I never knew something as simple as replacing a headset would serve as a reflection of what happens due to my antisocial tendencies at work. As I've previously mentioned, prior to recent developments in having new teammates, I was working solo at my Chicago office. Since my work was separate from the other support teams, I tended to be on my own. There was one guy that worked in one of the other support teams that happened to be part of the same Salesforce program that I participated in 2021. But we would only chat briefly before going about our separate days. He then wound up leaving the company in September 2025. Oddly enough it coincided with one of our companies recent layoffs so when I saw his account was deactivated, I worried that he was impacted by the layoffs. But when I reached out to him on LinkedIn he said he chose to leave to pursue another opportunity. There is one other guy that is generally friendly to everyone who I chat with briefly from time to time. But any communication to my actual team has to be done via our chat boards since the majority of my teammates are based in Indianapolis.
So Hemingway last month I was telling my manager that my headset had seen better days and wanted to see if I could order a replacement. She mentioned that there were new headsets ordered a few months back that was distributed to the different managers and that I was supposed to get one. I had never gotten the memo. I mentioned I would reach out to that "one other guy" (let's call him Roland).
Roland was so nice about it and mentioned he would look further into it. He mentioned he would reach out to the manager of the other support group. However, I later learned that the manager was currently out on paternity leave. Unfortunately Roland wasn't able to make any headway.
The sound on the headset worked perfectly fine. It was just that the ear foams were spilling out which made them look horrible. I'm sure other folks around me were making fun of my headset. After a month I finally decided to look through my previous headset order to see if I could find the exact model. It ended up I had ordered my current headset sometime in early 2024.
Once I got the correct model, I was able to find replacement ear foams for under $10. Thankfully I ordered the correct ones and I was able to replace it and save my existing headset.
The whole thing had me thinking how due to my lack of socializing with the team, I was overlooked for new headsets. Maybe if I made an effort to talk to their team, I wouldn't have been ignored. I never was good at small talk. But part of it too is that my homebase office is still Indianapolis. For example, Boston mentioned that the senior leadership team was meeting with Chicago support team. I wasn't included in the meeting. It was only later that I realized that it was because of my Home Office. I get notices whenever the Indianapolis office has meetings. So it's likely I wasn't on any list when it came time to distributing headsets and nobody thought of me.
The newer team members that are joining my support team will all have Chicago as their homebase. It may be time for me to officially make the switch. A part of me wants to stay based in Indianapolis just because it makes my taxes easier. When I worked at the aviation company and Amazon in Illinois, I had to file both Illinois and Indiana state taxes which was a pain in the butt. It always felt like I was being double taxed (though in actuality I typically got a refund from Illinois while owing Indiana due to Lake County taxes). It is possible I'm leaving extra money on the table by not switching but I do like how much easier my taxes are now. There's no rush though.
No comments:
Post a Comment