another story about ...

.. my brother. His sweet wife talked about his job, and how much he loved to work. He was, I know, a very smart guy. The thing he did was work with computers: which is like a foreign country with an unknown language to me. She said he loved what he did every day so much that it was really not unpleasant: the sort of thing that you have heard people say they would do for nothing they found it such a great experience. Well.... I certainly never had a job like that!

He had an engineering degree from Auburn. His employer paid for him get a Master's degree, I think in some mid-western university. It took several summers to complete, and I assume it was in some sort of tech. field, but do not know the specifics. But he took it by the horns and plowed right through. I think this was when he was employed by AT&T, but might have started back in the Lucent days.

She told me that he would get calls in the middle of the night, when there was a computer problem that no one could resolve. When the co-workers had attempted to figure out the glitch, and tried everything they knew to do. In exasperation, they would give him a call and describe the situation that baffled them. He would say: "Do this, and this and this."  Which would often be the solution.

And if that did not work, he would get up and go to work in the wee hours. Just put on his pants and shirt, shoes and socks and head in to ponder and figure out how to make the equipment do what they wanted it to do. After several hours and much pondering, the day shift would show up for work. Wearing neckties as was expected of all male employees. But here was the man who had been there half the night without a tie. Along would come a manager and harass him about his apparel. He would explain he came in at 12 or 2 or 4 to tinker and get things back in good working order - sans tie.

She told me: The company eventually changed the rule about neckties, to allow him to come to work in the middle of the night when he was the only one who could trouble shoot and find the solution. He was so valuable they would not send him home when the system was down, and finally decided to just let that little bit of unnecessary propriety go. Reminding me of how amused I was when I went back to my parents house as an adult and heard my mom say about my dad: "He is happiest when something is broke and needs fixing."