So for this test scoring project there has been some issues with using the technology that allows us to work from home, especially at the beginning. Some of it, maybe a lot of it, comes from making sure you're muted in order for other people to work in peace without hearing someone. But the collaborative aspect of this project requires us to use the microphone in case we need to speak to each other over the Internet. It's just that we need to make sure we mute ourselves when we don't need to speak to each other. Some of the group has forgotten from time to time, and so people either try to talk to them into muting, communicate through typed message to mute, or (and why this shouldn't just be the thing we all use I don't know) some administrator just mutes all of us en masse.
This happened to me. And I will not take any responsibility for it, because it sure as fuck was not my fault. I have noticed from time to time that this, uh, collaborative screen I am on has cut out on me. I have been a good boy, and I have remembered to mute whenever we are in working mode. However, when this screen cuts off -- again, through no fault of my own -- and I either bring it back or it somehow comes back to it by itself, it is not on mute. I have no fucking idea how all that happens, and I don't know that it is happening until I hear complaints from the other scorers through this collaboration screen that they can hear everything I'm doing. But I'm fighting like hell to get myself muted again. It happened once when my computer was running very low on energy. For some goddamn reason, when the computer went to sleep mode and I plugged the cord into my computer and got it out of sleep mode, I was not on mute on the collaboration screen, and so (apparently) everyone could hear me move my bed and plug my screen and hit ALT+TAB to get back to scoring papers. I guess people were trying to scream at me through the Internet for three minutes before I realized what was happening.
Last night was fucking worse. Out of the blue, this collaboration screen turned into the equivalent of the wait or processing screen; instead of seeing a circle of lines successively light up, there were three dots, one at a time growing bigger and then smaller. I didn't know what the hell was going on, and for a minute I just waited for it to go back to where it was supposed to be. When it didn't, I panicked. I put in the URL for the same screen. On this one I got in, and I immediately heard screams -- and I do mean shouting -- of "PUT YOURSELF ON MUTE!" And on this screen you can see a graphic showing when someone is talking. I saw my name was not on mute. I hit the mute button a few times, but I couldn't fucking mute myself. I then hurried back to the first screen, where it finally got out of the wait screen it shouldn't have been in in the first goddamn place, and I just closed that window. I was able to go to the second screen and mute myself there, but apparently a supervisor had a mass mute button she finally used. Whatever.
Two things stand out. The first is the screaming. When I got into the collab screen the second time, I was immediately dunked into a sea of blood-curdling cries of "PUT YOURSELF ON MUTE!" There was this one scorer whose bug I saw on the screen ... my God ... and may just be me, but she was particularly fucking shrill, and loud, with her "YOU HAVE TO PUT YOURSELF ON MUTE!!!" DO NOT FUCKING YELL AT ME LIKE THAT. She pissed me off so much that it affected how I worked the rest of the night. I would have been way more productive if not for this incident, but also for her. I just wasn't in a good head space after her bullshit.
The other thing scares me even more. In this caterwaul people were typing and shrieking out how they could hear sounds from my end. I swear to God I have no idea what the fuck they're talking about. The only sounds I was making were me furiously typing and stabbing at the screen to get to the right screen so I could fuckin' mute myself. I am getting paranoid that my co-workers and supervisors are hearing sounds that I'm not making. I mean, if they hear them (and they might be imagining things) and they're not coming from me, where is it coming from? And how in the hell am I getting knocked off my screen, and then unmuted when I get back to it, anyway? Does it automatically happen when my computer shifts into Power Saver mode? Or is there something more nefarious behind all this -- like I've been hacked or something?
The first time I was told to mute myself (THROUGH NO FAULT OF MY OWN!) I made a point of putting my headphone volume all the way down to zero. I am on mute anyway (or at least I should be), but I needed another layer of, well, protection so that people don't hear me, like, fart or something. After this bullshit mess though I don't give a fuck anymore; I cut my microphone off. You're not supposed to do that in case a supervisor wants to speak with you -- you're not supposed to have the radio or TV turned on, either, don't tell anyone -- but fuck that, I'll do anything to prevent somebody fucking yelling at me for being noisy when I have no goddamn clue what they're talking about.
And furthermore, even though I may cool off by tomorrow, I don't see the benefits of working from home anymore. Fuck being able to work from your bedroom and not worrying about driving to work or needing to get dressed. It's fucking not worth it if the technology suddenly, incomprehensibly breaks down and I continually get yelled at for something I didn't do. Fuck, I'll drive half an hour after work for a job where my goddamn computer tries to play tricks on me, shit. ...
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