Tunnel

a rare moment when all the numbers are kind of aligned :)

11/25: I got caught using my personal laptop instead of the E company laptop and received a final warning. This was the first time I violated a rule in my entire adult life. What led me to this noncompliance is 1. hubris (I'm working for 3 LSPs and constantly being contacted by recruiters from other companies), 2. contempt/detachment to this company (when they hired me, they didn't accept my wage request and they have been very micromanaging and unreasonably strict about attendance and I assumed I would have to resign before going to Mexico - but they just approved my leave of absence!!!), 3. laziness (this is the biggest factor; I hated switching two laptops twice a day, 4 days a week.). I know, for a fact, the company's security (their logic of forcing me to use the company laptop) isn't perfect, but I cannot use it for my case because it will be perceived as an excuse. Honestly I've never been this embarrassed and mortified publicly and I'm surprised I didn't get fired. The supervisor and everyone else involved was very calm and professional. Nobody scolded me like a child.   

11/26~12/2: Clients starting complaining about my bad audio quality - staticky, breaking up, cutting in and out, etc. At first, I thought it was their connection problem but as complaints came more consistently, I suspected my headset purchased only 5 months ago was malfunctioning so I ordered a new one in panic. First of all, I wasn't used to people making an issue out of my audio. More importantly, there are many things that affect a microphone and all those technical things can feel out of my control, which makes this precious job super vulnerable. It felt like I shouldn't be working if I don't fix this problem. This remote work depends so much on technologies that if anything goes wrong, it will be fatal to my job security.

12/3: Finally I found out the cause of the problem. It was my cheap wifi extender. I used it for the ethernet cable and for some unknown reason the connection quality deteriorated. On one morning I had a few calls in a row with no sound and the IT team notified my supervisor that my connection was poor (so grateful to have them support me, without them, it would have taken me much longer to figure out the actual issue. In this case, it's definitely more beneficial to be employeed by a company instead of freelancing), which led me to run speed tests and realize the wifi extender was interfering my normally excellent wifi signal. So I gave up the ethernet and everything immediately went back to normal. I returned my new headset. Now I can confidently point out bad connection on the client's side when they sound bad.

These 8 days were the most stressful in my interpreter career. I'm very happy to report that it's over. I learned that nothing is permanent, everything is fleeting. While the going is good, I must enjoy it to the fullest.