Switching Off From Work

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Jackster213

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Evening guys, what ways do people forget about work when at home? It’s always been something I struggle with. For instance today I was installing some Downlights in someone’s house. It all went well. 2nd fixed and tested then on my way home. As soon as I’m on my way home I’m inventing things that could have gone wrong. My brain this time has convinced me that I hit some other circuits with my hole saw, but obviously if I’d done that the circuit would trip. Unless of course I’d skilfully managed to hit just one core. I know for a fact I didn’t hit any and yet it’s like my mind just wants to stress about something. 
 

I’m sure a lot of it comes down to needing more self belief. Today is just one example of crazy things I’ve made up to stress over. Firstly, I’m being ridiculous right? Secondly, has anyone else ever experienced something like this? 
 

Thanks
 

 
Welcome Jack, how long you been in the game? Not long then it’s quite normal to a conscientious type to have these sort of thoughts, with experience comes greater peace of mind over what you’ve done or not done, but greater the stress of any numpties you may or may not work for or with. 
sorry you can’t have it both ways, unless you’re like our Kerching who knows what he’s doing and doesn’t give a monkeys about anyone else (which is probably correct way to go about it- but don’t tell him)! 

 
About 8 years now. Yeah I get you’re saying. I honestly think that I’m too conscientious. I will often check my terminations three or four times which I know is nuts at the time but I know that if I don’t then that’ll be the thing I’m worrying about that night. It’s not something that happens constantly. The company I work for generally does site work but today I was in someone’s house which always gets me worrying more. I guess it’s something that’ll hopefully improve with time. Thanks for your reply.

 
I honestly think that I’m too conscientious


I guess it’s something that’ll hopefully improve with time. Thanks for your reply.


I too think its a " being conscientious thing "   which to me means you care about what you are doing ,  which is all good .  

Another side to it is what happens to me sometimes  ...  in fact it happened today .  Replaced a shower unit, driving home  I'm thinking " I don't remember checking polarity when re- connecting the  10mm supply"           I know I did , I know its correct , I had to remove the connectors  , stick them onto the 10mm,s , push them  back , re-fix connectors , re-fit the internal  cables , re- tighten .  

I think its the same mental thing we all get when driving ,  long journey I seem to go into auto pilot  , I'm driving automatically  ,  then I get back to Brum say , leave the motorway and suddenly think .... I don't remember the last hour of the journey   :C    I was in Wales  ,  how did I get here ??  

Soon you will start to go out to the van , open the doors and  (As I often do)   say out loud , "What the chucking 'ell hell have I come out here for ?"   

 
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Today is just one example of crazy things I’ve made up to stress over
A good mate of mine used to be like that , he,s not with us anymore  but he won't mind me saying he was TOO fussy , TOO finicky .     A run of conduit  on a ceiling would be running  out half an inch ,      he starts to fret about it ,  I'm telling him to just forget it , its fine , no one will see it , no one will care   when the the fittings are on & working . 

      "But I know"  he'd say .   I'm saying as we hurtle  through space clinging to this fragile planet for our short allotted  span ,   that half an inch will not matter .  

Good guy  , left us too soon . 

 
 we all do stuff like that - I've always tried to work slowish and carefully to avoid any issues. I have to say I have given up worrying that much, when you see some of the ****e that has been working for years.....

 
I could never relax after work. I’d got all the plants PLC programs at home so I could carry on working on them undisturbed. I was drunk when I came up with a transportation multi-decision program, surprisingly it worked first time. I’m not going to say what state I was in for some of the other programs…..

Retirement = time to relax and enjoy the boredom.

 
I have 3 work settings

nice polite helpful, give anyone a lift if I know it will be reciprocated

a r s e y 

walk off site

I worked with a new set of shop fitters refitting 25 opticians from Heswall up to Dumfries. They found I had a 4th setting which they christened "terse"....."watch out lads, back off, he's approaching terse"

I can switch from work mode very very easily BUT 

A) I never send a quote the day I have written it....if I don't sleep well then something must be wrong with it

B) if I can't sleep then my sub concscious  is telling me something is not right

a lot of this comes from experience and LOTS of it gained over many many years and having "the knack"

a lot of the time I go in to auto pilot.....thinking about the 7 grand children, my weekend hobby, the blonde in accounts, the blonde on reception etc ex etc

dont get me wrong, there are a few things that annoy me......

 
About 8 years now. Yeah I get you’re saying. I honestly think that I’m too conscientious. I will often check my terminations three or four times which I know is nuts at the time but I know that if I don’t then that’ll be the thing I’m worrying about that night. It’s not something that happens constantly. The company I work for generally does site work but today I was in someone’s house which always gets me worrying more. I guess it’s something that’ll hopefully improve with time. Thanks for your reply.


I used to be the same when i used to run a garage repairing cars. I would send a car off and then think OMG did i do up the wheel nuts?? tighten up the big ends?? that sort of thing. Was only certain things it used to apply to. What i mean is, you know full well that you put the oil in or bled the brakes etc.

What i would do is this [prepare to laugh] Say i was doing up a set of wheel nuts; I would think of something else when i was doing it, say a bird flying past or anything..

Later on, when all of a sudden i would have palpitations and nearly faint, OMG DID I DO THE WHEL NUTS UP????? i would remember, "ah yes i did!! it was when that bird was flying past!!" I could then relax knowing all was well!!

john..

 
I used to work with a couple of guys that would mentally "take work home" (in my past employment).... they'd be thinking all night as to why something wasn't working
 

Me... as soon as I was out of the door I wouldn't, consciously, think about it until I was back in work the next day

 
Evening guys, what ways do people forget about work when at home? It’s always been something I struggle with. For instance today I was installing some Downlights in someone’s house. It all went well. 2nd fixed and tested then on my way home. As soon as I’m on my way home I’m inventing things that could have gone wrong. My brain this time has convinced me that I hit some other circuits with my hole saw, but obviously if I’d done that the circuit would trip. Unless of course I’d skilfully managed to hit just one core. I know for a fact I didn’t hit any and yet it’s like my mind just wants to stress about something. 
 

I’m sure a lot of it comes down to needing more self belief. Today is just one example of crazy things I’ve made up to stress over. Firstly, I’m being ridiculous right? Secondly, has anyone else ever experienced something like this? 

Thanks


Are there any historic reasons that may justify your stressing about work related issues? e.g. Have you made a mistake in the past that has had a significant impact upon you, your employer, or a customer? If yes then a reduced self belief is understandable, (i.e. you now more frequently see the "Glass-Half-Empty".) . If no, then maybe a bit more of a positive "Glass-Half-Full" attitude may help.  If you have 8years under your belt, with no major ****-ups along the way, then you have probably grasped the basics, gained some real world experience and now have a few years of knowledge to work with when encountering unexpected eventualities on a job.

If you are running your own business, or are in some level of management or supervisory role over other colleagues/employees, then I would think there is always an element of planning or evaluating tomorrows jobs whilst not at work. But providing you can keep a measure of importance over all tasks and priorities, it is not much different to a working parent thinking about things they need to organise for their children whilst at work for when they get home.  [Don't forget family commitments and relationships last a lifetime, employment stops a lot sooner! Keep a reality check on priorities].

I think the biggest stress and out of hours anxiety comes when you have an employer who is demanding every last morsel of flesh, out of every working day, with no tolerance to normal everyday human personal needs, and flexibility to give a bit of trust and leeway that employees are happy to work-hard and  play-hard. The modern technological era of instant communications by mobile phones, vehicle tracking devices, spread-sheet analysis of every job from quotation to commencement to completion to payment, and progress targets based on previous work has crushed the lifeblood and motivation out of vast swathes of employees in numerous industries.

I remember an era before mobile phones or pagers, where if you disappeared off-the-radar for half an hour, or three quarters of an hour, between jobs to "do a few personal tasks", it didn't raise an eyebrow or generate any stress to anyone in the company. Providing the job was done within a reasonable timescale & costs were +/- a not-to-over-the-top-percentage, of the quoted figures of the sales staff, then all was good in the world and the pub ironed out any bits that weren't!

Are you just working alone or does this relate to your previous thread, (May 8th), about added responsibility that you don't want?



Doc H.

 
It’s an interesting thought, 

if you consciously think about something are you seeing that something as personable ie do you see your work/job as a personable thing to you ? 

if you switch off - don’t think about- something are you seeing that something as a task ie means to an end? 
 

so does it say more about you as a person than you may realise? 

 
I think you are right there Doc, we have become so watched, whether it’s street cameras, tracking devices, smart phones etc that there seems to be little if any time to relax.whereas pre technology as we now know it, time was more precious to people not production, we had time for each other whereas now it’s all me me me. Whether that’s the individual with their own image, virtual or otherwise or a company with respect to production and profit, yet strangely studies have shown that people are more productive when they are given more work-life balance and less technology interaction. 
so now you have to ask why those at the top -probably with more time than any of us- won’t allow us the same, it’s all about control of the masses. 

 
It’s an interesting thought, 

if you consciously think about something are you seeing that something as personable ie do you see your work/job as a personable thing to you ? 

if you switch off - don’t think about- something are you seeing that something as a task ie means to an end? 
 

so does it say more about you as a person than you may realise? 


I can only comment from my own point of view, but I didn't see it as a means to an end and/or task ... it was just that I didn't worry about it,,, I don't normally stress or worry about much either

 
I can only comment from my own point of view, but I didn't see it as a means to an end and/or task ... it was just that I didn't worry about it,,, I don't normally stress or worry about much either
so do you hold your work/job in an element of importance. I accept that it’s something that we have to do to live in this world but does it matter to you what or where you work? 

 
so do you hold your work/job in an element of importance. I accept that it’s something that we have to do to live in this world but does it matter to you what or where you work? 


Yeh, I guess that I did..... people don't tend to like it when a £20m+ aircraft falls out of the sky - used to fix military aircraft instrumentation

 
Are there any historic reasons that may justify your stressing about work related issues? e.g. Have you made a mistake in the past that has had a significant impact upon you, your employer, or a customer? If yes then a reduced self belief is understandable, (i.e. you now more frequently see the "Glass-Half-Empty".) . If no, then maybe a bit more of a positive "Glass-Half-Full" attitude may help.  If you have 8years under your belt, with no major ****-ups along the way, then you have probably grasped the basics, gained some real world experience and now have a few years of knowledge to work with when encountering unexpected eventualities on a job.

If you are running your own business, or are in some level of management or supervisory role over other colleagues/employees, then I would think there is always an element of planning or evaluating tomorrows jobs whilst not at work. But providing you can keep a measure of importance over all tasks and priorities, it is not much different to a working parent thinking about things they need to organise for their children whilst at work for when they get home.  [Don't forget family commitments and relationships last a lifetime, employment stops a lot sooner! Keep a reality check on priorities].

I think the biggest stress and out of hours anxiety comes when you have an employer who is demanding every last morsel of flesh, out of every working day, with no tolerance to normal everyday human personal needs, and flexibility to give a bit of trust and leeway that employees are happy to work-hard and  play-hard. The modern technological era of instant communications by mobile phones, vehicle tracking devices, spread-sheet analysis of every job from quotation to commencement to completion to payment, and progress targets based on previous work has crushed the lifeblood and motivation out of vast swathes of employees in numerous industries.

I remember an era before mobile phones or pagers, where if you disappeared off-the-radar for half an hour, or three quarters of an hour, between jobs to "do a few personal tasks", it didn't raise an eyebrow or generate any stress to anyone in the company. Providing the job was done within a reasonable timescale & costs were +/- a not-to-over-the-top-percentage, of the quoted figures of the sales staff, then all was good in the world and the pub ironed out any bits that weren't!

Are you just working alone or does this relate to your previous thread, (May 8th), about added responsibility that you don't want?



Doc H.
I don’t think they’re the same thing but they both definitely come from the same cause. I think my stress comes from when I believe other people are relying on me. I’ve never cared about what I earn or what materialistic luxuries I have. I’m content in life in that respect but work is completely different.
 

In relation to my previous post about running jobs, I have since ran another job which went much better. It got stressful near the end but that was due to the builder flooding the job with labour and my company not being given enough time to prepare and react. As mad as it sounds my boss got me into meditation which helped a lot. That’s a talk for another time though. 

I have returned to the job I was at yesterday and I was worrying over nothing. It’s clear that I’m prone to over thinking things and just need to have more belief in myself. I’ve not made a serious mistake yet so I’m not sure where it stems from. 
 

Thanks for the replies guys. Knowing I’m not the only one has already helped me. 

 
. It got stressful near the end but that was due to the builder flooding the job with labour and my company not being given enough time to prepare and react.
Thats been going on for the last 50 odd years in my experience  ............builders always take on too much work , then find they can't finish on time  and theres often a  penalty clause to consider ,   so they go into panic mode . Saw them try to paint wet plaster once  ,  and starting to lay vinyl flooring while our mobile tower was still in use in the room .    

Electrical & heating guys  were expected to join in the madness by  digging   up more & more men  until everyone was treading on each other .  

 
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