A New Gig After Six Years 'o Drivin'...

[Portreve]

After six years of working as an inventory auditor for Circle K, I've taken a new position with an educational products company.

One of the weirdest (not in a bad way) things about this transition is going from driving between 1,500 - 2,000 miles (~ 2.400 - 3.200 km) per month to, well, exactly 0 miles a month for my job.

This is now the second call center-type job I've had, but this one is (as you can tell from the above statement) a work-from-home type of situation.

The miles per month I used to drive actually grew from a normal amount of driving (let's say a couple hundred) into the numbers above over the course of several years, particularly after Circle K gave away a significant geographical area to a third party auditing company called Southern Retail Inventory Services, or SRIS. They've had massive and significant issues with staff retention for a variety of reasons, and so honestly it hasn't been fun for anyone. But meanwhile, a couple of us who live "down here" along with the rest of the team worked much further north. It was good in that it re-awakened my sense of adventure and love of travel, but the grind of having to drive upwards of 2.5 hours each way five days a week gets old.

[xenopeek]

Congratulations on the new job! I've done travel time like that for a past job two days a week and that was already horrible Do you have a plan what to do with the 25 hours a week you won't be on the road?

[Lady Fitzgerald]

After six years of working as an inventory auditor for Circle K, I've taken a new position with an educational products company.

One of the weirdest (not in a bad way) things about this transition is going from driving between 1,500 - 2,000 miles (~ 2.400 - 3.200 km) per month to, well, exactly 0 miles a month for my job.

This is now the second call center-type job I've had, but this one is (as you can tell from the above statement) a work-from-home type of situation.

The miles per month I used to drive actually grew from a normal amount of driving (let's say a couple hundred) into the numbers above over the course of several years, particularly after Circle K gave away a significant geographical area to a third party auditing company called Southern Retail Inventory Services, or SRIS. They've had massive and significant issues with staff retention for a variety of reasons, and so honestly it hasn't been fun for anyone. But meanwhile, a couple of us who live "down here" along with the rest of the team worked much further north. It was good in that it re-awakened my sense of adventure and love of travel, but the grind of having to drive upwards of 2.5 hours each way five days a week gets old.

When i worked at Circle K after retiring the first time, many of the inventory auditors we had to deal with were complete boneheads (I knew something about how to conduct inventory audits because when I worked in warehousing for 30 of the 32 years I worked for the company I retired from, we did our own audits and reconciliations; I also introduced some new procedures). I wonder if the boneheaded auditors were contractors.

[cliffcoggin]

but the grind of having to drive upwards of 2.5 hours each way five days a week gets old.

I know the feeling. Two hours minimum per day for 27 years until redundancy. Getting sacked was the best thing to have happened to me in years. Now my commuting takes all of 20 seconds to my workshop at the end of the garden.

[MurphCID]

Congratulations.

[Portreve]

Congratulations on the new job! I've done travel time like that for a past job two days a week and that was already horrible Do you have a plan what to do with the 25 hours a week you won't be on the road?

Optimistically, studying for certifications (Net+, Linux+, usw.)

[MurphCID]

Will they let you install Linux on the new Lenovo?

[RollyShed]

but the grind of having to drive upwards of 2.5 hours each way five days a week gets old.

You mean 5 hours driving total per day? WHAT!
I did 1/2 hour or less each way on a bicycle. Remember some pay to go to a gym for exercise so I got it free and it woke one up in the morning so I'd be ready to think when I got to work.

[Portreve]

but the grind of having to drive upwards of 2.5 hours each way five days a week gets old.

You mean 5 hours driving total per day? WHAT!
I did 1/2 hour or less each way on a bicycle. Remember some pay to go to a gym for exercise so I got it free and it woke one up in the morning so I'd be ready to think when I got to work.

When I first started working for them, most of the stores I went to were between 10 and 45 minutes from my house. A few years later, they gave away almost the entire area I normally audited to a third party company (mentioned above) and that's when the mileage really started to pile on.

I was born and raised for almost ten years in the Cleveland, Ohio area. My parents owned a place down here, and we'd drive the ~1,200 miles (~1.900 km) down here, stay a couple weeks, then drive back. I have very fond memories of riding along on Interstate¹ 75 (I-75), seeing vehicles (mostly pickups and commercial trucks) using those printed mesh screens on the rear window not just for advertising, but also as a way to cut down the sunlight, and semis with some of the most elaborate lighting systems on them you could imagine, seeing the giant peanut and giant peach, and other things, along the way here and there. For the benefit of the folks here who've not driven through those areas of the U.S., you're driving through a hilly and also a mountainous region of the U.S., and so you'll commonly see cut-away sections of foothills to make way for the path of the interstate. And frankly, it's truly beautiful country, it's horse country in parts, and fields for all kinds of crops in others. We never went out west, and we also never really went very far east, but still the sense of travel and adventure was something I welcomed.

We ultimately moved down here when my dad retired, and then we'd do the reverse of that trip, going up there in the summers. Again, wonderful times and many fond memories. Then, my parents divorced, and I stayed with my mom, and she went back to work, and eventually I got a job once I graduated from high school. And, to be honest, I gradually forgot about travel and going places, and was really focused just on the area I (still) live in.

So, when I said above that this job re-awakened my sense of adventure — even kindled a sense of wanderlust within me — I'm not exaggerating. It's something for which I'll always be grateful. However, driving the equivalent of a round trip between Cleveland and S.W. Florida every single month for years on end gets old after a while. It also beats the hell out of one's car. Separately — as many of you already know — I've wanted to get back into the tech industry, and driving a zillion miles and climbing around in coolers and back rooms and under cabinets counting stuff wasn't going to get me any closer to my goal. Besides, I'm not a young kid any more, and my knees and leg muscles just weren't up to that kind of punishment, so I left for my new job.

---

¹ The U.S. Interstate system, more formally known as the Eisenhower Interstate System, was based on the German Autobahn, championed and campaigned for by General and later President Dwight Eisenhower so that we'd have more than merely a patchwork network of rural routes.

[Pierre]

One of the weirdest (not in a bad way) things about this transition is going from driving between 1,500 - 2,000 miles (~ 2.400 - 3.200 km) per month to,
well, exactly 0 miles a month for my job.

in my last job, as an rural technician, I'd been driving the company van,
and would have to book it's 10,000 Km service .. every 6 - 8 weeks, or so.

plus, even my our private vehicle, driven by the other half, was doing an similar distance,
but, these days, our private car .. will do maybe, 10,000 Km per year,
which is an good thing, since the price of petrol is currently over $2 an litre.

[antikythera]

exactly 0 miles a month for my job.

Rush hour is a nightmare when working from home. That trek to the kitchen for the morning brew can be a nightmare at times, not to mention the bathroom holdups

Seriously though, it is far easier to get distracted working at home. So good luck!

[RollyShed]

Rush hour is a nightmare when working from home. That trek to the kitchen for the morning brew can be a nightmare at times, not to mention the bathroom holdups

Sounds like time to get rid of the kids and send them out to work.

Being retired, the ride, ~3 km, to "work" (Men's Shed) is a nice bit of exercise. And the government pay me to go too, they call it the pension.

[antikythera]

Sounds like time to get rid of the kids and send them out to work.

Tried that, like bad smells they came back. Lockdown was partly to blame though, they both lost their jobs and are trying their best to find work because they don't really want to be here either to be fair.

[RollyShed]

Sounds like time to get rid of the kids and send them out to work.

Tried that, like bad smells they came back.

I have one problem, would you get a woman do do welding for you?
No?
Neither would I because she, my daughter, took her welder and lathe and moved 1000 km away.
What's the use of having them if just when you need them, gone.

[Portreve]

Rush hour is a nightmare when working from home. That trek to the kitchen for the morning brew can be a nightmare at times, not to mention the bathroom holdups

Oh, tell me about it! Those tens of meters really add up!

Seriously though, it is far easier to get distracted working at home. So good luck!

The front bedroom in the house has always been set up as my office/computer room, and I only share this house with my elderly mom, so most kinds of distraction don't exist here.

[antikythera]

Oh, tell me about it! Those tens of meters really add up!

Glad you saw the humour in my replies, it seems they went straight over Rolly's head. I don't really hate my kids

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...I have one problem, would you get a woman do do welding for you? ...

Well, considering I haven't picked up a stinger or torch in almost 50 years (and have no Tig or Mig training), you probably wouldn't want me.

[RollyShed]

Oh, tell me about it! Those tens of meters really add up!

, it seems they went straight over Rolly's head. I don't really hate my kids

No but I had to make some (rude?) comment about them holding up the traffic in the morning kitchen rush hour.....

[AdamFirst]

Good luck to you in your new job. Best wishes.

[MurphCID]

Have you started yet? Any idea on your supervisor?