Published on 12, July, 2020
That's me, 100%. Thankfully I managed to find a way to keep HR off my back
I could not hold down a desk job owing to office politics. I recognised my limitation well before entering the job market many years ago. I am now retired after having spent my worklife applying my accumulated skills either on the shop floor where uninterupted focus was required around rotating machinery, or working for myself as a one man band offering an outdoor service to the public where contact was minimalised.
My role is production team leader. Half office and half shop floor. I'm lucky that my boss is out on the road a lot so most of the time I have the small office to myself. When I have to deal with production staff I mask up and my alter ego does what needs to be done to get through each day. It's absolutely exhausting for me, and most nights I come home, go for a walk, have some food, then fall asleep in front of the TV because I can't keep my eyes open. I stick at it because it's my only real link to other humans and I fear that if I stopped working I would become a complete recluse. I can't say I enjoy it much while I'm there but it sort of 'normalises' me, which means different things to different people but I know what it means to me.
I echo what it means to you which is why I chose work that required my undivided attention to the exclusion of others.