Unmotivation

So I have a lot of time on my hands at the moment. For reasons I won't really go into, I haven't been employed for a year. I'm fine with that, it's due to my own choices although not wholly my fault that it's been so long. (Note to self: next time trying to get involved with a startup, the first thing to say will be "show me the money.") Anyway so I'm essentially at home all day. Trying to organize an overseas move (again.) This is within my capabilities. It is also taking FOREVER.

Why is it so hard to pick up the damn phone? I've finally gotten some decent quotes from a couple shipping companies. One in particular I'm very much thinking of going with. I've been intending to call the agent for this company all day, but kept putting it off, and now it's 4:30 PM and tomorrow's a stupid useless holiday. I talked to him already on Thursday and Friday, so it's not like this is out-of-the-blue.

...I just sent him an email. Easier than calling.

Same thing dealing with my landlord. She is from a big property management company. (Note to self: only rent from private landlords from now on. Or don't rent, because renting is for chumps. Don't tell the tenant in my house that.) I had some specific things to go over with them last week, and like a dumbass I put it off until Friday, when I discovered to my great annoyance that everyone in their office had left for a 5-day weekend without even dropping me a warning note. The twats. The person I did get through to certainly didn't feel like lifting a finger to do any of her vanished colleagues' work, so now I'm stuck sitting on my feet until Wednesday again. Great.

I don't want to talk to these people. I hate trying to negotiate stuffy, adversarial you-want-this-I-want-that interactions over the phone. Once again if I could do it by email I would, but that is taking way too long. I told them weeks ago that I was planning to move out on the 15th and they're dragging their heels for no reason.

Now I have just about all my stuff packed up and I'm living out of a suitcase's worth of clothes in my own home, but still no timetable for how long anything is going to take. I started this process months ago, but I'm pretty laid back and don't like to be all up in people's faces, so I get no results. So irritating.

I hate calling businesses, it's always a chore to me. I guess I have patience for only a limited number of phone interactions and I reserve them for people I actually like. I had to deal with something with my bank last week. I could have called them, but, well, the branch is a 15 minute walk from here & it was a nice day. So I did it in person. No problem. If I'd have had to pick up the phone I would have rather put it off until the end of the universe.

Anyone want to make a few hundred bucks? At this point I'd happily pay an agent to do all the administrative crap while I concentrate on the practical stuff that needs to get done (and boy is there a lot of it.) Yeesh.

There really isn't much point to this post. Just venting. It may or may not self-destruct in a few days.

Sounds like beer-thirty. Good luck with getting it all dealt with swiftly.

Funny, I'm sitting here right now NOT making a call I need to make for the same basic reasons. I guess that doesn't help, does it?

My phone call earlier:

"Sorry. I've been busy. Forgot to pay rent. Can I pay double on Friday?"
"Sure."
"OK, thanks."

Yes, private landlords are nice. Especially with no contract or lease.

I hate, hate, HATE talking on the phone for business stuff. Either email, or in person. Otherwise, I do exactly what you do (procrastinate on making the phone call).

It's understandable.

It also sounds like you need to hang with a friend and imbibe a bit. Which would also be understandable.

Working in a call center makes you loathe the telephone.

Derick Freese wrote: Working in a call center makes you loathe the telephone.

you just don't berkeley with people enough.

I hate the phone too. Would much rather communicate by email.

I'm a salesman. I NEED to make calls, warm and cold. Lately, I hate it, even though I know it's necessary, and not unpleasant. Dealing with our unwanted roommates has drained all my ambition.

Sounds like you need to take tomorrow to head over to Kreuzberg and throw rocks at the Polizei or something.

I too, am on the hate the phone stuff. If it is not by email, in-person, or text, I do not like doing it. I rarely like to talk on the phone with my friends even, Id rather text or see them in person. I just do not like talking on the phone.

And I am pretty unmotivated right now too due some certain circumstances.

On a more serious note, if you do want to come hang out in Berlin I'll buy you a beer somewhere less prone to Maitag riots.

I also find that sending an e-mail allows me to collect all my thoughts rather than a phone call where I will forget to mention a couple of them.

E-mail also collects a record of what occured. This has been helpful for me in a couple of situations. One time, I was denied coverage from our benefit carrier at work, then it came up 4 months later that the denials were not permitted. When I tried to re-submit, they claimed that I never submitted in the first place. Good thing I kept that e-mail. I sent it to our HR dept. Payment followed soon after.

Salanis wrote: On a more serious note, if you do want to come hang out in Berlin I'll buy you a beer somewhere less prone to Maitag riots.

Hamburg?

In reply to NGTD:

Having an email record/time stamp is a good idea.

You coming back stateside, Jay?

@PHeller:

Toronto for now. I'm going to try it for 6 months or a year and see if I can sort myself out a little better over there. If it doesn't work, I might just come back this way or go onward to somewhere else. I really like Berlin but it's too easy to slip into a rut and sit on my ass around here (like I'm doing now), so I want to change things up a bit. Still really apprehensive about the whole move though.

Glad to hear I'm not alone on the phone-call hatred. Then again, I think there's a wee bit of selection bias going on here since everyone in this thread "knows" each other to some degree, through only text messages on a computer screen. Maybe there's a parallel universe of people out there who love cold-calling but can't stand forums or texting/email.

I think the issue for me is I'm not a very argumentative/adversarial type of guy. In social negotiations I'd much rather sit back, crack a smile, and say "let's work this out so that we're both satisfied" than make it into a you vs. me thing. Talking on the phone strips away the layer of interaction necessary to do that, and gives a major advantage by default to the type of people who get their way by shouting and posturing and giving the other person hell until they give in. It's like a type-A businessman amplifier. I hate being shoved on the defensive.

I'm not a big fan of the phone, but sometimes we just gotta put on our big-boy shoes and get the job done. Its about 300% easier to make the phone call you have been dreading than to dread it for another day.

And email or text is fine for a declarative statement, or a simple fact. For anything requiring a conversation, details or negotiation it sucks.

N Sperlo wrote: My phone call earlier: "Sorry. I've been busy. Forgot to pay rent. Can I pay double on Friday?" "Sure." "OK, thanks." Yes, private landlords are nice. Especially with no contract or lease.

I wish my landlord was that easy... actually, he is.. his wife on the other hand...

a couple of years ago, I dropped the rent off on the way home from work.. it went into the drop box he had at his real estate agency (this was his personal rental. not a client's) and it must have fallen to the side instead of straight down.

so.. I get home at 5am.. crawl into bed.. and two hours later the wife is banging on my door... Rent is due this morning and she wants to know why it is not there. A quick call to her husband and he found it.. did not even get a "sorry" from his wife....

Even he avoids her when he can

BoxheadTim wrote:

Salanis wrote: On a more serious note, if you do want to come hang out in Berlin I'll buy you a beer somewhere less prone to Maitag riots.

Hamburg?

I live in Moabit. Things here are chill and/or Turkish.

I feel you brothers. I've felt like hiding under a rock for the last 6 months.

Just into the second week back to 'normal' 48-52 hrs from the 72 hr weeks and jumping shifts w/ in the week, had two whole days off, wow.... and I didn't wanna go back to that cluster berkeley last night... and still don't... I'm burned out to a crisp. To say the least I could give a flying berkeley rats ass, two weeks notice would just prolong the agony, if I make it through the week it'll be a miracle.

No, I am not motivated.

mad_machine wrote: so.. I get home at 5am.. crawl into bed.. and two hours later the wife is banging on my door... Rent is due this morning and she wants to know why it is not there. A quick call to her husband and he found it.. did not even get a "sorry" from his wife....

berkeley. That.