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My wife is in charge of 9 restaurants with the furthest one being around 200 miles from home. It's a highly stressful (but well paid) job which requires her to be away from home an average of 3.5 days/week so we spend quite a bit of time on the phone. Of that time, at last half is spent with her venting about work or traveling. I rarely complain about work mostly due to the fact that she wouldn't understand. 
I've come to understand that commiseration comes with the territory, though her entire family is really over the top with it...and lucky for me, cell phones mean that they (mostly her narcistic brother) can all have me on speed dial for when something goes wrong or in most cases, because they're bored.
I probably average about 2 hours a day on the cell phone with the wife and/or brother-in-law, mostly in a listening mode. The worst are the afternoon calls. They derail me to the point that it's often hard to get back into finishing what I was working on prior to the interruption. I've quite often started the afternoon with the intention of working late only to spend an hour and a half on the phone in a therapy session.
That's it, I'm done venting! 
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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kmoorevs wrote: They derail me to the point that it's often hard to get back into finishing what I was working on prior to the interruption.
That would drive me nuts. Can you ignore non-wife calls during that period and request your wife to only call/text if it's really important during that timeframe?
/ravi
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Ravi Bhavnani wrote: Can you ignore non-wife calls during that period and request your wife to only call/text if it's really important during that timeframe?
Personalities that need to call like this Freak. The. ![Elephant | [mastadon]](https://www.codeproject.com/script/Forums/Images/elephant.gif) . Out. if you try to deflect or defer their concerns.
Software Zen: delete this;
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Ravi Bhavnani wrote: Can you ignore non-wife calls during that period
Yes, to the point that it would be apparent to most people that they were being ignored. When I don't answer it's usually followed by another call in 20 minutes or a text message stating that 'You must be busy!', as if that's the only reason I might not be available. I miss the BC era! (Before Cellphones)
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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kmoorevs wrote: I probably average about 2 hours a day on the cell phone with the wife and/or brother-in-law, mostly in a listening mode. The worst are the afternoon calls.
That's 10 hours a week. You're a better man than I--unless there's an emergency I need to be made aware of, I simply don't take calls during the day, unless it's from my boss, a co-worker, or a customer (and customers don't have my number).
I've made it clear to people that--despite the fact that I work from home--I have regular work hours and as such, if they wouldn't call me during the day at an office miles away to discuss something, then it can wait until after work. Everybody now knows calling me during the workday to tell me their printer isn't working will only get them on my sh*tlist.
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I've heard a Chinese story.
One day, a man visits a carpenter at work, and observes that he is having a bad day at work - the wood he is working on is chipping into pieces, and he is not able to accomplish even simple tasks; the carpenter is visibly angry. Evening approaches, and it is time to go home; and the carpenter's anger still continues. The man accompanies the carpenter to his home and observes; the carpenter gestures with his hands on a bush at the entrance to his house. At that moment, astonishingly, the carpenter's anger vanishes, and his mood becomes cheerful. As he enters his house, he greets his wife and children with a wide smile, and spends the rest of the evening and night in a cheerful mood. Next morning, this cheerful mood continues, till he reaches the entrance of his house, where the bush is located. At the bush, the carpenter again gestures at the bush, and his angry mood returns. Thus, it is the bush which separates his workplace mood from his home mood. He "deposits" his workplace mood on the bush, and is always cheerful at home, irrespective of his workplace tensions and worries.
However, in this age of 24/7 connectivity, with notifications of official emails reaching us 24/7, this concept of a "bush at the entrance" seems next to impossible. .
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Amarnath S wrote: the carpenter gestures with his hands on a bush at the entrance to his house
I can't shake the feeling something got lost in the translation, but I think we all get the point.
And the problem-solver in me is thinking it would be more efficient to move that bush to the construction site. I don't want to be the guy sitting next to him during a commute.
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You lost me at "significant other". My SO is Visual Studio. 
/ravi
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 This is something that took me over 20 years to figure out with my wife, who doesn't work outside the home. I've now become pretty good at unwinding on the 20-25 minute drive home. If I reach home and I'm still grinding away work-wise, I'll tell her I need some time to unwind, go to my office and relax a bit.
Even now, every so often I'll have to tell her I'm going to be an S.O.B. for the evening, and will spend most of the evening to myself.
Software Zen: delete this;
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OK, yes, the company Christmas do is always rather quiet ... but I do win "Employee Of The Month" every time.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Do you give yourself a bonus for that?
"The only place where Success comes before Work is in the dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, 1928 - 2012
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Just a small token of the companies appreciation, obviously. 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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are you sure? one-man-band??
who cleans out who's litter box?
"Employee of the Month" well sure, but you're still taking crap from the cat though.
after many otherwise intelligent sounding suggestions that achieved nothing the nice folks at Technet said the only solution was to low level format my hard disk then reinstall my signature. Sadly, this still didn't fix the issue!
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Well he does think he's in charge ... and he's not far wrong, either. 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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OriginalGriff wrote: he's in charge
The other words in your statement are neither useful nor necessary.
Software Zen: delete this;
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Yes, but then you are also Hadley[^] from the accounting then.
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Sure, but if contracts don't work out, you're the first one sacked!
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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No, I'm the last ...
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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I like it!
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Are you tooting your own horn?
Monday starts Diarrhea awareness week, runs until Friday!
JaxCoder.com
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OriginalGriff wrote: OK, yes, the company Christmas do is always rather quiet
I don't see this as a downside...
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Well, who'da thunkit?[^]
I'm waiting for the follow-up research that proves that accessing the Internet has the effect of shrinking many people's brains.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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I'm worried about the bleeding hearts saying we shouldn't punish or even admonish criminals anymore because they were, "born that way."
Perhaps even suggest we pay them welfare (generously so they don't feel 'poor' enough to steal more), give them preference in jobs (coz not doing so = discrimination) etc. etc. etc.
on seconds thoughts, hmmm, doesn't sound so bad.... where should I go for brain smallening smallerizing reduction surgery?
after many otherwise intelligent sounding suggestions that achieved nothing the nice folks at Technet said the only solution was to low level format my hard disk then reinstall my signature. Sadly, this still didn't fix the issue!
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lopatir wrote: I'm worried about the bleeding hearts saying we shouldn't punish or even admonish criminals anymore because they were, "born that way."
Might be an idea to set brain-size requirements for lawmakers, judges, policemen, etc, though. God knows enough of them nowadays are vicious, nasty b@st@rds[^].lopatir wrote: where should I go for brain smallening smallerizing reduction surgery?
Um, I think that clearly demonstrates that it would only be vanity surgery.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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