Working in the Year of the Plague

This is a dual post, it applies to both my personal and business blogs.


I no longer set an alarm.  My body was used to getting up at 5:00 AM but I don't need to do that anymore.  Unless I stay up very late reading I am generally awake by 6.  I put on a robe, move to the desk in my bedroom, and fire up my laptop.


I don't work the hours I used to, when I would arrive at my desk at about 7:30 and depart at 4:30.  And I am available 24 hours a day, as my work emails and messages come to my phone as well as my computer.  And there are  the text messages that the server may send me in the evening if the backups run into a problem.   All this is no different than before.  The main difference is that without the hour long ferry ride each way I have reliable internet all day.


Although I can only bill for 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week, without prior authorization, I often find myself working longer.  Particularly if I am in the middle of something, now that I no longer need to rush to catch my ferry, I will work until I arrive at what seems to be a logical stopping point.


The department where I work did not have a policy that permits telecommuting.  Instead we are working from home.  I am not going to quibble about terminology, but it is a little amusing.


Now for someone working in IT, logging into a server remotely to do some work is not in the slightest bit unusual.  But this time, it is not only IT that is working from home, it is a cross section of the workforce, here in the San Francisco Bay Area, and across the country.  And I suspect things will never be exactly the same.


We still have meetings, we still interact with our co-workers.  We are not watching soap operas or smoking pot or drinking rum and coke all day.  We are getting the work done.


When this is over, managers all over will look back at this and realize that many of the objections they have had in the past to people working from their homes instead of traveling to a central location were really not valid.  If someone is not going to do the work, that will not really change when they are in the office.  They may look busy, but if someone is a bad employee they will be bad at home or in the office.


There will always be the need for people to assemble.  There will be hands-on training.  There will be in person meetings.   There will be documents to sign, and sometimes materials to be shared that may not leave the room.  There will be many reasons why people need to be physically together.  But all these things will in many cases be exceptions rather than the norm.


And let's think about this for just a few minutes, about what this could mean.


A parent can be home when their children return from school, meaning after-school care is not required.  And yes they will probably take a few minutes to get the kids something to eat or get them started on their homework.  How is that less productive than going into the break room to get another cup of coffee and talking for a few minutes with a co-worker about the house they are buying or their new dog?


If I am going into the office only occasionally, then the reference material I have always kept there, much of it my own, belongs here not there.  When I am able, I will go into the office and retrieve that.  And it will probably stay here.


The department where I work is a retirement system.  Part of that operation includes counseling members.  Those members make an appointment and take time off their jobs to come see someone to learn about their potential benefits and their options when retiring.  Seminars are also offered, for both new members, and groups of people thinking about retiring soon.  These are all virtual now.


Remote work like this opens up other potential opportunities.  What if the pension plan members had the option of an evening virtual counseling session, because each week one of the counselors worked from home and was available outside of normal working hours?  The counselors need not work overtime.  Once a month each counselor works one later shift, starting at one or two in the afternoon.  Everyone has occasional chores that can only be accomplished during the workday.  This integrates that into work life.


I can envision a conversation with my accountant or an investment advisor or a mortgage lender all fitting this model.  Would I buy a car without test driving it?  Absolutely not.  But the last car that I did buy, I spent an hour on the dealer's web site reviewing their prices and inventory so that I knew what I wanted to test drive before I got there.


You cannot build a house working from home.  You can't prepare meals in a restaurant or give speeding tickets.  There are any number of jobs for which a virtual work environment just doesn't work.  But for those where it does work, the genie is out of the bottle now.  I don't think we are ever going back to our old way of working, at least not completely.

Telephone Fantasy

"Your computer has been hacked, press 1 to speak to a Microsoft technician now."

(presses 1)

"This is Microsoft technical support.  Your computer has been hacked."

"Which computer is that?"

"Your Windows computer."

"Can you be a little more specific?  I have several."

"It is Windows 10."

"OK, that narrows it down to two.  Desktop or laptop?"

(pause)

"Your desktop."

"Thank you very much.  I just got a text message on my cell telling me that I can hang up now,  they have traced the call."

OK, so this is a fantasy.  There is nobody you can contact that will trace the calls of those people preying on the vulnerable, the elderly, any of the non-technical people out there who would not recognize that these calls are a scam.  Trace the calls and then bring them to justice.

But there should be.

Today it was Apple, telling me my icloud account had been breached.  That I don't own any Apple products was a pretty good indicator that it was a scam, if I had needed an indicator that is.  They called a few times.  I was busy and couldn't pick up the landline.

Here's how it should work.  You get one of these calls on your landline, but don't pick up.  Then you call a number, and give then your cell number and landline number.  They give you a callback number.

When the scammer calls again, you text 'now' to the callback number.  When they have the caller's real number, they text back 'got it'.

With so many of us working from home, now would be a perfect time to recruit a few hundred people across the country to be volunteer bait.   In the meantime, I will play the game anyway, and let the caller think, if only for a moment, that the cops are on the way.

Something else I didn't write.

I didn't write this, but what he is saying has been on my mind for a long time.

Many of my parents generation died fighting Fascism.  In an old photo album I inherited is a picture of a young woman, a cousin I will never know because she was killed in the blitz.

Anyway this came in an email today:

Rewatching The Story of Fascism in Europe 

One summer evening, the American president ordered a park next to the White House to be cleared of peaceful protesters. He had just declared himself “the law and order president” and announced his intent to mobilize the US military to subdue dissent across the country. And he was about to show off with his own display of force. 

The militarized police's rubber bullets and choking gas drove back throngs of people who were in Lafayette Park lawfully, to protest police brutality. Once the smoke cleared, that president marched through the park, with an entourage of sycophants, and stood before one of the most historic churches in America. There he held up a Bible for a cynical photo op. He brandished the book (upside-down) as if he had never read it. "Is that your Bible?" a reporter asked. "It's a Bible," he replied with a smirk.

If I described this scene even a few years ago, you would never have believed that it was real. And yet here we are. As a Christian and a humanitarian, this scene offends me deeply. And as a privileged white man in America, the events of the last week have been a painful but important reminder that so many Americans are denied the basic rights that people like me take for granted every day. To me, “law and order” should mean that Black Lives Matter and all Americans deserve equal protection under the law. 

Challenging times — like right now — call for strong leadership: a voice of unity, compassion, and mutual understanding. True leadership is nonpartisan, and in my lifetime, I've seen both Democrats and Republicans succeed in bringing together a fractured nation. But that's not what we have today. 

Two years ago, I produced a public television special called The Story of Fascism in Europe. I was driven by what I saw as uneasy parallels between our current political reality and the climate in 1930s Europe that gave rise to Hitler and Mussolini, and by my belief that we need to learn from that history. Today, those parallels have become impossible to deny.

The first 15 or 20 minutes of the special, as the seeds of fascism are planted in Germany and Italy, feel especially relevant in today's America. Notice how the militarization of police and the scapegoating of "others" are textbook stepping stones in tipping a nation toward authoritarianism. Pay attention to Hitler's "Brownshirts" and Mussolini's "Blackshirts" — goon squads who hijacked otherwise peaceful gatherings to stoke dissent. Tune into how they called into question the legitimacy of a democratic system; how they, too, held up an unread Bible; and how they reassured supporters by offering simple solutions to complex challenges. Pay attention to how a fascist takes advantage of a crisis — or several — to consolidate power and to sow fear and chaos. And remember how Hitler and Mussolini both insisted that they, alone, had the answers for all of these problems. As they say, history may not repeat itself. But sometimes it rhymes.

One thing I learned as I researched and produced this special is that there are pivotal moments in a nation's history when good and caring people can stand up against the rising tide of anger and fear that can lead to fascism. Or they can be complacent and wake up having lost their freedom. Our country is not too far gone...yet. But these coming weeks and months would be a good time for anyone who remembers the fate of Europe in the 1940s to organize, speak out, and vote in a way that helps keep us off that course. 

For starters, be sure you and your loved ones, friends, and neighbors are registered to vote. (And during a pandemic, consider requesting an absentee ballot.) https://vote.gov/ 

Many ask, “What can I do?” Here’s one answer: In response to the systemic racism woven into our democracy, and to let the murder of George Floyd inspire us to bring something positive to our troubled society, this month my company is donating $50,000 to Lawyers and Collars, an initiative spearheaded by Sojourners that is working to defend voter rights in states where people of color are targeted. The goal: to support 1,000 black pastors and their allies who are ready in key states to protect the vote. In Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, they will mobilize their congregations and communities. If you'd like to join us, with even just a small donation, you can do it here: https://give.sojo.net/page/18833/donate/1

Those of us who have the privilege of traveling to Europe have been blessed with an opportunity to get to know other societies — including ones that have lived through fascism — and to learn from them. Let's bring those lessons home, and let’s do our best to provide grassroots leadership, as we find a way to heal our fractured country — with compassion, empathy, and real progress.

I didn't write this, but it needs to be repeated,a lot.

Your black friend is trying to be ok.

Your Black friend in the past 30 days has watched a Black man get shot dead while jogging (Ahmaud Arbery), a Black woman get shot dead while sleeping (Breona Taylor), a white women weaponize a black man’s race by calling the police and falsifying potentially harmful claims (Christian Cooper), the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

Just to be clear your black friends feel this way all the time. These stories are not new. We hear them a lot and then we go to work and do our jobs and try to be good people, wives, moms, dads, friends and citizens. So I also just ask that you don’t pretend like this is new to them because it feels newer to you

Your Black friend is trying to be ok.

Please don't ask us about the looting.

Please don't chastise us about the rioting.

Please don't tell us that all lives matter.

Please don't minimize our fear.

Please don't bring up Black on Black crime.

Please don't ask "What about Chicago?"

Please don't say "if you'd just act like (A Wildly Successful Black Person... Usually Oprah, Obama, Colin Powell, Denzel or Will Smith)".

Please don't judge us.

Your Black friend is trying to be ok.

See your Black friend for ALL that they are.

Listen to your Black friend.

Empathize with your Black friend.

Support your Black friend.

Value your Black friend’s energy, time, space and experience.

Pray for your Black friend.

Pray with your Black friend.

Just let your Black friend know you really care.

Your Black friend will remember who truly had their back during this difficult time. They will remember who was more concerned about a looted Target. They will remember you posting a thinly veiled and racially offensive meme. They will remember you calling looters "Savages". They will remember your silence about their Black life and the Black Lives of others.

It's real easy.

Do whatever you can to help your Black friend out because your Black friend is trying to be ok.....

**Copied and pasted**

Thanks, Zee!

Recap

 This was sent to me by a friend.  The author is our mutual friend Zaylor Stout.

I copied it as is.

 Borrowed from Zee Stout..

*A RECAP OF THE LAST THREE WEEKS*

AMERICA: Oh my god! Coronavirus! What should we do?

CALIFORNIA: Shut down your state.

AMERICA: Wait... what? Why?

CALIFORNIA: Because 40 million people live here and we did it early, and it’s working.

OHIO: Whoa... whoa... let’s not be hasty now. The president said that this whole coronavirus thing is a democratic hoax.

CALIFORNIA: He also said that windmills cause cancer. Shut down your state.

TEXAS: But the president said that we only have 15 cases and soon it'll be zero.

CALIFORNIA: The president can’t count to fifteen. Nor even spell it. Shut down your state.

NEW JERSEY: Us too?

CALIFORNIA: Yes, you guys too. Just like when Christie shut down the bridge, but it’s your whole state.

FLORIDA: But what about all these kids here on spring break?? They spend a lot of money here!

CALIFORNIA: Those kids invented the tide pod challenge. Shut down your state.

LOUISIANA: But wait let’s have Mardi Gras first. It entertains people.

CALIFORNIA: It also kills them. Shut it down.

GEORGIA: Ok well how about we keep the state open for all of our mega churches? Maybe we can all pray really hard until the coronavirus just goes away!

CALIFORNIA: Which is working like a charm for mass shootings. Jesus told us to tell you to shut down your state.

OKLAHOMA: What about the tigers?

This was sent to me by a friend.  The original author is our mutual friend Zaylor Stout 

CALIFORNIA: What about a dentist. Shut it down.

WYOMING: Hold up, maybe we should go county by county like the president said.

CALIFORNIA: Stop acting like there are counties in Wyoming. There are no counties in Wyoming. Wyoming is a county. Shut it down.

PENNSYLVANIA: But big coal.

CALIFORNIA: But big death. Shut it.

WEST VIRGINIA: But we were the last state to get coronavirus!

CALIFORNIA: And don’t make us explain to you why that was. Shut it down.

NORTH CAROLINA: But the republican national convention is coming here!

CALIFORNIA: SHU... ok fine, do what you want.

<<Feel free to share>>

Up or down? Not so clear cut anymore.

This is a post all about piss.   So if that offends you, or if you just think it is a stupid thing to write about, then leave now.  It is also about manners, and what constitutes good manners in our modern era.
 
For all of my life I have been taught that the polite thing, the courteous thing, was to leave the toilet seat down.  Lately I have come to believe that isn't the best idea.

I started thinking about that riding the ferry everyday.  On the boat there are no men's or women's restrooms.  Especially in the afternoon, it is common that when I use one, someone has pissed all over the seat.

On the floor, I am used to it.  You see that in men's rooms where a urinal can be two feet wide and there is still a puddle around it.  I don't think that is (mostly) intentional, especially places where alcohol is served.  But that's not what I am talking about.

As far as that goes, I work in a building that has men's and women's restrooms.  It isn't really a public place.  Our floor doesn't have lot of people on it, and the few visitors we do have are usually from one of the offices above or below us.  It is mostly professionals.  The men's room has a urinal and two stalls.  At least a couple of times a month I find piss all over the floor and all over the seat in one or both of the stalls in our bathroom.

If men are going to be too inconsiderate to bother lifting the seat, then I think that the alternative is for those of us who are considerate to leave it up, or lift it up when we are leaving if we were sitting down.
 So, at the very least in common bathrooms, used by all genders, I think the new normal should be to leave the seat up.