I Keep Losing My Phone. . .And I Couldn’t Be Happier
I don’t do it on purpose. Just like you probably don’t. But, at least a couple times per week, I misplace my phone. Now, I’m not a very active guy. The phone is almost always in one of three places: My car, the couch or the garage.
Today it was in the car.
I don’t mind losing track of my phone. It’s a good reminder. It reminds me that I can lose track of my phone. And typically nobody cares.
That wasn’t always the case. I once had a job where I had to be on-call, 24 hours per day, seven days per week, 365 days per year. And I kept that up for five years. It might be so bad, right? I mean, sure you can be on-call, but if no one calls, who cares?
They called.
My job was as second level support for a call center. Actually, five call centers. The bulk of operators can on shift at 5:00AM my time. But we took calls 24 hours per day. And we had about 1800 agents across three timezones.
If something broke I was the first person that the onsite coordinators would call. If I was unavailable, they would call me again. If I didn’t pick up on the second call. . .well, there was really no protocol for what to do if I was unavailable. I just had to be available.
In fairness, was in the job description. They didn’t ask me to do anything they hadn’t already told me about. The thing was, as a call center, if we couldn’t take calls, we lost money. And we hated to lose money.
I took my phone literally everywhere. I took it to kids’ concerts. I took it to the movies. I took it camping. More than once I spent hours on a Saturday watching the other scout leaders escort the boys up the mountain while I found a log and used my phone. I took it on a 20 mile bike ride. Using the mute button and and earbuds, I was able to keep up with the group and still deal with the issue in Virginia or Florida. I even took my phone into doctor’s offices and therapists sessions.
And, of course, I slept with it right next to me. And I got to the point that I hated my phone. I loved the job. It was a great job. But, I got tired of my phone. I didn’t even like when my family would call me on it. It was a tool that I had to use, but not that I wanted to use.
I no longer have that job. And after five years, that organization decided to hire a team of 10 people to handle the on-call duties. (Seriously, they hired 10 people to replace A PORTION of my job. I loved the job, but I was SERIOUSLY underpaid.)
I have a boring phone. It’s an old android phone. I have no games. No music. No videos. Even pictures, I quickly move them to an online storage location. The phone has 16GB. It’s small. It’s old. And I don’t care.
I have to have it, of course. But, I no longer have have it next to me all the time. I can choose which calls to answer. I can put it on vibrate. I can even let it run out of batteries at times.
I can even lose my phone. . .and not care. And that makes me happy.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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