Back as a teenager working as a stock boy in a grocery store: had to spend tedious hours pulling items up to the front of the shelf. We called it "blocking" or "facing". Tagging and placing items was actually fun and meaningful because you'd see empty shelves get full and people could buy shit. But blocking was pointless, as customers would constantly buy shit and the shelves would need to get redone. Blocking was legit busy work.

To this day, if I grab something from a perfectly aligned shelf, I'll block it because I know how boring it is for the dude doing it.

Present day: My bosses need me to design a series of spreadsheets that take tens of hours to produce and are looked at by no one. And inevitably each year, the format needs to be changed because PMC dude with no tech ability has some clever idea about what needs to be done. So instead of reusing what I've done, I've got to spend more pointless hours redoing it. This year I need to add two new columns for like 50 records, and make graphs.

*you can totally make fun of me for being a white collar nerd... I deserve it

    • ButtBidet [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      3 years ago

      I'm just imagining that you're a private detective, and your case notes include suspects and details of the crime scene.

        • ButtBidet [he/him]
          hexagon
          ·
          3 years ago

          I bet the teaching is fun and motivating (albeit hard). The case notes are likely filed in some unread attachment in grant applications (I'm guessing).

          Sorry to ramble. I'm in such a shitty mood now.

          • jack [he/him, comrade/them]
            ·
            3 years ago

            Pretty much, yeah. The biggest difficulty with the teaching isn't actually the teaching (which I am enjoy and am good at and is honestly easy) but getting students to show up at all. And the case notes are the worst.