, Oh, this
is killing me. Like it's killing my vibes and everything. And I just, sometimes I have
to remove myself. Not, I mean, I'm not taking myself out of the chat or anything, but I
have to mute it. And then sometimes it'd be like, why didn't I get that message? Oh wait,
I muted them because it was overwhelming, you know, three days ago, whatever. Right.
Yeah. No, I can't with that. And it's like, I just want like one way of communication,
like send me an email and I will get to the email after the one that I had before that.
Right. But it's, that's not how it works. And I get that it's just, it would be a lot
easier if we didn't have a hundred different things. And then people are like, let's, let's
get another software to make this process easier. And I'm like, okay, but to, in order
to do that, you have to have somebody that does the work to put it into that software.
And like that takes extra time. Well, not only that, but to implement it with y'all
too. Well that, the implementation would take a, it would be a short period of time, which
would be okay. But then after that, somebody actually has to maintain it and like continue
and like put like data entry type stuff. Yeah. And I'm not going to, I don't have time for
that. I've already got enough stuff to do. I'm sorry. Like, and that's what we'll have,
like right now there's something that they want to like add something to. And I just
have a feeling that because of the way that my job is and the, because of how I am, all
the work would be like putting, put on me. Yeah. And, and honestly I would probably,
if they did force me to do that, I would want to be the person that did the work for that
because I feel like this is terrible. I should not say this, but honestly, I feel like somebody
else might mess it up. You know what I mean? Then that's a terrible thing to feel, but
I mean, yeah, but I understand that if you know, you delegate to somebody else and then
you're either having to take the time to tell them, you know, what to do. So you attempt
to make sure that it gets done right. But then you either have to go two routes. If
somebody else has done something, you have to let it live the way that it is and trust
that they did it right. Or you have to double back and you know, check and make sure. And
then you might as well have done it the first damn time yourself anyway. Right. And it would
have been a lot quicker. Right. Yeah. It's just like, it's a cat delegation is a catch
22 for sure. Yeah. So I don't know. Sometimes I have to like delegate and just be like,
don't look at it. Don't look at it ever. Don't ever look at it ever again. Just hope that
they did it right. Exactly. Fingers crossed. Let's see. Like a whole, what do they call
it? A Hail Mary. Yeah. Let it live. Oh my God. So, you know what? Another thing like
that I don't like is when you schedule a meeting or somebody schedules a meeting and there
are people that are essential to that meeting or there's somebody that's like higher than
me that the other people are like relying on that person to be there because they don't
either trust me or they they want that person's opinion. And that person that's essential
to that meeting shows up 10, 15 minutes late or the person that is you're supposed to have
the meeting for is like 10 minutes late. And you know, it's like, okay, now we've got to
catch you up on what we just talked about because we started because I didn't want to
waste anybody's time. And now we've got to go back and tell you what we just talked about.
And now we're wasting 10 more minutes. And now we're halfway through the meeting and
we skip we missed all this stuff. So it's just, it's annoying. Show up to your meetings
on time. And I do. I'm like, I've been late to meetings accidentally. Yeah, 100%. And
I'm sorry, but you know, like, not usually 10 minutes. No, I don't think I've ever been
10 minutes too late to a meeting ever. I really don't. I mean, and there are a handful of
times that yeah, you're right. I've forgotten about a meeting or something else has run
over. But I mean, it's very easy to notify somebody that you're going to be running late.
Yeah, very easy. And then also, it's like, why do we schedule meetings that we don't
need meetings for? I have a lot of people that I work with that are just like, oh, let's
get a meeting. Let's get a meeting. And I'm like, why? We don't need a meeting. You're
just wasting an hour of my time. And we don't, they don't schedule 30 minute calls where
I live, where I work there. It's always an hour. No. And then 30 minutes of it is spent
on talking about something else. Yeah. I think it's not, I'm over exaggerating a lot of this
stuff. Probably. I mean, I understand what you're saying. It's frustrating. There are
times where a 30 minute meeting definitely doesn't get it done. Like we had one of those
today. Like they threw, we're, you know, the, our managers came up with three goals for
us and we have to take, we had to create two personal goals. Well, while they're telling
us these goals, of course we have questions, you know, about them. And so not only, you
know, are they trying to tell us what these goals are and kind of explain, you know, why
they came up with and, you know, the, I get all the expectations, what have you. And then,
you know, it teaches how to literally put them in the system, you know, that we're using.
Yeah. It takes a lot of extra time. Yeah. Well, in more than 30 minutes when, I mean,
at one point there were like five. Sometimes more than an hour possibly. Yeah. There were
like five hands raised and it was, you know, it's one of those tough things where it's
like. Hands raised like the, like the, do people actually use the raise hand thing in
teams? Yeah. Oh my gosh. That's hilarious that they do that. Well, I like it. I would
just be like unmute. Hey. Well, I like it though, because it, I don't want to interrupt
somebody in the middle of their thought and I don't do it often, but I did do it today
because I didn't want to interrupt the person that was talking. But it also puts you in
a queue. So it tells you who raised their hand first and that sort of thing, which I
do like because well, first I was first. That's why you like it because you were first. Well,
I mean, I liked it today because I was first because I got, you know, the opportunity to
ask my question and there were people that did not get the opportunity to ask questions,
but I do like it, how it queues you up or whatever. Because I think that's important.
I mean, if you were the first one to come up with a question and you raise your hand
first, then you should be called on first. Whatever. You ain't first or last. No, I'm
just kidding. Well, okay, Ricky Bobby. So what about when somebody, so this happens to me
a lot, somebody like copy CCs or copies carbon copy, even though that's not even like a thing
anymore. Do they still have those, those little check things? Choo-choo carbon copy. Yeah,
they still have them. Where do they use them? Well, I when I moved the guys who like moved
me or whatever, they had to like call into the place and they give my credit card. Well,
no, I mean, they gave my credit card number, but the paperwork that they completed was
that. But no, those, I mean, those like things that like, you know, okay, yeah, but still
carbon copies are this interesting that they still use those. But I guess you don't have
to scan. I guess you could scan it to your phone. I don't know. Yeah. But I mean, in
that situation, I mean, they're not, who knows how many movers they have working for more
than you do. Get them all iPad so you can use DocuSign. No, yes. It's it's a green initiative
or something. Well, I mean, I agree with that, but I don't think that the that's a big investment
for a company. Do you know how much it costs to buy paper for a company? It is so expensive.
They could save so much money. Okay, we won't go on that because not paper is so expensive.
I literally don't give a shit. I do. I mean, I give a shit about paper being expensive
and the environment, but I'm just saying like, I don't care about this moving company right
now. Right. So, okay. So when somebody CCs me on an email and they're like adding Emily
and I'm like, what does that mean? Adding me for what? Like, and then there's 40 page
dissertation email chain that I've got to sort through and figure out what the heck's
happening and I don't even know why they copied me. I do that sometimes. Why? But hear me.
Oh, okay, Linda. That's the worst. Just hear me out though. I'll do it, but I do. It depends
on who I'm adding or whatever. Like if I, I don't know, I will do that sometimes, but
it's very clear in the previous email what the question is. Is it a 40 page dissertation
email? Not always, but if it is, I will pull whatever I need to. With 15 emails copied
to it. Yeah, I understand, but I will pull whatever bit that I need the help with and
put it to the top. And that's nice. Yeah. I mean, that's, so this is, oh, adding Emily.
Assuming that somebody is going to figure out what is going on in like a 14 day email
chain is just fucking ridiculous. It is rude and it's lazy and those people should be not
able to have jobs. I'm adding Emily because, because why? Yeah. And hey, and then I'm adding
Emily because she can help with this. And then at the bottom, Emily, hey, see below
where this, this, and this happened. And, or here's a screenshot or I highlighted below
exactly what you need to know. And this is what, why I added you. And can you please
do this? Absolutely. Do you know how much faster it is for that person? Because you've
already, do you know how many people that have probably been added to that email since
the beginning of it that have had to spend time and time and extra time to get through
it? It's just wasteful. Replying all after you received that and being like, what is
your question or what do you need help with? Oh, I do. Oh honey, don't you worry. I'm like,
what was needed? Is there a question on this? Like, excuse me, huh? I play dumb, but I am
dumb because I'm like, I'm not spending all day reading through this. You're not dumb.
You're misinformed and uninformed about what's needed. And is it, nobody's being clear. Is
it laziness? Maybe. But is it laziness on my part or their part? Probably both. But
honestly it's more their part. But why would you make an assumption about what is needed
instead of just being straightforward and saying, can you be clear about the information
that you're requesting from me? Exactly. Because otherwise let's just be hypothetical and say
you make an assumption and they're like, no, that's not what's needed at all. Okay. Well,
you didn't tell me. So I answered you. Yeah. Yeah. You just said copying. So I just thought
I was supposed to read the email and here we are again. I was supposed to do anything
zero ground zero, trying to figure out what the hell you need. Cause you didn't tell me
the first time. Exactly. Yep. That is, Oh, that's annoying. So many annoying things.
Um, let me see. Let me see. Back to singing folks. Gotta love it. Lord have mercy. You
know what? So the days, so some days I have a lot of these pet peeves happen and some
days and these pet peeves don't really happen that often. I mean they do, but I have some
other things that really take me off, but we won't get into those because they're just
real. But so some mornings I'm like, I wake up and it'll be like first thing in the morning,
I get an email from the one person that drives me nuts at work, which you know, not really,
there's not really one person, but it'll be like the one thing that like, just like, really
did you have to do that at eight AM? Or like it was like based in it at seven 30. And so
it was like the first email in my inbox and I'm like, Oh, for real. Uh, and so I have
to play that song good day. I think it's called good by nappy roots. Oh man. It gets me pumped
up every time. Gotta have a good day. Hey, and um, I was, ain't nobody going to die today
or something like that. Ain't nobody gonna cry today. Hey, we're going to have a good
day. Hey, maybe we should. Oh, we can't, I guess we can't cause we don't have rights
to that music, but maybe we can get right. So we'll see. I'll see if I can look it up
and put it, snap a little, little thing in there. Oh my goodness. Um, but yeah, that's
a good song. If you guys, um, if you guys want to listen to it. Well, now that we've
talked about our pet peeves at work, can we just talk about the pros and cons of working
from home? We can. Okay. All right. Do you have a pro? Yeah. Being at home.
Not having a commute in the morning, which I mean, when I changed jobs, I didn't have
a commute anyways because I was like, my office had moved from where it was originally, um,
down to like 1.4 miles from my house. So like it was, it was great, but, um, not having
a commute, being able to eat my meals at home and not have to like go through the meal prep
situation. And bring tuna to work and piss everybody off. Listen, I am not, I am not
a tuna girl. So I might break the rules, but at least it's salmon and not tuna. Yeah. But,
um, I like being, being at home with my dog, like, and you know, taking her out during
the day and like getting some fresh air because sometimes when I work from home, like today,
today was balls to the wall. It was ridiculous. Joleen was not home today. She was at my,
my parents, her grandparents house, having some fun. And I, her dog. Yeah. Sorry. Joleen
is my dog, not my child, my dog. Um, but I didn't leave the house today until I came
over here. Um, I haven't left the house all week. What are you talking about? Have I?
Well it's only Tuesday. I still haven't let, I honestly, sometimes I'll be like, I never
drive either. So like, no, you don't. And I'm picking your ass up on Thursday for supper
club. What did Pete say the other day? He said something about, uh, he was like the
only only, uh, oh yeah. He was like, the only reason your car ever leaves your carport is
to take your dogs to the vet. And I was like, yeah, that's about right. Like an emergency
vet, um, vet trip. Oh my gosh. Um, yeah. So working from, yeah, that and saving on gas.
Yes. Yeah. Gas is wonderful. Yeah. Cause I used to like, before I lived here, I was,
I'm not driving and taking 45 minutes to drive to downtown Birmingham to go in five miles.
That's why I used to work so early. I used to get, I worked seven to four because I wanted
to leave my house at six 30 and be there by seven. Yeah. There's a lot of people that
do that. You would think that the traffic would be worse, but it's not. I don't know.
But yeah, so I used to walk to work. I would walk two blocks. I think it was two and a
half blocks to work because I got an apartment. I found, I got my job and then I was like,
oh, this is where I'm going to be working. Okay. I'm getting an apartment two blocks
away. I like that. Yeah. And I never drove then either. Only time I drove was like to
the grocery store, but the honestly, the public's was, was like across the street. Have you
forgotten how to drive? No, I can still drive. That's good. Yeah. You know, it's like riding
a bike for the most part, you know, just don't do it when you're drinking for both of those
training wheels on your car though. Like it's for real. No, no training wheels, but also
you can still crash with training wheels on your, on your tricycle or whatever. But yeah,
so pro so yeah, we're doing that. And then like being able to wear like comfortable clothes,
but that also comes with a con because maybe you like think you can eat more than you can.
Oh, a hundred thousand percent. And your stretchy leggings. And then you're like, and then when
it comes, when you get excited about going to like, I don't know, supper club and you
want to wear like an outfit and you're like, um, oh shit. Like I got fat. Yeah. That's
when I'm like, you know what? I have nothing to wear because, and then so when my, I do
the stitch fix boxes and I swear to God, they only send me like comfortable clothes and
I always keep them and that's why they keep sending them to me. And I'm like, I hate you
guys, but then, uh, I, I just, I can't anymore. I need to start wearing like regular clothes,
but they're not comfortable. Why would, why would anybody want to wear anything other
than leggings ever? Listen, leggings and joggers are what I live in. I hate wearing jeans during
the dress during the summer. I wear dresses. Why does anybody like wearing jeans ever?
I don't know. They're not comfortable. I don't know. I'm, I'm not a jeans girl. Like you're
not gonna, you know, catch me out in a pair of jeans and be like, yeah, but no, you're
not, you're not going to catch me outside in a pair of jeans and be like, I love these
jeans. No, no. I put jeans on the other night and I was like, what? I forgot. Well, that
what's worse in my opinion is like dress pants that I used to wear to work with the buttons
and like they don't stretch. And I'm like, why did I ever buy these? Like they were real
cute and like the like wide leg, like wide leg, like, you know, and they look cute with
like the heels and I don't freaking wear heels ever anymore. Look, I stopped wearing heels
a long time ago, but like I used to wear them every day and they look so cute. I worked
real hard to find pull on business pants and I have found a bunch before when I was working
in an office. Like stretchy ones? Yeah. I was like, don't you pull on your other ones
too? No, but like they don't have a button like a zip front. Yeah. They're literally
pull on. I have some too, but I feel like the crotch sometimes like looks weird. No,
you don't think they do mine? I love. Well, you need to tell me where to get them from.
I got them from Torrid. Yeah. See, I'm not always a big fan of towards clothes, but I
know you love them and they do look good on you. So I don't know. I mean, that's the majority
of what's in my closet is from Torrid. Hundred percent. Yeah. Maybe I'll have to try them.
You should. Yeah. Give it a go. But honestly, why would I buy them if I don't need to wear
them? But I do have to go to work like in February for three days. Three whole days?
I have to go do these like, or we're doing a bid and I have to go like do these walkthroughs
with the vendors to show them the hospital and like the facilities for. Yeah. Yeah. I
don't know if my pants are going to fit. I'll probably wear a dress. Why not? Yeah. Dress
will be better. You got all the black dresses in the world. Yeah, that's true. I have lots
of lots of things I can wear. So OK, so what about a con? You got any cons? No, no, I do.
I mean, there are days like today where like I really didn't allow myself to step away
because I didn't really have a reason to, you know, don't. Jolene was not home, so I
didn't have a dog to take outside. And I made, you know, I had food essentially cooked already.
So like a meal prep type situation. So like I just heated up food and got back to work
and did not take very many breaks. I stood up stood up a couple of times on my desk today
because I had just been sitting for so long. But I would say, you know, not a con is not
having like a start start for real start and stop time. Because when you're at the office,
you know, you're trying to get out of there at whatever time, you know, it is that you
leave. But when you're at home, you're working and you may work well beyond your time, work
through your lunch, start before, you know, you should because you're awake and you're
at home and it's accessible. See, that's not really different for me. I used to work late
at work too. And I would not work. I would work through lunch. That hasn't really changed
much for me. But I get what you're saying. Like there is not like a there's a cutoff
point because and there's not a separation. So like I have this office and like I have
my little like Peloton slash Nordic track thing in here and I need to put it somewhere
else. Because when I'm done with work, I want to get out of this room and shut the door
and be like, I am done with work. But then I need to come in here and work out and then
I will see my computer and be like, maybe I should look at the email. Oh, no, I wouldn't.
I mean, I wouldn't be doing that. I get what you're saying though about the separation
because my office I was in a one bedroom apartment before now and my office was in office was
in my living room right next to my TV basically like in a corner. And so like I stared at
my desk when I would watch TV after work and it was awful. But I think the one thing that
I miss that is a con about an office is like the opportunity for water cooler talk in that
face time with your your coworkers. Like I do miss that. Like I finally got to meet you
know all my coworkers when we had our holiday party in December. But like I don't get to
see these people on a regular basis. And so like you said, you know, when you're on calls
and people try to have like conversation that you weren't exactly planning on. I mean, I
think that happens a lot for me because we try to catch up with I do that. Yeah. In the
beginning. Yeah. And you know, just kind of see what's been going on, whatever, because
we don't get that face time in person. And I miss that a little bit for sure. I'm a social
butterfly. Like, yeah, I like to, you know, chit chat. And that was I would rather have
like four different times of like random conversations with coworkers at work at work than I would
have a lunch hour. Like that fulfills me more. Yeah, I have no problem eating. Well, that's
a pro. That's a con for you. But it's a pro for the company because that means that you're
working more than you would be in the office because now you're not chit chatting with
everybody. Like, honestly, and then so like for like, if I wanted to go get coffee or
a drink or something at the hospital, I would have to wait. The buildings are miles apart.
Right. And you have to walk through, you know, all the crosswalks and all the things. And
it's just like, you're basically on the other side of the city by the time you get to the
Starbucks. Right. So that makes sense. It's something I didn't think about because I've
never really worked at a company that that that's that big. Yeah. So it was like 15 minute
walk right there. Then 15 minutes back. That's 30 minutes just to go get coffee. Yeah, for
sure. I didn't think about that. Yeah. It's not 15 minutes. Probably 20 minutes. That's
a very different way to think about things. So it makes makes a lot of sense. Yeah. But
yeah. So that and then they're getting more time out of you by having you at home. Oh,
yeah. They're also getting me to pay for my Internet and all my not all my equipment,
but like, you know, I had to buy my own desk. I had, you know, had to buy my own everything.
That sucks. I tried to get them to pay for it. And then it was a whole thing. They gave
us a stipend and I did buy my desk chair with it. And it's an OK desk chair. Like it's it's
better than what I had before. Well, have you seen mine? You just need to reupholster
it again. Eric was my older brother was going to buy me a chair for my birthday. And my
mother's no. No, my mom told him, no, Emily likes her chair because I do. I like that
it's not on wheels because I don't like to be because I sit with both of my feet up on
the chair or I put them on that speaker thing down there. Yeah. But yeah, that's yeah. So
anyways, but yeah, the pros and cons. Trying to think of another pro for working from home.
Yes. I mean, I think, you know, I say I miss water cooler talk, but I also think that there's
a lot less drama. You know, when you were in and I don't know if you've ever had this
experience before, but when you're in an office, people are wondering what you're doing all
the time. You know what time she's coming in. Oh, yeah. Why didn't why did she leave
10 minutes early and I didn't get to a hundred because I had a doctor's appointment. Well,
like when we're going to log my schedule and we are grown, we're grown women. Like you
don't need to know what I'm doing all the time. If I get up for my chair, you don't
need to ask me where I'm going. I'm going pee. Leave me alone. Right. Exactly. Like
I'm fine. Yeah. So I mean, I think that there's a lack of interpersonal drama, you know, when
you're not in an office setting like that because people aren't in your business all
the time. Yeah, that's why I also think that there could be things that could be done to
get rid of that. And that has to do, you know, with company culture. Like I don't ever feel
like I'm being micromanaged or that I can't like appear away because I've been away from
my computer and somebody is like going to be up my ass about where I am and what I'm
doing. And that I'm grateful for because that is not something that I had before. And I
mean, it was just all the time, like personal like texting me on my phone. That company
did not pay for my phone. Do not text me after hours. Don't do that. I don't have a, you
know, on call type job. Right. Don't do that. That's so funny because people had my old
like they used to have when we first started working remote, we didn't have didn't get
cell phones yet. So I gave people my cell phone number, my personal cell phone number,
and people started giving it out like to vendors and things like that. And I would get calls.
And so I recently this happened recently and I was like somebody gave my personal cell
phone number out and I sent it back and I was like, Hey, that's my personal cell phone.
Here's my work number. And then the lady that did it, she was, I don't know, we're cool.
But and she didn't mean to. She was like, Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. I forgot. Um, I'll
start giving out your work number, but like, yeah, no, don't especially like the worst
culprit was my old boss. He would like want to like call cause he lived in Nashville and
he would come down to Birmingham, you know, almost every week for a couple of days. But
then like when he gets on the road or whatever to go home, he wants to like call and talk
about work. No, bro. Chacho call your wife, call somebody else. That's weird. Yes. Don't
call me to talk about work cause you're bored on your drive home. Yeah, that's odd. That's
a very strange thing. It, listen, it was very unhealthy and toxic at the end. And, um, a
lot of people left around the same time that I did. Yikes. Yeah. No. Um, maybe, maybe he
started calling them when you were like, I gotta go. Sorry. Supper club tonight. I mean,
and I'm one of those people that's like super, I don't know. I can't not answer the phone
sometimes like work or friends or whatever. Like, I don't know. It's just a thing that
I have. Like, I feel like if somebody's calling me as for a reason and I should answer the
phone. Right. Yeah. See, I'm not that way. Oh, I know. If somebody calls me and I don't
want to answer it, I'm not going to, I mean, I feel bad. I was waiting for you to not answer
after I got done with my haircut tonight and then you were not going to get dinner. I don't,
I never don't answer for you unless I'm like downstairs or something. Like in my phone's
upstairs or my phone's on silent, which my phone, look, my phone goes on, do not, it's
already on do not deserve. It's been on time. It goes on at nine. It might be, it might
actually be eight 30. My mom already knows. And so she'll call me like four times in a
row and I'm like, Oh my God, I'm asleep. Hello. She actually goes to sleep earlier than I
do now. She used to be in a very big night owl. So, but yeah, so yeah, other pros and
cons I just like, I really, really like if I need to go to a doctor's appointment or
if I need to go run an errand, I'm not having to get out. So this may be different for other
people, but where I worked, you have to like park in a parking lot. That's like, you have
to take a shuttle to, or you have to walk to a parking deck, which I had to walk home
two blocks because I didn't, I didn't opt into like park. Yeah. I just parked at my
place. But now if I did work on site, I would have to park somewhere and I would probably
have to shuttle and that takes like however long. And so you can't just like five o'clock
leave and be on the way home. But like what you started to say was a doctor's appointment.
Like it's a, it's a trek for you. So like, you're not just quickly walking out to your
car and making your way to set appointment. Well, I did work in the hospital where the
doctors were. So like if I did have a doctor's appointment before I could just like, I was
like at work and I didn't have to go like, unless it was somewhere else, but most of
my, so most of my stuff was at the same place. So that was nice. But yeah. I mean, I think
that there's going to be running an errand. Yeah. I mean, I think that, and I don't, I
don't run errands during the day for the most part. I would say the biggest errand that
I run is either picking up or dropping off Jolene during like my lunch hour at my parents
house. And that happens, you know, occasionally, but if I, you know, if I have to do something
after work or whatever, then I do try to take her when I have a break during the day. Yeah.
Usually my stuff is like stuff that has to be done by like six o'clock, like dropping
off a package or something like UPS. You need to stay open until seven o'clock. Yeah. They
need to sit because you can't get from work to UPS in an hour because of the traffic.
So you have to go during your lunch break, right? But then it takes your whole lunch
break. So then you don't get to eat lunch. You got to sit at your desk and eat and then
everybody's pissed off at you because you ate tuna. I mean, I don't know. I don't know.
I do like to be able to be with my dogs. I don't, I don't know. I don't know what I don't
like. I, I feel like I still am fulfilled with my, my like relationships with work,
even though, because I also am friends with like some of the people that I work with outside
of work. Yeah, that's true. And I mean, I haven't been, I will have been at my job,
you know, in April for a year or so. I'm still like developing friendships, you know, with
those folks and you know, I don't, I'm only good to see them all the time, but I think
that my company is, you know, making progress towards allowing us to have in-person time
a little bit more often instead of, you know, just twice a year. Yeah. So I mean, we'll
see how that works out. But I mean, overall, what I trade, first of all, I would never
give up this job if I, you know, don't have to. I, I love it. I love the people. I love
the culture. I love the company, but working from home, I think it can just be a little
difficult sometimes for me as a social person. And I think nights like this, like, you know,
recording, like I needed this outing. I was by myself last night because I took Jolene
to my parents' house. Brandon worked late. And so like, I needed some human interaction.
So do you feel like you're like, oh, I need, I want to go hang out with people. Do you
feel that? Yeah, I mean, I think it depends on what's like happened. Like I felt like
I had been at home for a long time. Like I was at home all weekend. Granted, you know,
we had some outings or whatever, but I mean, we barely left the house on Sunday. It was
raining and you know, we just took Jolene outside. I took, I didn't see my parents yesterday
when I took Jolene out there. Because they weren't home yet. And Victoria came to my
house and you know, we chatted for a little while last night, but I hadn't like left my
damn house for real. And I was like, I need to go sit in another environment. But it makes
you feel, but you feel like you're like, I need to, so let me try to get on what I'm
trying to say. Like I feel when I'm not, when I'm at home by myself all day and for a while,
I get to the point where I'm like, oh, if I have to go see somebody, it makes me feel
like it's going to be miserable. But I know that I'm an extrovert and I need that interaction.
I just don't want to go do it. It's like going to the gym or something. And I'm like, no,
I don't want to be, people are going to make me exhausted. Oh, just thinking about that
makes making me exhausted. But like, I know that I need it, but like I don't want it.
Does that make sense? Yeah, it does. And I'm the total opposite. When I have been at my
house for like a really long time, you know, by myself or whatever, then I'm like craving
human interaction for real. See, I don't, I'm like, oh, loving by myself. I need to be
by myself more, but maybe it's because I have a lot of phone calls and things like that
for work. Well, and I have a lot of phone calls too, but I wonder if it's because your
work days are a little bit more stressful and not as pleasurable. Probably. Yeah, I
have to play that Nappy Root song a little bit longer next time. That's probably true.
Yeah. I mean, it is. Sometimes I get, and I'll be like done and I'll be like, I'm just
mentally exhausted from the day because, you know, back to back meetings and then you're
trying to get the stuff done and then you have 400 emails and then you're just like,
it's five o'clock and I wanted to take a nap at noon, but I couldn't because like, obviously
I'm working, but I get, I don't know, I get mentally exhausted sometimes and really neat,
but like I get re-energized when I do go out like a supper club on Thursday, I will probably
be like, let's go potty all night. Like, and then everybody's going to be like, is Emily
on cocaine? And I'm going to be like, maybe. Just kidding. I've never done cocaine before.
Exactly. Except you're not. You're just getting out of your introvert bubble out into the
world and so you're going kind of balkers. Right. Like it's okay. So your energy's on
high. Right. So it's like when I was in the junior league, when I lived in Auburn, we
would have these moms, stay at home moms that were like with little kids all day long and
they didn't do anything. They were with their kids or their kids went to school or whatever
all day long and then they would come to their one day a week or once a month junior league
thing and they would be like, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter,
chatter all night and they loved it. And we were like, we're like, we've been talking
all day. We've been talking for the past month all day and we don't want to talk to anybody
else. And, but they were like, we, I never get any human interaction or like adult interaction.
And so that's kind of how I feel. I remember when I first moved into this place, my neighbor,
she was out there and I would like, I felt like I was always, she would come outside and I would
be out with the dogs and I was always chatting with her. And I finally told her, I was like, look,
if I'm talking a lot, it's because I've been working from home and I've literally had no
interaction with a human today and it's really nice. And she was like, it's okay. Me too. And
I'm like, Oh my God, thank God. So anyway, pros, any other pros and cons? I don't think so. Yeah.
Not, not today. Not today. All right. Well, thank you for listening everyone.
Thanks for coming over tonight, Sarah and staying a little bit longer. I know you wanted to leave
earlier, but I'm really glad we did this. This is actually very nice. I know I've had a good time.
Thank you for having me. All right. So go out on Instagram and iTunes, Apple podcasts, Spotify,
wherever you get your podcasts and follow us, subscribe, like us, give us those hearts on the
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I have to go.