Too Much Time On My Hands
My name is Sarah and I’m a workaholic…
I’ve been off work for almost a full week now and it’s driving me somewhat insane. I’ve cleaned my house. I’ve sorted my sneakers by colour. I laundered everything that can be laundered. I sorted and re-organized my cupboards (bathroom and kitchen). I’ve washed my car. I binge watched things I’ve been wanting to see. I finished knitting the sweater I started 3 years ago during the binge watching. I’ve gone for both a pedicure and a massage. I’ve had deep, meaningful conversations with the cat herd, actually following them around until they hide under the bed. I’ve created multiple Medium posts and draft of posts and ideas for posts. I’ve spent too much time on Quora and beat my best score on Spider Solitaire…twice. I don’t go back to work until January 02. Now what?
My company shuts down every year between Christmas and New Year’s, after a ridiculously hectic pre-holiday season. I get through this work break by working — from home. I have 24/7/365 access. I stay on top of orders and e-mails, and usually complete the year end accounting functions. I monitor our website, PayPal accounts and play to my heart’s content with spreadsheets, product updates and project/production planning. I’m really, really good at my job and it is my confident and happy place. Sure, I can be replaced, but it would take 3 people (not kidding!). I rock my work space.
This year in early December, our servers got hacked, and we were infected with ransom ware (thank you to the asshats somewhere in Russia, apparently).
It was a major inconvenience, but due to diligently backed-up files (thank you, me), and early detection (a Sunday morning at 7:00am, again, thank you, me) no harm was really done with the exception of losing UPS tracking data that had been pre-created but not uploaded to UPS. Our IT guy came in, waved his magic wand and wiped the infected drives, re-installed stuff and did whatever IT guys do to weed out the corruption, and we were back in business. I have to add here that I’m not particularly “techie”…the programs I use, I know inside out, but I don’t want to know the why or how. I just want them to work and do what they’re supposed to do, when they’re supposed to do so.
After avoiding the company Christmas lunch (per usual) on Friday, December 20th, I grabbed a stack from my “to do” pile, and headed happily home for the holidays, looking forward to working with cats on my lap, in my favourite holiday PJs, endless coffee at my fingertips, and no boss to annoy me. Saturday and Sunday were smooth, an hour here, an hour there, taking a break when needed. I was in the zone.
Monday morning, December 23…logged in, checked the files, and WTF, we’d been hacked again! At 3:23am, all the file extensions had been modified so as to be inaccessible. It was now 7:30am, so I decided it would be more considerate to have a coffee and fully wake up before texting the IT guy. At 8:00am, I sent the text. And waited. And waited.
After a seemingly endless wait (it was actually only 8:33am before he texted back), because he was in MEXICO, on VACATION, and wouldn’t be back and available until December 30, it hit me…I can’t work.
So, here I am, workless. And getting anxious. And fidgety. And stressed. The cats are starting to hide when I walk into the room. And I have too much time on my hands…
