Dealing with Pups

I hate puppies.

I said this before. Not the canine kind. The human kind. When I have to deal with zoomers, I’m like that old grizzled dog that doesn’t want to be bothered by over the top pups.

The Zman had a piece on that which resonated with me. Big time.

…The younger generation seems to require a lot more maintenance than the previous one. I had a call the other day with a twenty-something project manager. He might be in his thirties, but he seems so naive I prefer to think he is in his twenties. Regardless, the call was mostly about the sort of things you would expect to hear in couple’s therapy.

He was concerned that he was not “effectively communicating” with me, so he wanted to discuss how we could improve our communication. He then went on to explain that he is “non-confrontational” and needs “a structure to establish the parameters of the relationship.” From there, it only became worse. I started thinking about hanging up and calling it a career. – The Zman

I deal with this quite a bit professionally. Every company wide webinar is geared to a younger group. Hell, I had my annual review, the tools and format of which are geared to a twenty-something, not an old graybeard like me. Very therapeutic language. Lots of modern buzzwords.

“Where to you see yourself in five years?”

Not here. That’s for DAMN sure. I usually say on a tropical island with my toes in the sand. Puppies seem to understand that. What I’d like to do is goof and say in a dark room surrounded by hookers and blow.

They’d never get that. Would they?

Every time I get into a conversation with a puppy, like Zman’s example, I wonder if I can retire early and drive a truck. Put that CDL to work. I’d still have to deal with bullshit, but it would be of a different kind.

Non IT fields don’t have this problem as much, far as I can see. I have few, if any issues dealing with trade guys, sales guys, vendors, and whatnot. There’s a pattern there.

When I came back from my ride Friday, the torsion spring blew out on one of the garage doors. No biggie. I put in a repair request for it on the rental company portal. While I was at it, I put one in for the rattling ceiling fan in my office. Sounded like a bearing to me.

Color me shocked – they texted me that afternoon to arrange the repairs.

Dude came out to fix the fan Monday. Young guy, early twenties I’d guess. He was super friendly, and told me last time he had this problem, it was that the installer didn’t tuck the wires up. He flips to reverse and turns the fan on – yep. Different noise. Takes the cover off, tucks the wires up, bolts it back together, and he’s done. Made me feel bad I didn’t investigate it further.

Then again – it ain’t my problem.

Next morning, out comes the dude for the garage. Heavy set, late twenties or thirty, I’d guess. A Jelly Roll character. Looked it over, said OK he’d get to it, with a look on his face telling me that he was going to get it done, preferably without me gawping at him. Fair enough. Effective communication, for sure.

I think he was done in twenty minutes. Knocked on the door and told me he was done and have a nice day.

I miss working in a more muscular field. Mine is very gynocentric (or has become so). You can speak honestly, without having to code-switch to a more therapeutic style.

Wonder what a dude that fixes houses for rental companies makes. I need surprisingly little if I were to ring the bell and exit stage left from IT.