Tuesday, February 21, 2023

When your professional life comes home to roost… by SW Hubbard



LUCY BURDETTE: I'm delighted to bring back my pal and fellow author SW (aka Susan) Hubbard with her latest installment of household politics...

SW HUBBARD: Are we drawn to our profession because of our disposition, or does our disposition morph after years in the same profession?

As with any chicken-or-egg question, the answer is a little of both.

Most nurses are naturally compassionate, and I’ve never yet met a happy-go-lucky lawyer unconcerned with details.



But spending many years in one profession changes the way you view your personal life, and the skills you use in the office tend to come home with you to be rolled out on the home front.

Take my husband.

Kevin spent forty years in international supply chain management and lean manufacturing, retiring right before Covid, the crisis that made “supply chain” a household term. Having just missed what would have been the career challenge of his lifetime, Kevin now runs logistics at our house.

If I overbuy at Costco, he informs me that I’m violating the first principal of lean manufacturing: Just In Time inventory. That means we’re only supposed to have enough on hand to meet our immediate needs. But if he wakes up to find the Cheerios box empty—the dreaded stock out!—I’ve violated the KanBan Two-Bin Replenishment System. In other words, if I kept two boxes of cereal, and bought a new one every time one was used up (always rotating my stock to use the older box first), I’d never run out. This, of course, assumes that I maintain a shopping list, which I don’t. And after 37 years of marriage, that’s unlikely to change.




Every January, we hold a Kaizen Event, aka, an improvement project. This involves purging anything we haven’t used in four years. Surplus material moves into the Red-Tag Area for disposition to donation sites or the trash. Now, when I put something of Kevin’s into the Red Tag Area--say, a 25-year-old printed road atlas of our county which doesn’t show several interstate extensions—he edges it out into what I call the Pink Tag Purgatory, where he performs extended farewells and a little mourning ritual. However, disposition of my unused items is short and brutal. As some of you who follow me on Facebook know, I recently had to bake a large lemon bundt cake to save my bundt pan from the Red Tag Zone.




But Kevin’s professional life skills and mine as a mystery author intersect when it comes time to find new homes for all the stuff we purge. Ten years of researching and writing the Palmyrton Estate Sale Mystery Series has given me a very solid knowledge of what common objects have increased in value (1970s and 80s lunch boxes, Corning Ware, Bakelite jewelry) and what once valuable items are, sadly, worthless today (large china cabinets, fur coats, silver-plated anything). “I can sell that!” is my rallying cry as I save stuff from the dump and sell it on Facebook Marketplace or Craig’s List. My heroine, Audrey Nealon, of Another Man’s Treasure Estate Sales, would be proud of me!

Do you see traces of your professional life showing up at home? Tell me about it in the comments.




Click here for more information on my Palmyrton Estate Sale Mystery Series, including the pre-order for Book 10, Unholy Treasure, coming in December.



57 comments:

  1. I’m chuckling, Susan, over the empty Cheerios box and the lemon Bundt cake . . . real life often intrudes into the best of our plans!
    [Bundt cakes are a favorite around here, so we have several Bundt pans . . . .]

    My professional [teaching] life shows up whenever one of the girls or the grandbabies wants a book [which, of course, I always have because the children and read a gazillion books during the school year; treasured books, indeed] or when they want help with some assignment . . . I find that it’s rather nice to be reminded of my teaching days.

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    1. Once a teacher, always a teacher! I taught English at a community college, and it doesnt take much urging to get me to spring up and do an impromptu lecture.

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    2. LOL Susan! Joan, we bet you were an amazing teacher!

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  2. So I'm trying to think how being an accountant shows up in my real life. I'd have to be paying bills, etc. anyway. And, honestly, I try to think about that as little as I can after I log off from work. I use Excel to track my reviews on my blog, but it was a non-accountant who showed me the best way to do that.

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    1. I bet you're very meticulous and detail-oriented at home, too. I'm speaking a woman who never balanced her checkbook (back when we had checkbooks). Not surprising that I'm a total pantseer when I write.

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    2. I knew we were soulmates Susan! I was the high school treasurer one year and I never took the ledger out of my locker. The accounting had to be fictional:)

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    3. LOL! My church once asked me to be the bookkeeper for a group. I laughed and laughed!

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  3. I chuckled, too! Since you started with your husband, Susan, I'll start with mine--a Swiss-German, a mathematician by training, and a recently retired software consultant who advised different companies and government departments on improving their computer systems (sometimes on a very large scale, like how better to sort and send half the packages in the country!) Because he spent his entire work life advising people about planning and organizing, in his spare time he has always preferred making decisions and undertaking adventures at the last minute. I am sympathetic to his need for a break from all things methodical, but, as a librarian's daughter, not to mention someone who has to meet deadlines and can't be spontaneous about goofing off for a week or even a day (sound familiar, friends?), I am a dedicated planner of all things. So it falls to me to say, "I really think we need to ask Couple X to dinner NOW, if we want to see them sometime in the next month," or "Yes, we really do have to decide when we're going to take that vacation, so I can get the plane tickets!" I'd say he's a good example of someone who rebels against his professional self in private, instead of applying it. Of course, he does keep meticulous track of everything to do with our taxes and other financial matters (his father was an accountant!)

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    1. That's fascinating that he rebels against planning! My husband is a logistical mastermind of vacation travel, and I welcome his skills there. I get overwhelmed planning all the travel details.

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  4. What a delightful post, Susan! I love that you "had to" bake a Bundt cake to restart its clock. Does your husband have a little tag on the bottom of every item in your house with the date of its last use?

    In my life, I get tapped to write an essay from my church to the local newspaper, or I volunteer to edit a document here and there. In physical things, there is no shortage of excellent pens and notebooks in the house, but I'm not sure how else being a writer manifests itself.

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    1. Thanks, Edith! Don't give Kevin any ideas. He'd dearly love to label all the kitchen drawers with their contents.

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  5. I chuckled all through this. Thanks for a good morning smile (here in Portugal). For my part, I confess that, as a former teacher, I have to resist the urge to explain things in three different ways at times.

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    1. I'm also a former teacher. I have to remind myself it's not my duty to correct thee entire internet. :)

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  6. Welcome Susan. I laughed at your need to save your bundt pan. A delicious solution, enjoyed by all!

    My husband was an aeronautical engineer who designed turbines for the airplane engines that fly you all around the world. During the pandemic he spent lots of time in the basement where the detritus of our young lives (and the lives of our parents) is stored. He has been sorting and tossing vigorously and I have learned not to object. I have, on occasion, had to do a similar maneuver in order to save an item from the garbage.

    I was a primary school special education teacher who taught children of many abilities to read and write and do math. I have often bragged that I can teach anyone to do anything that I know how to do, but of course that is an exaggeration. However, the temptation to do that remains and reeling it in has definitely saved my standing with friends and family, including said husband.

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    1. Can you teach me how to fix mistakes in knitting? All my knitting friends just give up and fix my work for me!

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  7. What a fun essay, Susan. Thank you. I'm off to find your books!

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    1. Thank you! I hope you'll find my books as entertaining as my blog posts!

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  8. Very interesting post Susan.
    Having been responsible for accounting and accounts payable for 31 years, I often find myself calculating in my head in many situations and I’m watching my finances closely .
    But a bit like the rebellion of Kim’s husband, I rebel in my volunteering, I don’t want to take responsibilities. I want to help but not to be in charge.
    Danielle

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    1. I hear you! I slump down in my seat whenever someone asks who wants to be chair of the committee!

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    2. Funnily enough (or maybe not), I always end up in charge...

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  9. Thanks for the morning laugh. I'm a technical writer. In addition to suppressing the urge to edit the Internet's bad grammar (and sometimes my family's) I suppose I do have a tendency to break things down into steps - just like the tasks I document for work.

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    1. Once a grammar guardian, always a grammar guardian!

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  10. Retired archaeologist here. Give me a shovel, some string, stakes, measuring tape, and a level and you'd be amazed at what I can do with garden beds and trenches. But I don't hire out! ;-)

    Writing myself a big note: Palmyrton Estate Sale Mystery series. Always looking for a new series!

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    1. I bet you'd be great a burying a body :) I hope you enjoy my mysteries as much as my blog post !

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    2. Susan, I have experience digging up bodies (bones only, please!). Buried a door once, because burying the person would've been noticed....

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  11. Thanks for the laughs this morning, Susan. My husband used to expect me to know when to replenish his beloved morning cereal and milk; now he overdoes it, buying boxes and boxes and gallons to have on hand. I've always been the family quartermaster, but he's taken over that part of the supply pantry now. Thank heavens.

    I sold insurance and was a financial advisor, so I have always managed the family bookkeeping, taxes, and used to manage the investments, too. Steve used to try to micromanage my accounting until we got audited by the IRS, and they ended up giving US money back. Instant tax goddess strategy!

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    1. LOL! Way to go with the taxes! There's nothing sweeter than hearing your spouse say, "you were right."

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  12. My hubs and I met while we worked at a TV station. In addition to live newscasts and providing the daily output of a TV station, we worked on the broadcasting of life sporting events.

    Let's say, if somehow we end up watching sports, we're not watching the game. We watch the TV work: camera placement and color shading. Editing. How the mics covering various aspects of the audio pick up "wild sound." Live TV also offers up various unexpected mistakes that keep us watching, too.

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    1. Yes, it's hard to turn off the professional eye and just enjoy. I read mysteries the same way, finding fault where other readers find pure enjoyment!

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  13. Good morning, Susan. I love your books! I'm a retired teacher, too, and there are times I just cant help myself and have to instruct. So far no seems to pay any attention. "But this way works for me" is what I hear. To the granddaughter trying to thicken gravy, I tell her not add corn starch to a hot liquid. She does it anyway. Then I read it from the box which she didn't bother to look at, just dumped some in. Maybe in time she will learn. The irony here is she is now attending the same college where I got my Home Economics degree and she is studying the same thing but apparently it now has a new name.

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    1. Gravy making is an art! I think it comes to you after you have children and hosting Thanksgiving passes you you! So glad you enjoy my books!

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  14. What a fun post this morning.
    My husband and I both worked in the sciences and that has stayed with us.
    I recently finished two excel spreadsheets - one is my seed starting schedule with dates, temps for germination, seed depth, size seed tray needed etc. On March 8 when I start the Petunias - which are already bundled together with a rubber band - I just grab the right seed tray, set the incubator temp and go to town.
    The other spreadsheet is a table of all the annuals (3 pages worth) by height and color so when I set them out in the garden I don't have all tall purple ones in one area and all short yellow ones together, etc. None are in flower at the time I plant them and I can't remember all their mature heights.
    My husband is even more meticulous and talented. Hence an old bungalow getting a fantastic face lift and raised garden beds, arbors, and a pond the envy of the neighborhood.
    We both purge regularly, and I'm good at putting an item on the grocery list as soon as I open the last box, jar, can...

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    1. I love to garden but I have to admit, I've never used a spreadsheet in the process!

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  15. Yes, yes yes! What fun to read this AM. I don't know if the egg or the chick comes first, but I have often seen this. Lawyers solve problems. Really, truly great if it involves plane reservations - even simple trips are increasingly complicated and I hate it. ( I am married to a retired lawyer) Not so great at knowing not all problems can be solved, and sometimes what's needed is a hand to hold. Or they aren't even problems but a celebration! The professor who is, really, the most informed person in a lecture...but not always for other topics. The elementary teacher who really is the only adult in the room...but not outside of class. I've am basically a retired librarian, the core of which is, not love of books ( thought mostly we do) but organizing. My life is a hopeless quest to have a refrigerator/freezer where I can find everything, all the time. (I joke. Sort of) And true confession? I was a little girl who labeled my drawers and alphabetized my books. Thanks for the fun this morning!

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    1. Triss, when you get your fridge organized, you can come do mine!

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    2. I am not inherently an organizer, but when my husband gets me inspired, I do it. And then I'm very happy with the results (especially if the process involves a trip to HomeGoods to by cute little bins and boxes).

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  16. I've just read all the other responses and I am still laughing. Thanks to everyone.

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  17. I enjoy the humor-laced tone of your post! As a librarian, you *might* find my personal library in subject then alphabetical order.

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    1. That's not compulsive--just logical. I hate this new fad for arranging your books by the color of the cover. How would you ever find anything? I think they're not real readers.

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    2. Even worse turning them backward so page ends show. 🤦🏻‍♀️

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  18. Oh, I should have mentioned that both my husband and I have thoroughly enjoyed your Frank Bennett series. They were among the very first books I put on my brand new Kindle just as the pandemic began and the libraries all closed. Good characters!

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    1. Thank you! I hope you'll sample my other series as well!

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  19. Hi Susan! Thanks for the chuckle this morning. My husband is big on supply chain planning--I still have all the extra food and supplies he stored in our guestroom at the beginning of pandemic. I'd really like to have that room back now! He's also a fan of the KanBan Two Bin Replenishment system. Heaven forbid I don't have at least one backup box, bottle, or package of something.

    Looking forward to your new book!

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    1. Debs, our county just instituted an emergency response site, and sent out requests for survey fill-ins regarding preparedness. A 7-day food supply is on the list of suggested items, along with 72 hours worth of water for each person.

      So your hubs is just taking care of you both--and Gigi, if necessary--in case of emergency.

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    2. My husband is so excited to hear about yours--they must be brothers separated at birth! Oddly, Kevin was not as concerned about supplies during the pandemic as I was.

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    3. On the good side, we never ran out of toilet paper...

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  20. Once a teacher, always a teacher...I help my kindergarten granddaughter with her sight words and my middle school grandson with his homework. During covid, I helped homeschool the then preschooler and her 3rd grade brother. When I read, I can't help but highlight proofreading missteps.

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  21. This is fantastic! Hilarious, and inspirational. The whole stockpiling is fascinating… Yes, I’m a big one for get two, use one, rotate, replace one. It really works. (As long as the thing still exists, of course.) Silver plated, anything, huh? I never thought about that.
    And yes, during the pandemic, as it continues, I have become the quartermaster! And Jonathan knows to tell me when we are about to run out of something.

    So terrific to see you today!

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    1. Thanks, Hank--it's always great to be here! Yes, I just tossed two tarnished silver-plated cake servers straight into the trash. I knew I'd never polish them and the charity re-sale shop wouldn't take them either.

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  22. hmmm great question! traces of professional life at home....when I worked at the big chain bookstore another lifetime ago, I noticed that I would come home and rearrange my bookshelves. I would also read the books.

    Not sure this answers your question, though. Now I work for a workers comp law firm and I find myself thinking about future clients of my boss. Several weeks ago there was a team of painters painting in the hallways of my building and they were NOT wearing protective masks at all! I thought to myself that these painters are definitely going to file workers compensation claims because they were Not protecting themselves!

    Diana

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  23. It's a delight to see you here today, Susan! My dear Ross was, for half his professional life, an attorney, and he was the reason the trains ran on time in our household. However, another aspect of legal practice is the axiom: you must have a paper trail. No evidence, discussion, decision or document should ever be tossed, because it might be needed someday. This meant heaps of papers in his office, in which he swore he could find whatever he wanted in a matter of minutes. At home, it was saving everything because, you guessed it, it might be needed someday.

    I, the writer, have editing skills, and that's how I always thought of it when I was sneaking a box of twenty-year-old textbooks or Tupperware containers without tops out of the house and off to the Transfer Station. Because writers know you don't have room for all of in the manuscript!

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    1. So true! Kill your darlings (as well as your mismatched Tupperware!)

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  24. My knee jerk reaction is NO! I spent 21 years as a probate litigation paralegal. What use would that be in the "real" world. Fact is, as a writer, all those research and organization skills come in very, very handy so I guess the real answer is --- wince, yes.

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  25. Oh, I love the four year rule - BRILLIANT! I am definitely employing that in the massive decluttering which is occuring in my house as I type, well, it will continue as soon as I finish typing. :) I'm looking forward to starting your series. I think it is exactly what I need in my life, Susan.

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    1. thanks! I hope you pick up a few tips while reading !

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