hushpuppylife OP t1_j679tcz wrote on January 28, 2023 at 5:31 AM

Reply to comment by Mindless-Employment in Explaining your DC job when you go home? (Especially if it’s left leaning, policy, NGO, etc) by hushpuppylife

No they don’t. And I admit a lot of this is just me overthinking stuff. But I guess it’s just different working a job that is sorta city specific and trying to take that back to more of a small town feel.

Kinda like if you’re in your hometown at the bar with your buddies

I guess explaining how you work for some progressive nonprofit taking zoom calls all day and dealing with policy stuff is different and perhaps more complicated then saying “I work at a bank, insurance Company, a kitchen, construction, etc) where people know what those jobs are

Mindless-Employment t1_j67jc6q wrote on January 28, 2023 at 7:24 AM

If it makes you feel any better, some people you talk to here probably also don't understand. I live and work here but all my jobs here have been contractor positions doing technical work that involves sitting and staring at a two monitors 8 or 10 hours a day, clicking and typing, typing and clicking, rarely getting to talk to anyone at all. The people I know who have these policy/advocacy/issues-oriented jobs explain to me what they do and I nod and say "Oh, OK" but rarely understand wtf they're talking about beyond the absolute basics.

When everyone was suddenly WFH in 2020, I had a neighbor whose balcony was right next to my bedroom window and I could see her out there the whole spring, doing Zoom meetings on her lap top two or three times a day. I was fascinated but also totally mystified that someone's job could entail spending so much of the day talking to people. Some jobs are just hard to understand if they're very different from yours.