Days or stay nights?

Yessir. Someone is having a conversation about what you do on your time off. And management is keeping tabs.

I know what you're doing...you are enjoying life. Getting out of the truck, exploring, seeing new things every day. Excellent! I do the exact same thing. You want your co drivers to experience the same. But not only do they opt out, they are talking to management about what you do. You didn't realize that you were such an important part of other people's day, did you?

If I had a co-driver talking to management about me, the only thing that he would know about me is my name and that I really enjoy walking on my time off. In fact, he would tell management that I walked for 34 hours straight.

 

Stay nights if you can. I did days for a month and hated almost every moment of it, so much traffic not to mention truck traffic as well. Back on nights now and forget how much more less stressful it is, there's always parking at the end of the day. Up to you though what works best.

 

I always enjoy reading your comments.

I have been laying low this whole year mostly because the virus has caused most places to close, and also an issue with my AC has made it harder to sleep, so I've been trying to sleep more. But that's now resolved.

Honestly though, I have met some terrific people since I started this job that I wasn't able to find in an office for whatever reason, I don't know. They are just happy to know you and they tend to appreciate the smaller things. Some of them still call me or text. Office folks never did that.

 

In this day and age, if you are well-mannered and can actually hold a conversation, you are an anomaly.

 

When people call me they do most of the talking. I just listen and give them filler phrases where I feel its important. I do respond and contribute as much as I can, but usually it's always the other guy talking most of the time.

That's not to say their phone call annoyed me. I am complimented by their call. I may hang up and say man that guy talks a lot or that guy talks for too long, but I still appreciate it when they call. A few days ago one of my partners called me to tell me he drives for Covenant Transport now and is doing well, and a few days before that I was wondering how he was doing.

What I'm learning and what isn't taught is that I have to use my energy to nurture whatever network I have. I just have to. Otherwise my network goes away. Some guys would rather that I text them, and others prefer a voice call. I personally prefer a text but I am not the only person in the equation. When I voice call people, I always feel like I am bother them, but other people don't see it that way.

 

Don't be too hard on people. People get bombarded with info and entertainment from everywhere now. It's easy to forget things. I think what is slowly being realized now is that yes, Netflix, video games, and other things have its place. But also there's something nature intended for us that Netflix can't give. That's just a convo with another person. It does something else for you that watching Game of Thrones doesn't do.

My old man, I love him to death, but he never had many friends. He just worked and came home and slept. So a lot of this stuff might seem like common sense to other people. But just understand that no, it's not. Times are changing, our tech is changing quickly and we have to adapt as people. And people are stubborn and don't like change. That's happening now very quickly.

But you don't need to get away from your phone because it's great tool. I do all of my banking on my phone now and since I started doing that my credit score went up.

 

In my motorcycle club, we are going to institute a rule for when we are in a restaurant/bar, all phones on the table in the middle. The first person that touches his phone eats the bill. It is a business meeting...you don't scroll on facebook during a business meeting.