Returning to Work
The radio alarm clock burst into song at 7am this morning, and got switched off perhaps one bar into a forgettable pop music track who's name escapes me now. I did the quick mental calculation required around “what time could I possibly get up, and still get to work on time”, before eventually scraping myself out of bed, and hobbling down stairs, re-teaching my knees how to bend on the way.
I have been off work for the best part of three weeks. The first week was spent holding the fort while my other half dealt with her father's funeral, and the second and third weeks were spent in Ireland (I'll be recounting stories of the Ireland adventure over the coming weeks).
While away I thought a lot about what I do – about the nature of my work. Over the last few years I have found myself travelling with my job increasingly often- and have begun to wonder if Iwant to do it anymore. I started my career working for a construction company – designing, developing, and maintaining their computer systems. I'm wondering if I might return to it.
Being a consultant is something of a dichotomy- there are always new challenges, new people to meet, and new technologies to learn, but you never get to live with anything you make, or evolve anything. Everything has a cost associated with it, so you inevitably find yourself doing the most work possible for the least amount of money, which flies in the face of the open source ideologies I grew up with – where you deliver the best solution possible, regardless of cost. Finding a place to work that agrees with those thoughts is going to be almost impossible though (says the man that hasn't looked yet).
It crossed my mind that I could build the “proper” version of the social blogging platform I played with a couple of years ago, and become my own boss. The only problem is that would require asuccessful kickstarter campaign (I learned last year that you need to know people in order to have any chance with kickstarter).
Maybe it's an age thing. You focus on your family for years, and don't realise that your job has changed – you find that the balance between the parts of the job you enjoy, and the parts you do not has shifted.
I doubt I will make any changes in the near future – I'm too much of a plodder for that. I also know that taking a break – a vacation – always causes these thoughts to bubble up. I guess this is where I secretly hope that a chance internet encounter happens where somebody that needs somebody with my skillset runs across this post, and my life changes.
Come on internet... do your magic.