Servicemen in your home

Annoying music? Send it to me.

Maybe I could play this real loud

Will pm as soon as I get back to my pc. Not gonna try to get that on my phone while out.

for a second there I thought this thread was going to be about some moneymaking scheme

naps wrote:Does it even bother you?

Does it ever not bother me?..

(This is a rant, so I'm intentionally keeping it as one paragraph. It feels more properly ranty this way.)

I moved into my current apartment last year. In some ways I still don't feel like "I'm really here", because there hasn't a been time yet when I at least believed that there wasn't still something significant to be fixed (even though the apartment is new and was supposed to be in pristine condition). I couldn't even use the toilet or the shower at first without being very careful. Right now there's an issue with a leak that may or may not have been fixed already, and I may or may not have to "welcome" workers into my apartment for probably a whole week so that they can tear down the ceiling right next to the room where I typically spend most of my time, and it may or may not be next week, or next month, or god knows when. I try not to think about it, since there's no reasonable communication or coordination with these people and there's a ton of other issues like this one elsewhere in the building that they still need to work on. So there's just nothing I can do about it, and the problem itself isn't really much of a problem to me in practice because I don't own the apartment. So I can wash my hands and say I did my part by reporting the problem as soon as I noticed it. But it sure bothers me. I hate unresolved issues, especially when I become responsible for (or directly suffer from) something that is a direct result of other people not doing the bare minimum that they're supposed to do as a part of their job. I don't feel like I can start anything new (and I almost certainly will not start any significant new thing or habit) until this is resolved. I'll be focusing on staying within my comfort zone and making it as comfortable as possible with the least possible effort and money. I don't even do chores (like cleaning the place) unless/until it feels like it's absolutely necessary, because even though I'm not consciously thinking about it, the unresolved issue still makes me operate in "wait-and-survive mode". Because "any non-immediate effort that might go beyond my basic comfort zone would surely be frustrated by their unpredictable invasion of my time and space and schedule and patience, so there's no point". As soon as I think of doing something beyond bare-minimum-comfort-zone, a bell rings in my head: "nope". I have to be prepared to, at some unspecified and unpredictable time, not only act like I'm perfectly fine with them being here completely disrupting my entire sense of home and basic routine, but also perfectly fine with them having no respect for my time and peace of mind. They will schedule a date and time, and they will not show up. And then they will act like that's completely normal and acceptable and like I should be making all kinds of efforts to accommodate them (telepathically, I guess, since they don't communicate and don't honor the little that they do communicate). That is something I am certain of, and I expect no different. And I am effectively powerless to do anything to change that. And I have to pretend that I'm fine with that, or else it's not unlikely that they will cause a number of even worse issues in the process of fixing the original one, just out of spite, because they can and because they know they won't suffer consequences. That's essentially how the original issue happened anyway. Silly problem, big headache for someone else, who cares, go on about their day, business as usual. So, this is my job: to be fine with that.

How do people here deal with this situation?

I guess I... prepare for it. I try to control what can be predictably controlled in the situation: me. Getting rid of unnecessary future responsibility (to others or even to myself) is possibly my number one priority. If I can't have peace of mind now, I want to at least be able to have it at some point in the foreseeable future. I want to be able to rightfully and confidently say "look, that's not my problem" and then immediately go back to just minding my own business. It's what I visualize in my head and what I look forward to.

As you can see, it may not necessarily be the healthiest way to cope. It's the one I know though.

As for personal schedules and being thrown off balance and such, as an example I can tell you that about two weeks ago a World Cup match turned a normal day into a national holiday in practice. I had something scheduled for that day, and was only told at the last minute that it would have to be rescheduled. I still feel like "things are not quite right yet" because of the domino effect from that one day. Like, say, "I woke up with a headache today" -- I can trace exactly how this is because of that last-minute change two weeks ago. I try to frame it in my head as "alright, it's not my fault, there's a reason for this [headache or whatever] and I don't really need to do anything about it, it will fix itself, I don't need to be looking everywhere anymore for the reason of this and thinking what I can do to prevent it from happening again, I don't need to rethink my habits because of this".

anathegram wrote:for a second there I thought this thread was going to be about some moneymaking scheme

The one also known as "the world's oldest profession"?..

Four-word title though, not five.

Anyway, for the record, I forgot to mention that I don't have OCD. So there you go.

Turns out I really needed that rant. I've been surprisingly busy lately, and I knew I had to give them about a month before contacting them again and trying to at least extract some information on the current status and forecast on the situation. For all I know, they might show up tomorrow out of the blue, all ready to start breaking down the ceiling. Such a heartwarming prospect. That's how they operate (and then they complain about "people who don't cooperate"...).

This doesn't matter much when/while I'm busy (since it makes perfect sense for me to ignore the issue and to tell anyone else that I can't deal with it at the moment if they ask me about it), but as soon as I'm not busy anymore, then it really does matter. And I don't usually realize it, because by then (or by now) it's not something I consciously remember anymore, because I'm already used to instinctively dismissing it as just a regular part of the scenery (literally and metaphorically).

Well, they're here. This is worse than I thought it would be. Way worse.

Fuk it. I'm hitting the Xanax.

I hate it.i will avoid anything until is so necessary that i don't have a choice.i don't want anyone coming at my home,i don't know why.

sakura1 wrote:I hate it.i will avoid anything until is so necessary that i don't have a choice.i don't want anyone coming at my home,i don't know why.

How about three of them? That don't speak your language?



Do you think the hole they made is big enough for that pipe?

I don't think mine is ocd related.alhough i do not want others to touch my things and i want to see the floor clear and clean.but people are bugging me more.
I can't even let someone in for 5 minutes without feeling annoyed.
I have lived years with others and i hated it so much that it makes it worse like is the most precious thing in the world and i can't stand anyone without feeling despair.
Have no sanctuary.
Maybe Better if they don't speak your language, they can't do small talk?