Hey, I Remember That Feeling ...

As I've talked about many, many times ... my old job was in IT.   I wasn't a programmer or anything that advanced.  Mostly my job was about support ... your monitor doesn't work ... your spreadsheet doesn't calculate ... your printer won't print.  You name it ... all relatively simple tasks.

I'm not going to lie ... when I took this new job, I was relieved to be out of IT.  It's a field that requires constant learning.  You can't relax ... you have to always be up on the latest security patch ... the latest virus threat ... the latest OS upgrade.

Even when it wasn't work related, it still helped to be up on everything from digital cameras to phones to tv/cable technology ... because people were constantly coming to me with questions.   "How do I add a contact to my phone?" or "How do I turn the flash off on this camera?" or "What's an HDMI cable?"   Just because you work in computer, people think that anything that involves a circuit board is automatically in your wheelhouse.

So I was glad to step away from it all.  I didn't want the pressure of knowing every new popular app.  I didn't want to discuss social networks ... and I didn't want talk about the cloud.  I wanted a job that I could just come in and do ... without the need for research.  I wanted to read Gizmodo and enjoy it ... instead of feeling like I was doing homework.

And so it's been for the last four months.  Until today ...

We had a new instant messaging program that went live today.  One of my frustrated co-workers said, "I don't like that this is always on the bottom of the screen.  It won't minimize!  How do I make it go away?!"  I told her it was probably under options ... to just dig around a bit.  She immediately snapped, "I'm gonna call the help desk ..."  Sigh ...

I opened the program ... went to tools ... went to options ... and there at the bottom of the first menu was "Minimize to alert area and remove from task bar."  I put an x in the box ... and it disappeared.   As she was dialing the number, I walked over and said, "Here, do this ..." and showed her how to fix it.  

She was dazzled.   She proceeded to tell everyone on the team about the "new trick" I had figured out ... and showed them how to make it disappear.  I went back to my desk and realized ... I miss that.  I miss solving problems.  I forget that some people just don't look at computers the way I do ... and telling them to dig around is unhelpful at best ... and cruel at worst.

It was a neat little moment today.  That along with helping College One with a monitor problem (... a problem she already knew how to fix ... my girls are very tech savvy) ... gave me reason to pause tonight.   My cousin has been urging me to watch the board for IT jobs ... she's even told her boss to keep me in mind for jobs ... and I was annoyed because I didn't want that kind of responsibility.

But now I'm wondering ... maybe I do?   Things to think about ...

You better think (think)
Think about what you're trying to do to me
Yeah, think (think, think)
Let your mind go, let yourself be free

Aretha Franklin - Think