Don’t get me wrong—working at home has its advantages. (Okay, I’m not technically working, but I do have some freelance assignments, and I sure feel busy.) Anyway, the commute to the dining room table is five seconds, and no one is the boss of me.
On the downside, it’s a solitary pursuit. Save for intermittent conversations with my wife and my cats, I can go hours, sometimes even an entire day, without talking to anyone. In today’s virtual world, communication occurs primarily via email, texting and the like.
Sometimes cyberspace feels like a vacuum, especially where the job hunter is concerned. Remember ding letters? If not, here’s a refresher: They were typed pieces of paper that were placed in envelopes and delivered via what annoying people call “snail mail.” Ding letters were real bummers at the time—they were rejections from prospective employers after all—but compared to today, they may as well have been badges of honor. They signified that you had interacted with a human being.
No such acknowledgements exist today. The human element has been sucked out of the marketplace. Online want ads generally contain no contact person, no phone number—nothing that might facilitate reaching out to your fellow man or woman. After you press the “send” button, your job application is little more than a wisp in the ether.
This is the Age of Connectivity, yet we’re more alone and isolated than ever. I mean, let’s be real: A Facebook friend is not a friend—it’s a collection of data.
But enough of my soapbox ramblings. Today was actually a pretty good day. There were no traffic delays en route to my dining room table, I didn’t have to pretend to like my boss, and—get this—I talked to someone on the phone for a while about a freelance assignment. It beat the hell out of talking to my cats.
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