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In RL conversation, people ask (as people are wont to do), what I do for a living. My answer, at times, is "tactician to a sixty-man army." I'm only half joking.
My job, or at least a part of it, involves deploying sixty-odd skilled people over a territory that makes up the lower portion of my state-- hundreds of miles in area, both urban and rural. I deploy my "army" both for routine work and to cover emergencies. I pick and assign crews, based on their location, skillset, compatibility, experience, and work ethic. When hell breaks loose, as it often does this time of year, I have to know "the right man for the job." Some of my "soldiers" are dear friends and trusted confidants, most are friendly acquaintances, and a couple of them I don't particularly trust. Some of them would die for one another, and a couple might be tempted to kill one another. It's a mixed-gender "army," so I've seen some issues there, too.
I am not their boss. I am technically their equal in rank. But I have a considerable amount of power over what they do, and consequently how their lives play out. My decisions affect how much pay they bring home, how often they see their families, and so forth. And if I screw up, and send the wrong guy into the wrong job, I could contribute to my company losing hundreds of thousands (or millions!) of dollars-- or I could contribute to one of my men being hurt or killed.
It's a weird thing to sit back at the end of a day and realize that your decisions put a guy into a situation that could have potentially cost him his life. If my job is done well, the work in the field gets done, and everybody goes home at the end of the day and gets their paycheck that Friday. If my work is done poorly, some really Bad Stuff could happen all too easily. Though, I must say, on the occasions that I've Screwed Up Bad, the Bad tends to be the result of a systemic issue instead of an isolated wrong decision on my part. The system can take a surprising amount of human error-- generally, a whole lot of people have to bollix something up for a real tragedy to occur.
Anyway, if I seem to have a weird outlook on life, fandom, or writing, my job and its nuances play a huge role in that. I have a second job, too, that ties directly into the main one, but that's an essay for some other day.
My job, or at least a part of it, involves deploying sixty-odd skilled people over a territory that makes up the lower portion of my state-- hundreds of miles in area, both urban and rural. I deploy my "army" both for routine work and to cover emergencies. I pick and assign crews, based on their location, skillset, compatibility, experience, and work ethic. When hell breaks loose, as it often does this time of year, I have to know "the right man for the job." Some of my "soldiers" are dear friends and trusted confidants, most are friendly acquaintances, and a couple of them I don't particularly trust. Some of them would die for one another, and a couple might be tempted to kill one another. It's a mixed-gender "army," so I've seen some issues there, too.
I am not their boss. I am technically their equal in rank. But I have a considerable amount of power over what they do, and consequently how their lives play out. My decisions affect how much pay they bring home, how often they see their families, and so forth. And if I screw up, and send the wrong guy into the wrong job, I could contribute to my company losing hundreds of thousands (or millions!) of dollars-- or I could contribute to one of my men being hurt or killed.
It's a weird thing to sit back at the end of a day and realize that your decisions put a guy into a situation that could have potentially cost him his life. If my job is done well, the work in the field gets done, and everybody goes home at the end of the day and gets their paycheck that Friday. If my work is done poorly, some really Bad Stuff could happen all too easily. Though, I must say, on the occasions that I've Screwed Up Bad, the Bad tends to be the result of a systemic issue instead of an isolated wrong decision on my part. The system can take a surprising amount of human error-- generally, a whole lot of people have to bollix something up for a real tragedy to occur.
Anyway, if I seem to have a weird outlook on life, fandom, or writing, my job and its nuances play a huge role in that. I have a second job, too, that ties directly into the main one, but that's an essay for some other day.
