Being trained

[darkemeralds]

I'm in one of those virtual courses where the training schedule is in the Eastern Time zone and the technology required to participate is greater than what I've got at home. This means I have to get to work at 6:15 a.m.

What's more, it's February. There is snowy-sleety-hail. With wind. For the past two mornings I've ridden to work at 5:30 in the morning while being needled in the face with small pieces of ice. Honestly, I'd drive my car, but the garage I use doesn't open early enough.

On the plus side, traffic is very light at that hour. And I get to go home at 2:30, in the daylight.

So I'm sitting here tethered to my computer and phone, having eaten my lunch at 9:30, with a weird, schedule-induced jet lag-minus-the-jet, watching the thrilling saga of Variances and Invoice Blocks unfold before me on the computer screen.

The trainer frequently uses the phrase "at this juncture" so at least I'm reminded of Benton Fraser.

Comments

[darkemeralds]

Once a year, and they'd like it if I'd do it twice. The technology gap is vast. To participate adequately, one extremely large monitor or two regular sized ones affixed to a Windows or Mac computer, a land line, and a land-line headset would all be required.

I have none of those things at home, and my employer has neither the means nor the motive to provide them. But you want to know the real truth? A) I like to bitch about it and B) "working from home" is a complete contradiction in terms as far as I'm concerned. I'm much better off in the office.

This virtual classroom thing is so far above flying to some hotel suburb and eating cooked freight for a week that I really have very little room to complain (though you observe that I can find room), and the trick for me is finding relevant courses that don't happen in the winter.

[executrix]

I suppose it's not worth installing a landline for once or twice a year, but...man, I'm looking at a huge fucking monitor now. I paid $30 for it, and there's another one that I paid $20 on top of the bookcase near the Fandom Shrine. If they can't find an extra computer someplace, they can certainly lease one, and a headset...that might run $20 or even $30. Out of their pockets, not yours.

[darkemeralds]

Now that you break out the costs, I can see what the problem really is: I don't want all that stuff in my tiny house. It would take up more room than I've got to spare and say "work work work" to me all the time.